gifts for the host from mouth.

November 19, 2015

This post is sponsored by Mouth, a company that’s committed to helping folks find the best indie food products on the market.

We’re still firmly in the pack-a-bag, search-for-tickets, and try-not-to-get-underfoot-in-the-kitchen part of our lives when it comes to the major holidays around here. We’ve yet to host a Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner ourselves, but we do try to be the best version of the adult children we are when returning to our childhood homes for the holidays.

Part of being an adult, it turns out, is arriving with hands that are filled with treats for the hosts (and primed to help should help be wanted). While I personally get a thrill of satisfaction from making something myself (homemade nutella, anyone?), I admit that constraints of time and travel sometimes preclude the DIY-approach. Good news:Mouth is an internet company on a mission to source the most delicious indie food products on the market for folks who want to eat them, and at the same time, to support the inventive and hardworking folks who make these indie products available in the first place. The site is filled with products from some of my very favorite small-batch and artisan makers: Brooklyn Roasting Company coffee, Big Picture Farm goat milk caramels, and Ovenly snacks, not to mention a near-endless supply of other delicious things from small makers I’ve just now been introduced to for the first time.Because second to making something delicious myself, I love putting together care packages of delicious things made by other people, I pulled together a bunch of products that I thought would make the perfect gift for a host to enjoy on the morning after the big event: breakfasty treats for easing the burden of hosting. You know, something to make staring down the pile of dishes in the sink more tolerable; something to return a bit of life to the wine-stained table; something to soften the edges of an eggnog hangover (not that I would know anything about such a thing).Into my morning-after-the-holiday gift, I included Catskill Mountain Honey, Apple Cranberry Preserves, Easy Like Sunday Morning Blueberry Preserves, Ethiopian Yirge Cheffe Coffee, Organic Cedarwood Black Chai Tea, Chai Spice Peanut Almond Butter, and a big old bottle of Vermont Dark Maple Syrup. Now all I’d need to do is convince James to get on pancake flipping duty and start the coffee. Breakfast is looking better already, isn’t it?

In case you’re daunted by the prospect of pulling together a gift of your own choosing, Mouth has curated a whole slew of gifts filled with host-worthy treats:The Great Guest is designed for guests angling to get a return invite. There’s coffee, candies, crackers, and caramel corn among other things that don’t begin with c! Holidaylicious is for a host with a serious sweet tooth and includes small-batch candies, chocolates, and jellies galore.And for folks who want to make sure their gifts are doing some heavy lifting, Mouth has partnered with FEED to provide meals to hungry schoolchildren across the globe. The purchase of the FEED + Mouth Snack Bag, for instance, provides five meals to schoolchildren. If you see something you’d like to try, Mouth is offering a 15% discount with the code RMTL15. (The offer expires midnight EST on December 31, 2015.)