It's the most wonderful/stressful/financially depleting (delete as applicable) time of the year. Our best advice for you is get those Christmas presents done early, lists are your friend, don't overspend, and rather than buying things that will eventually end up in landfill, say it with food and drink. Here's what we'd like to be waking up to this year...
A West of Dingle Sea Salt Gift Pack, €26
We are low key obsessed with West of Dingle’s salts. The whiskey smoked adds a deep layer of umami to everything, the smokehouse rub makes every dish taste like it's come off a charcoal grill, and the lemon and rosemary have taken our oven roasted vegetables from satisfactory to showstopping. Gift the four-pack to your favourite foodie.
Five Farms Irish Cream, €34.95
Warning: After you taste Five Farms Irish cream, it will be impossible to go back to bog-standard Baileys. This is farm to table booze, made from single batches of Irish cream sourced from five family-owned farms in Cork, and premium Irish whiskey. There is no going back.
Bon Chocolatiers Chocolates, €30
We're similarly obsessed with Bon Chocolatiers, which - we're saying it - are the best Irish chocolates we've tried. Pricey, yes, but just one with your evening coffee or tea feels like a treat worthy of a special occasion. The Festive Treats collection features Christmas spiced s’mores and Cointreau and blood orange, and a twelve piece, four flavour box costs €30.
Asia Market Hampers, from €28
Asia Market do a great range of hampers, from sushi-making ones to Korean noodle ones to Asian beer ones, and they're available for nationwide delivery. Check them out here.
Burren Smokehouse Christmas Hampers, from €54
Clare-based Burren Smokehouse have eight hampers to choose from all based around their award-winning smoked salmon. There's a breakfast one, a cheese one, a whiskey one, and an ultra luxe one if you really want to spend the g's.
Tara Gartlan Chocolates, €26
Tara Gartlan Chocolates are like mini works of art, and as well as chocolate collections containing flavours like kalamansi, Timur pepper and spiced apple caramel, you can also buy chocolate inspired Christmas cards.
Fallon and Byrne’s Christmas Hampers, from €45
Fallon and Byrne's Christmas Hampers range from €45 to as much as €1000 for The Showstopper! There's options for everyone, including vegans and gluten-free eaters, and expect an abundance of cheese, wine and Irish produce
Drinks
Wall and Keogh's X-Mas Gift Box, €24.99
Combining two Christmas themed teas and a heart shaped infuser, Wall and Keogh's X-Mas Gift Box would be a perfect secret Santa or stocking stuffer for the tea-lover in your life.
Mulled Wine & Hot Whiskey Syrup from Dublin Cocktail Lab, €24
Once you've tried Dublin Cocktail Lab's hot whiskey syrup and mulled wine mix, you'll wonder how you ever did Christmas without them. They're available in a gift pack for a €3 saving, and if buying for some lucky alcohol-lover in your life, be sure to add on one of each for yourself.
Off the Cuffe's Irish bitters, from €16
Angostura have had the bitters market covered for as long as we've been alive, but Irish brand Off the Cuffe are giving them a run for their money in the quality stakes. Get them in flavours like marmalade, chocolate and coffee for €16 a bottle, or if you really love someone there's the 'Everything' bundle featuring their entire selection of drinks for €110 (€150 value).
Upside Coffee, from €12
What's Christmas without some festive coffee, and Upside Coffee’s Christmas blend is €12, with free shipping for orders over 1kg. There's a Christmas gift trio too featuring two espressos as well as the festive coffee.
Craft Cocktail’s Christmas Collection, from €12.50
Every year we look forward to the release of Irish Craft Cocktails’ Christmas collection, and this year there's a 'Gingerbread Punch', a 'Festive Old-Fashioned', and a 'Mistletoe Margarita', for €12.50 for a double serve or €35 for a bigger bottle that serves seven. Their factory ‘Cuckoo Lane’ off Capel street will also be transformed into a Merry grotto where you can try the cocktails, buy the cocktails, and pick your own selection box, which includes six small cocktails and garnishes for a special in-store only price of €62.50.
Experiences
Tickets for Big Grill Festival 2024, price TBC
Europe’s biggest BBQ and food festival Big Grill is making its way back to Ballsbridge next August for another weekend of food, experiences, chef talks, music, and more, with a line up that's bound to be as impressive as always. Tickets are due to go live this month and will be available here.
A Cookery Class at the Dublin Cookery School, from €95
Kick start a new skill for someone this year with one of Dublin Cookery School's courses in modern vegetarian food, handmade pasta or 'the joy of baking'. They're not cheap, but they're hard to beat for the best instructors and a generous amount of food to eat or take home. Check out their course calendar here.
Subscriptions
ATF Insiders, €55
If you know someone who lives to eat, wants access to exclusive events, and loves a bit of Insider info, an ATF Insider subscription is €55 a year, and includes entry into nine giveaways a month, event invitations, exclusive content and direct access to our team to ask all and any of their pressing questions about eating out. We do gift bundles too.
Lotts & Co's Seasonal Subscription, from €60
We love the idea of a Lotts & Co. seasonal subscription dropping onto our doorstep each month, with the chance to try new products you might not have picked up off the shelf, that could soon become household favourites. It's €60 a month or €175 for three month's prepaid, and we're big fans of gifts that keep giving long after the 25th.
Greenman Wines, price TBC
Greenman Wines' Wine Club Subscription is reopening in December 2023, and is THE most perfect gift for anyone wanting to learn more about wine (or just treat yourself to a happy dance once a month when the box arrives). Keep an eye on their website for their release.
Smoked Salmon from Burren Smokehouse, from €136.45
As well as their hampers, Burren Smokehouse also do a smoked salmon subscription - how boujee. Starting at €136.45 (very specific) you can send someone enough salmon for 1-2 people for three months, with three different varieties in the box.
Olive oil tasting club from Sarah and Olive, €125
Sarah and Olive’s award-winning olive oils are a world away from what's on your supermarket shelves, and their tasting club is the ideal way to geek out on the very best. For €125 they'll send a premium bottle every quarter, with tasting notes, food pairing suggestions and a recipe to try, and if you're not invited over to try the results then that's just rude.
Cheese Club, Little Cheese Shop, from €42.50
We've been firm fans of Mark Murphy's Dingle-based Little Cheese Shop for years, and their Irish-only cheese club is still the best way to discover the very best of what's being produced on our little island. You can sign up for 1-12 months, and the excitement of the post-person bringing that month's delivery never gets old.
Books
Flavour! Mark Moriarty
Mark Moriarty's new cookbook Flavour is on a roll of awards, recently adding An Post's 'Cookbook of the Year' to his list of accolades. While he's known for Michelin-star cooking, he aims to show readers how to do basics, focusing on everyday food packed with flavour.
The New Ballymaloe Bread Book
Ballymaloe Cookery School is world renowned at this stage, with their students taught by bread making experts including Darina herself. Now she's laid down her secrets in The New Ballymaloe Bread Book, and whether you know someone who's never baked, or just wants to up their game, this one covers it all. Buy it here.
The Blasta Books Collections
Blasta Books are now gearing up for series three of their lovely collections of cookbooks (to be released in 2024), each highlighting Irish authors and chefs. Each specialises in a different type of food, from Bahay's 'Masarap', to Lily Ramirez-Foran's 'Tacos', and cost €15 each or you can buy a bundle of four for €50. Buy one of the first two bundles to have wrapped under the tree, or pre-order the next collection for recipe joy delivered throughout 2024.
Bake, Graham Herterick
Of all the cookbooks we've had in recent years, none has us coming back as often as Graham Herterick (also known as The Cupcake Bloke)'s Bake. From basics like brown soda bread and Victoria sponge, to 'modern twists' like the PB&J sandwich and the tahini and black sesame cupcakes, there's no such thing as a recipe fail. It's worth buying for the chocolate chip cookie and brownie recipes alone.
Spice Box, Sunil Ghai
Anyone who's eaten in Pickle on Camden Street has likely thought about it on repeat for week's after, so when we heard Sunil Ghai was releasing his own book focused on easy, everyday Indian food, we immediately made space on our bookshelves for Spice Box. True to description these are uncomplicated recipes, with ingredients any avid homecook will have to hand, and yes the goat keema is in there. All we need now is the goat.
