Food+Tech Gift Guide 2011

Looking for new and interesting gifts for the food nerds in our life? We’ve got you covered with our top product, app, book, and tasting box picks. These gifts are perfect for a variety of budgets and should keep your favorite makers, hackers, and food lovers alike happy.

TASTING BOXES

With Craft Coffee Tasting Boxes you can send coffee aficionados 12 ounces of premium coffee from three different small artisan roasters delivered right to their door. Choose between a one-month box for $29.99 or a 1,6, or 12 month subscription, starting at $19.99/month for the annual plan.

The Turntable Kitchen Pairings Box is the perfect gift for your music loving foodie. For $25/month, you can send them a curated box of goodies including: a limited-edition 7-inch vinyl single, an exclusive digital mixtape, three original themed recipes, one or two premium dried ingredients, and some other treats. One or three month subscriptions available here.

 
Gilt Taste has put together a holiday gift guide with 81 delicious artisan food, wine, and equipment gift ideas for any size budget. Products range from Bourbon Barrel Mini Maple Syrup for $5.95 to a Flannery Steak-of-the-Month 3-6 month subscription starting at $375.00.
Foodzie Tasting Boxes are an easy way to help any food-lover discover small-batch, artisan food products. The boxes are delivered straight to your giftees doorstep.  Subscriptions start at $59.90 for two months.

Thinking about sending chocolate? This year, you can customize your own fair trade, organic, Belgium chocolate bar online. Chocri allows you to choose from four bases (dark chocolate, milk chocolate, white chocolate or a combination) and over 100 toppings, ranging from chili to candied rose petals and even real gold flakes. The company also donates 1% of every purchase to DIV Kinder, an organization that supports kids on the Ivory Coast. Prices start at $6 and vary depending upon your creation.

GROW YOUR OWN

Growing your own food can be challenging in urban settings where space is limited. Windowfarms offers DIY hydroponic home kits and newly designed (easy to assemble) growing systems. They also come with a built in social network (over 22,000 members), so windowfarmers have a support network to share about their own growing experiences and to learn from others. Windowfarms are perfect for teachers, gardeners, foodies, and makers. Prices start at $120 + shipping and handling.

APP

FOOD52’s new Holiday Recipe & Survival Guide features 75 curated recipes from home cooks and is easily one of the best cooking iPad apps on the market. Designed to help anyone host a holiday dinner, brunch, or cocktail party, the app offers event and execution planning, from menu design to shopping to serving the meal. There are also 100 minutes of expert video tutorial from FOOD52 co-founders Amanda Hesser and Merril Stubbs, including a chocolate ginger bread house making tutorial for the adventurous.  At $9.99, this is a perfect stocking stuffer.

BOOKS

Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking, is the ultimate gift for the very special nerd in your life. This six-volume, 2,438 page cookbook uncovers the the science and technology behind cooking through thousands of step-by-step, illustrated instructions, original photographs and diagrams.  Available for $450 on Amazon.

Cooking for Geeks is a must for the hackers and geeks in your life  interested in learning how to cook or who want to experiment in the kitchen. The book features interviews with researchers, food scientists, knife experts, chefs, writers and more.Available for $23.09 on Amazon.