Kitchen gadgets are nice for giving, but subscription boxes could be nicer

skoshbox

I have only purchased one Christmas present so far this year.

It’s a box of snacks from who knows where, and I bought it through MunchPak, one of a several food subscription boxes I suggest in my foodie gift guide that ran in today’s paper. (We also offered a list of baking books for every kind of baker in your life.)

Graze and Nature Box, which you might have heard about, both offer customization based on your tastes, but there are lots of smaller, niche options that might delight cookie lovers, tea devotees, beef jerky enthusiasts or Japanese candy fanatics.

These have been around for a while, and even longer consider the (fill-in-the-blank)-of-the-month clubs that have been around forever, but this year, I’ve finally realized that getting something in the mail is half of the excitement. It’s like a (sweet, savory, spicy or otherwise tasty) mini-Christmas long after December ends.

    • For those Japanese candies, check out TokyoTreat.com ($14.99 per month) orSkoshbox.com ($10 per month), which both ship candies and Japanese snacks.
    • Mouth.com offers the widest variety of boxes in specific food groups, including jerky, pickles, popcorn and brunch, if you can call that a food group. They even have a box with enough cookies for each day of the month.
    • Coffee subscription options abound, but when it comes to tea, check out AmodaTea.com,Teabox.com or TeaSparrow.com, which each sell boxes of tea samples that cost between $10 and $20 per month.
    • munchpakIf you have snack-o-philes in your life — or kids, like mine, who watch every kind of unboxing video on YouTube — MunchPak would be a real surprise. This company sells three sizes of snack boxes, starting at $9.95 per month (MunchPak.com), filled with wacky, weird and totally unexpected candies and snacks from all over the world without any promises about how healthy or artisanal they are.

carnivoreclub

  • Carnivore Clubsells cured meats from a single producer every month. With so many kinds of charcuterie in production right now, the company takes the bacon-of-the-month club to the next level, starting at $50 per month atcarnivoreclub.co. Buying for someone who eschews animal products of all kinds? VeganCuts.com offers a monthly product box of snacks and drinks starting at $18 a month for 7-10 items.
  • To keep the taste of Christmas going after the holiday, consider Treatsie (Treatsie.com, $20 per month), which ships a box of artisan sweets — including cookies, chocolate, candies and caramels — 12 months a year.
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