MMMMM Caramelly

The flavors of salted butter caramel that Petite Bouchee sells sound amazing. You can buy them online here. They aren't badly priced and seem like a unique little food treat.

Handmade Candy That Will Make Your Mouth Water

I've heard great things about the handmade candy company Liddabit Sweets in New York, but in the past they were only sold at the Brooklyn Flea Market, so I had no way to order and send to friends because I live in LA. I just realized that they now have an online sweet shop, so you can buy online for yourself or if your boss wants to send a unique sweet treat. One of the gift collections they sell called The Kitchen Sink sounds really amazing and includes: the Lime-In-The-Coconut Bar, the PB&J Bar, 6-packs of Sea Salt, Chocolate-Sea Salt, and Beer & Pretzel Caramels, bags of their Milk Chocolate Honeycomb candy and Pecan-Brown Sugar Brittle, 4-packs of their Apple-Maple and Barley Tea-Honey Lollipops and even a few other bars. Take a minute to check them out.

Drunk With A Twist Of Sugar High

Need a gift for your favorite wine lover who also loves sweets, try Cabernet brownies. Sugar and alcohol seems like an ideal combo if you ask me.

Great Sweet Treats For Vegans

People that have strict diets can be hard to buy for, but these days that's becoming less and less true. I just heard about a company called Chocolate Inspirations that does all kinds of brittle and toffee for vegans and it all looks really good. If you have a vegan to give a gift to and your at a loss, it's worth checking out.

An Alternative To Candy Canes

I always like to think outside the box with any category of gift, but especially food gifts. I hate giving people the same boring treats even if they're good. At the holidays people often give brownies and cookies and things like candy canes and that's all well and good, but there are so many more interesting options for you or your boss to give these days. Why not try Peppermint Bark from Williams Sonoma:
Or these Juicy Jell candies from the Candy Basket that come in flavors even a foodie would appreciate like Meyer Lemon and Asian Pear:

NYC Sweet Tooth

Today the focus is yummy treats in NYC to send to those you love with a sweet tooth. Here's a few of my favs:

Eli Zabar Pound Cake - This comes in a few flavors, but I think the marble loaf one is best. They also have other sweets and gift basket ideas.

Levain Bakery Cookies - I know more than one person who thinks they are the best cookies they have ever had. I think they are pretty good and they sure look fantastic in the pics.

Chocolate Bar NYC Retro Bars - These come in insane flavors like Key Lime and are really delicious.

Things that make you go MMMMM

I do seem a bit fixated on the food gifts lately, but I get asked about them all the time and there are so many great and unusual things you can send now that I want to spread the word about some of the more interesting stuff.

One site that has tons of special things for the real foodie in your life is the Grateful Palate. One item from them that is a bit strange, but very popular is their Bacon Brittle (yes, I did say bacon brittle and no I have not lost my mind). For the person in your life obsessed with wine and/or coffee they do an incredibly unique thing that people have really responded to - they have well known winemakers come in and create a blend of coffee with their in house roaster. Right now they have five different blends and they aren't that expensive. You will not find this anywhere else and it is one of those things that is great to get for that person who has everything else already. If you can't decide what to pick, they have gift certificates.

In the last few years the combo of sweet and savory has really come into the mainstream. One company that has become even more popular because of this is Fran's Chocolates. Their signature item is salted caramels (caramel, chocolate and sea salt). It sounds odd, but they are really good if you like that combo of flavors. They have been featured in the New York Times and Obama is a fan of their chocolates.