Wasabi, Monkey Tea and Advocaat- Must Be Xmas!

Around The World

Christmas shopping on the high street? Pah, only if you enjoy slush, the cold and grumpy families. The sensible among us pour a gin and tonic and purchase our festive global goodies on the net. Chin, chin.

Monkey Picked Tea
Last year Skinny brought you Civet Coffee. This year we present Monkey Picked Tea. Tea-picking has been a noble simian profession in China for 1,000 years, with monkeys trained to gather rare plants from cliff faces. The tea produced is fragrant and golden with a delicate flavour. The moral: if you want a truly tasty brew, leave it to your fur-coated compatriots.
£9.95 for 25 grams
www.firebox.com

Exotic Chocolate Truffle Collection
New York-based Vosges Haut-Chocolat continually raises the bar with chocolate experimentation. With centres like sweet Indian curry, ginger-wasabi and anise-fennel, your tongue will think it’s died and gone to heaven.
$40 (£25.50) per box
www.vosgeschocolate.com

Dragon Beard Candy
Two thousand years ago the Emperor of China demanded a treat, so his imperial chef whisked-up some Dragon Beard candy. 8,000 strands of hand-spun sugar wrapped around shredded coconut, peanuts and sesame seeds make this a rare and unusual delicacy.
$17.50 (£11) per box
www.yuzumura.com

Kalvert’s Rose Syrup
Pour a couple of drops of this Indian favourite into a glass of champagne, and you’ll have a blush-hued beverage that’s even more thrilling than the time you dyed your pet poodle pink.
$3.99 (£2.56) for 700ml
www.ishopindian.com

Auntie Quaint’s CocAuLait Lavande
‘Auntie Quaint’ of Tennessee is a true eccentric, having devoted her life to promoting the wonders of lavender. But when you try her “secret family recipe” cocoa with its rich blend of Mexican chocolate, lavender and chilli, her mission doesn’t seem so strange after all…
$12 (£7.70) per box
www.auntiequaint.com

White Truffle Cream
Seattle-based La Buona Tavola have drawn upon 3000 years of Italian gourmet expertise to select some divine truffle-based products. A grown-up gift for your posh uncle.
$19.99 (£12.85) per jar
www.trufflecafe.com

Rare Hawaiian Organic Winter Honey Hawaiian-based Volcano Island Honey have created an exotic flavoured blend, gleaned from the wildflowers that flourish in winter on the Mauna Kea volcano. Your toast has got a crush on it.
$14 (£9) per jar
www.volcanoislandhoney.com

Wasabi and Green Pepper Sauce
Nothing compares to wasabi, the only food that turns itself into a Japanese endurance style game-show before you’ve even swallowed it. This ‘Gold Taste Award’ winner from the Guild of Fine Foods is begging to be tried.
£10.50 for gift box of two 250ml bottles
www.woodchesterfinefoods.com

Christmas 2008 Cheese & Chutney Selection
House of Cheese have compiled a selection of award winning French and British cheeses, including Le Montagnard and Vintage Poacher. They also throw in a nice jar of festive chutney. A good excuse to drink wine (as if you needed one).
£45
www.houseofcheese.co.uk

Advocaat (oh yes!)
Advocaat gets a bad press, but this tasty blend of eggs, sugar and brandy needn’t just be for your mad auntie. It’s a festive classic that deserves a revival, and the campaign starts here...
£12.49 for 70cl
www.drinksdirect.co.uk

Debbie Martin

Scotland

OK, if all those food miles are making you baulk, here’s some ideas that will keep your money in Scotland and your conscience in clover. All are local products and can be ordered online:

Smoked Langoustines

With serious concerns recently raised about the environmental and chemical damage caused by intensive prawn farms in Asia, Scottish langoustines will give you that crustacean thrill minus any guilt. Skye Smokehouse buy all of theirs from Inner Hebrides fishermen and dub them ‘visually stunning and gastronomically astonishing’- wowzers. Their lightly smoked option, available to buy online, will make a sexy wee change to ye olde smoked salmon on Christmas Day.

£27.95 per kilo, www.skye-seafood.co.uk

Pig’s Nose Whisky

This blended five-year-old malt is created by Richard Patterson, Scotland’s only third generation master blender. Disarmingly easy to drink, its soft, lightly fruity and floral taste means it’s an ideal gateway malt for the curious – and so-called because it’s as soft as a pig’s nose. The makers say it’s for week days, not for the Christmas cake so you don’t need to wait til the big day to crack it open.

£17.99 (70cl), www.spencerfieldspirit.com

The Chocolate Tree

These East Lothian-based organic chocolate makers began as a travelling chocolatier, going from festival to festival. Now you can also buy their products online and many of their goodies, from 72% cocoa bars studded with rose pepper, mango and blueberries to dairy-free chocolate and hazelnut spread, make ideal vegan stocking fillers. Due to their refusal to use preservatives and additives, make sure you wait until early December before you order any as pressies or you’ll just have to scoff them yourself (shame).

Bars from £2.20 www.the-chocolate-tree.co.uk

Connage Dairy Gift Box

A bargainous box of all five of the Highland dairy’s award winning cheeses, plus some homemade organic oatcakes to provide a little roughage. Highlights include their ‘heaven on a spoon’ pasteurised curd cheese Crowdie (as good in a cheesecake as it is topped with salmon and black pepper), its soft and silky brie-style Cromal and the Dunlop, an nutty, unpasteurised hard cheese cloth-bound and matured for seven months.

Cheese box, £17.50 www.connage.co.uk

Ruth Marsh