22 Great Gifts for Foodies, Chefs, and Hosts

Back to the Roots Organic Mushroom Farm
Best hostess gift ever! Grow mushrooms in the box they come in. Beloved by Martha Stewart and Oprah (who raves, "Within two weeks, you'll have a pound and a half of oyster mushrooms, ready for stir-frying!") Just follow the directions, add water, and harvest your mushrooms when they've matured in 10 days. This kit is also a great learning opportunity for kids -- like Back to Roots on Facebook and the company will donate a Mushroom Farm to a school. $19.99,
Backtotheroots.com

Soda Stream Play
Make your own soda or fizzy cocktail creations at home with this new, sleeker ,and more colorful package. Comes in red, black, white, or blue, or personalize it with a removable skin. Starter kit, $90, SodaStreamUSA.com

Fixie Pizza Cutter
What a fun way to cut a pizza! This durable stainless steel, double-wheel pizza cutter shaped like a bike even comes with a stand. $23, UncommonGoods.com

Williams & Sonoma Seed Sticks
Growing your own herbs is a cinch with these seed-embedded sticks. Just press the pre-marked sticks into soil and add water. $21.95 for set of six, Williams-Sonoma.com

The Spice Lab Chef's Collection
A beautiful and unusual method of displaying spices, these 12 test tubes come with the world's most popular spices. The company also offers collections of salt, peppers, and tea. Perfect addition for any cook who is embracing molecular gastronomy or other food science approaches to cooking. $50, TheSpiceLab.com

Beekman 1802 Blaak Roasted Garlic Drizzle
is a reduction of cast-aged balsamic vinegar and roasted garlic from New York State. The dark liquid is so attractive you'll want to display it. Just don't mistake it for distilled whiskey. $15, Beekman1802.com

Guide to Urban Moonshining: How to Make and Drink Whiskey by Colin Spoelman and David Haskell. The founders of Kings County Distillery in New York have written the ultimate overview of distilleries, provided step-by-step DIY instructions, and included numerous cocktail recipes. 224 pages. $11.99 (digital), $19.23 (hardcover), Amazon.com

Grass-Fed Dry-Aged Steaks or Buffalo Filet Mignon
For 50 years Premier Meat has been the leading provider of high-quality protein to West Coast restaurants and top chefs. For the first time, individual customers can get the sustainable, healthy and humanely raised never-frozen meats, poultry, and seafood delivered directly to their homes. Free range chicken, Norwegian trout, buffalo filet mignon, and grass-fed, dry-aged filets are just the beginning of the meats available. Premier's 70,000-square foot facility in Vernon, Calif., features the largest dry-aging space in the country. From $5/pound, PremierMeats.com

Charm Villa's Goldfish Tea Bags
Made via a 16-step process by the Taiwanese company Charm Villa, the remarkable design has won awards and fans around the world, even though the tea itself is difficult to locate stateside. The intricate handcrafted bags come alive as the tea brews. The steeping tea bag swells into the shape of a goldfish. Pulling a thread enables the tea bag to move, making it seem as though the goldfish is swimming in your tea cup. CharmVilla.com

Robot Dreams Decaf Espresso Blend
From lesbian-owned Scarlet City Roasting comes this great drink for those who love the flavor of coffee but could do without the caffeine. Perfect for espresso and drip, great with milk. One pound whole beans, $18, ScarletCityRoasting.com

Kate Spade Insulated Tumbler
Like to read a newspaper while drinking coffee? Then these double-walled, insulated acrylic tumblers with newsprint are just the thing. Comes with matching colorful acrylic straws. Holds 22 ounces. BPA-, phthalate-, and lead-free. $20, GiveSimple.com

Organic India's Organic Ghee Pure Clarified Butter
Ever wonder what makes Indian food so good? It's Ghee, a sweet cream clarified butter that's perfect for everything from baking to using as a massage oil (seriously). And this version is 100 percent organic butter from grass-fed cows on small family farms in India. $12.99, OrganicIndiaUSA.com

The Darth Vader Toaster
Geek out in the kitchen with this awesome toaster made in the likeness of the iconic Star Wars villain, which transforms your ordinary whole grain slices into sinister tokens of evil. Never miss breakfast and a chance to swear allegiance to the Galactic Empire again. $49.95, Hammacher.com

Tulsi Moringa Tea
Dubbed holy basil, Tulsi is is revered throughout India as a sacred herb infused with healing power. It's packed with antioxidants, which makes this organic tea a great choice for boosting your immune system over the winter or revving up for the infamous January back-to-the-gym cycle. Organic India offers a Tulsi tea in 18 flavors (chai, ginger, jasmine) and this even better Moringa version, which includes moringa and lemongrass. $5.99, OrganicIndiaUSA.com

Beet Elite Neo Shot
Nitric oxide, a gas that helps dilate blood vessels and veins, improving circulation, was such an important discovery in cardiovascular health that it garnered the guy behind it a Nobel Prize in 1988. The molecule is found in beets, but you have to eat a lot of them to get enough, so these concentrated beetroot crystals, which you just stir into a glass of water, distill six beets into one shot that delivers nitric oxide to the blood three times faster than beets would. Some badass athletes like April Dee swear it guards against high blood pressure and diabetes, improves sexual health, and curbs chronic fatigue. 10 packs for $34.99, BeeElite.com

Christie Cookies
Offer Santa something better than store-bought this year with these amazingly delicious preservative free, gourmet cookies from an LGBT-friendly Nashville bakery. There are plenty of choices but we love the Harmony, a set of two tins, one with Christie's legendary brownies and the other with its chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin, and white chocolate macadamia nut cookies. $41.40, ChristieCookies.com

Counting Sheep Coffee 40 Winks or Lights Out!
Yes, it's the first and only coffee designed specifically to put you to sleep! This brew combines 99.9 percent caffeine-free coffee with organic valerian root, an herb long used to promote relaxation and cure insomnia. Could the new buzz in coffee is all about the zzzzz's? $11.99, Amazon.com

Forbidden Love Salt & Pepper Shakers
These cute salt and pepper sets are great gifts for newlyweds, geeks, and party hosts. Pick one that fits your recipients personality. Our best bets: Batman and Robin or Darth Vader and Storm Trooper (each set $23.99, SuperheroStuff.com); the Salt-and-Pepper Robots, vintage-design windup robots that can actually deliver the requested spice by marching across the table while making a mechanical buzzing sound ($19.95, Hammacher.com); or for you Wizard of Oz fans, the Wicked Witch and Winged Monkey Shaker Set, magnetized to keep the Wicked Witch and her winged monkey side-by-side. ($19, BettysAttic.com).