This week we have started to notice more and more trees and houses festooned with twinkling Christmas lights and even heard a festive tune or two! Christmas is just round the corner and it’s time to start thinking about gifting! Whether you love perusing the shops for personalised pressies, doing a last-minute dash to the high street or shopping online from the comfort of your armchair, we are here to help! We’ve picked some great gifts to help get you started with your shopping list – and they all have two things in common, they are all from Dorset and they are all edible!
Award Winning Preserves - From Dorset With Love
From Dorset With Love produce the most scrummy jams and chutneys. They’re all home-made in small batches and wherever possible they use local ingredients. Whether you’re looking for stocking fillers for your partner, a little gift for your neighbour or a sweet treat for your great Aunt, everyone will be delighted with one of their pots of deliciousness! Their Very Berry Christmas Jam would be divine slathered onto croissants or toast on Christmas morning or choose the Christmas chutney for a festive cheeseboard accompaniment! They also sell lovely gift packs (which come in recyclable packaging) as well as vinegars, curds and marmalades. All you need to hope it that whoever you give them to is willing to share!
China Teapot – Dorset Tea
If you’re going down the route of yummy toast toppers then a box of their favourite Dorset Tea and a beautiful china teapot to brew it in would go hand in hand perfectly! Featuring the stunning Dorset scenery, this will bring some colour to the kitchen and lovely cups of sunshine to the lucky recipient! Perfect for morning brews or afternoon tea tables! Available now for £35 on our gift shop.
Breakfast Toppers - Almond and Co
Located in Westbourne, Almond & Co is a beautifully presented zero-waste store providing plastic-free produce and sustainable alternatives to everyday items. If you live locally we thoroughly recommend popping in to peruse what they have. With so many of their products designed to last a long time, they have a fantastic range from beauty to baking which would make gorgeous gifts for eco-conscious friends. We love their Ultimate Breakfast Topper Mix – sweet little glass jars packed full of super-foods. Healthy, green, pretty and delicious! What more could you want from a gift? It’s little gifts like this that really go to show that you don’t have to spend a fortune to be thoughtful, these ones cost just £4.50 each!
Sunshine Blend – Dorset Tea
Our sunshine black tea tastes as good as the sunshine makes us feel and we know you’ll love it too. With gorgeous colourful packaging (which is 100% recyclable and endorsed by the Marine Conservation Society) it would make the prettiest gift and doesn’t really need wrapping at all!
Chocolates - Chococo
If you’re worried that giving chocolate isn’t the most imaginative gift then fear not - if you know the recipient is going to love it, that’s all that matters and your pressie will certainly go down as a thoughtful one! That’s especially true if you buy them from Dorset’s Chococo – with absolutely loads of incredible flavours and types to choose from, you can match the perfect gift to each friend or loved one! We absolutely adore their dark chocolate turtles as 30p from each £6 box is donated to the Ocean Giants Programme – an international conservation charity, focused on protecting the world’s largest threatened marine species. With big bars, slabs, mixed boxes, vegan choices and novelty animal shapes they really do have something for everyone. Okay we admit it, their hot chocolate mixes are also divine (go on, we’ll let you off not choosing a cup of tea just this once).
Fruit and Herbal Infusions – Dorset Tea
Our colourful boxes of fruit and herbal teas would make the prettiest little stocking fillers. The full range is available on our website but you can also shop on Amazon for great deals on cases if you have a large gift list to shop for! Foraged fruits, Blackberry Syllabub and Ginger and Sunshine Lemon are all wonderful flavours for warming winter cuppas.
Dorset Dry Gin – Conker Spirit
Established six years ago in Southbourne, Conker Gin has been flying off the shelves locally and nationally ever since! We can safely say it’s some of the tastiest gin we’ve ever tried and their attractive bottles and eco packaging also helps to make them a lovely present for someone. You could even pair with a box of earl grey Dorset Tea and the recipe for a lady grey cocktail for a fun gift! Their range also includes a coffee liqueur and a non-alcoholic botanical blend as well as cocktail shakers and glassware. Prices start from £6 for miniatures.
Brownies – Bayside Bakery
From this family run artisan bakery located in west Dorset on the Jurassic Coast, comes some of the tastiest brownies you’ll ever eat! Baked in small batches using the best ingredients and then packaged beautifully in bespoke boxes these would make the most charming Christmas present. The company will post all over the country (and beyond) meaning you can send a little bit of Dorset love to your nearest and dearest even if they are in fact not that near to you at all! Their Dorset Sea Salted Caramel got them to the finals of the ‘Taste of the West Awards’ and we can easily see why, delicious! Top tip for this one – you should probably get them delivered directly to the recipient as we doubt you’ll be able to resist eating them yourself if the postie delivers them to your own door! Prices start from £17.99 for eight.
Dog Bowl – Dorset Tea
Last and not least, we mustn’t forget our canine companions when it comes to Christmas! If you are buying for your furry friend or for a pal who is potty about their pooch, this enamel dog bowl would make a lovely gift. Featuring the Dorset Tea logo, you can enjoy tea breaks in the sunshine together! £12 on our gift shop.
Head over to our Tea Shop and Gift Shop today to start your Christmas shopping!