• On the first day of Christmas – Cucina “Risotto Bag” gift pack, available in three fragrances and less than $20!

• On the second day of Christmas – Aromatherapy Candles the can inspire, stimulate and relax with completely natural fragrances.

• On the third day of Christmas – A New York City dish towels that includes some hand stitching and highlights New York Cities greatest attractions!

• On the forth day of Christmas – Take time for tea with Tea Forte’s Dolce Vita sweet pyramid tea bags, beautifully packaged and creating a true tea experience.

• On the fifth day of Christmas – our friends from Seattle created caramels with a touch of smoked or fleur de sel, salt, now everybody is doing it but they did first and better! Fran’s Chocolates is an original!

• On the Sixth day of Christmas – our friend from Southhampton, New York – Kathleen with her legendary crispy cookie recipe now available with dark chocolate, walnuts, wholewheat floor and glutton free – all from Tate’s Bake Shop.

• On the seventh day of Christmas – Anne Taintor, whose graphics and phrases have humored us for a decade now has a brand new recipe book to be even happier, a cocktail happy hour book.

• On the eighth day of Christmas – from war time England in the early forties comes the phrase, Keep Calm and Carry On, which has many, many applications in our times, and is the perfect complement to a good cup of tea.

• On the ninth day of Christmas – make time for a beer and although you will need a little time to brew it but it sure tastes good home-made – kits from Brooklyn Brew Shop!

• On the tenth day of Christmas – While you are waiting for the beer to brew, our favorite NYC snack from the East Village Red Head Restaurant is Bacon Peanut Brittle, spicy, slightly sweet and smokey – you can not stop.

On the eleventh day of Christmas - Imported from the Aisle of anglesey in northern Wales,  Halon Mon Salt, in original, smoked and with celery, with its clear sea flavor and delicate texture, it is the perfect finishing salt.

• On the twelfth day of Christmas – Butter, sugar and floor with some tweaking, makes for the perfect bit of crunchy sweetness – Shortbread House of Edinburgh is why Scotland is famous for shortbread!

Now it is time to rest and think about next year!

We all at CMB wish you and your family a happy, healthy and of course tasty holiday and New Year.

I thought I would share a little of the behind the scenes process of creating the catalog.

Creating our yearly catalog helps us define and grow our business. We are always on the look out for new and different products – from down the street, to the other side of the world. Creating the catalog forces us to make many decisions about our assortment-what new items to buy and what items to discontinue.

We look to evolve our gifts over time, slight modifications to selected baskets are made each year. This allows us to share our most recent findings with our current customers as well as new customers.   We also have fun developing a new crop of gift each year, this year we have many gifts that feature foods from different geographic regions- such as Brooklyn, New England and California.

Once we decide on the assortment and components in the gifts, we photograph the items. Taking a photo of a gift that includes many components is not always easy – it takes both art and science to get a shot that best represent the item.

The same team has worked together for many years now adding their piece of the puzzle: David the owner traveling to different parts of the world to find food, Mickey Mathis the photographer, and Amy Ashford our graphic designer and myself as the “stage director” making sure all the pieces come together.

Once the photographs are taken, the images are carefully cleaned-up and we go to work on the layout of the catalog, once all the proofs and edits are made the final product is sent to the printing house.

In the below picture, David (owner) and I are setting up the Chelsea Market Bounty basket during one of our photo-shoots.

Some new items we are excited about this are year:

NYC Hot Chocolate- All the best NYC hot chocolate mixes and drinks in one basket.

Brooklyn Boys- Handmade foods all made in the trendy borough of Brooklyn.

Edible New England- Sweet and Savory products all made in New England and boxed in our “new” New England boxes.

California Dreamin- A gift that highlights California and their diverse food culture.

British Tea and Biscuits- From across the Atlantic we have selected the best biscuits, aka cookies for this gift, all boxed up in our modern British box.

Here is a link to our full catalog:
CMB Holiday Catalog 2011 (pdf)

Here are some of our favorite items:

• Iveta Scone Mix -  This easy-to-make mix is sure to please, and we have a gluten-free option for special diets!
• Kitchen Garden Jams – Made by hand in the Cotswolds, these jams and preserves are fit for a queen!
• Bay Tree Very Lemon Curd – As the name says, this lemon curd is extra tart and perfectly tangy, with no preservatives!
• Clotted Cream – Traditionally served with scones, luxurious clotted cream from Devon is also delicious with pancakes!
• Ahmad Tea – An exclusive selection of twelve favorites -it’s a tea of the month club in one box!
• Harney & Sons Mother’s Bouquet – 3 Sachets of Floral Tea in a beautiful small gift box
• Kusmi Tea -  Fanciful and healthful, the benefit and beauty of Kusmi Tea make it a perfect gift!
• Shortbread House of Edinburgh – Buttery sweetness is the taste of leisure – you cannot go wrong with this classic biscuit!
• Keep Calm and Carry On Enamel Mug – A great morning coffee mug with the timeless words of wisdom from the Queen that date back to WWII.

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The company perceives chocolate as a form of art in which they are pushing the limits by creating unknown and unique combinations.  The chocolates are handmade and gift wrapped under the watchful eye of the chocolatiers.  Prestat takes pride in how the chocolate is presented, their goal is to have the packaging as beautiful as the chocolate inside. The packaging is bright and colorful, but it is no competition to the chocolate that waits inside.
We have some of their top sellers, including:

Champagne Dark Truffles: These are seriously a chocolate indulgence, sugar dusted dark chocolate truffles are filled with handmade ganache which includes dark chocolate, cream, butter and Marc de Champagne Liqueur.

Pink Champaign Truffles: Sugar-dusted Pink Chocolate filled with a ganache that combines dark chocolate and Marc de Champagne Liqueur. $19.95

Banoffee Truffles: White chocolate truffle filled with soft caramel infused with real banana, then drizzled with dark chocolate that is lightly flavored with dark chocolate. $19.95

Velvety Milk Chocolate Wafers English Earl Grey Tea:  Rich milk chocolate infused the floral notes of Earl Gray Tea. $19.95

Prestate Milk Chocolate Bar:  Velvety smooth contains 32% coco from Africa coco beans.  $2.95

We are so impressed with these chocolates; we have included them in some of our gift baskets for the 2010-2011 holiday season.  Basket will be available starting next month, check our website for updates.

Some producers you will meet….

Nina Uppal- New York Delhi Snack mix from London, England

Nina has developed a line of Snack mixes with authentic Indian taste–we are lucky to be the first to carry it in the United States.

Elspeth Blitof- Rosebud Preserves from Yorkshire, England

Elspeth is the owner of Rosebud Preserves, established in 1989, her savory and sweet jams are made in small batches with local product.

Paul Cappelli- Villa Cappelli from Terilizzi, Italy

Paul will be sampling his selection of olive oils and dried herbs. Paul travels every three weeks to his farm in Italy to run the operations.

Pictures from last years open house:

We are all happy at the CMB store to have one of our favorite brands back in the store – Stokes! After a short absence their mayonnaise and other condiments made it back into the United States.  All the Stokes Mayonnaises are made with top quality ingredients which makes it taste like homemade mayonnaise.  Here at the store we love the Blush Tomato Mayonnaise on an Amy’s Bread Baguette- our neighbor in Chelsea Market.

Stokes Products:

• Blushed Tomato Mayonnaise

• Garlic Mayonnaise

• Chili Mayonnaise

• Real Tomato Ketchup

• Spicy Tomato Ketchup

In my new capacity, helping steer Peters Imports with what is brought back from England and at the same time finding new and wonderful stuff for Chelsea Market Baskets,  I am keen to find product that we can sell that has never been the USA before and with the exchange rate  now working in our favor, providing good value as well to our customers. After the show in London, I will be visiting Scotland for about 5 days, which should be good to dig in a little and see what is new and not discovered yet there.  These trips are good because I can find myself in many shops check out how they look as well as what they are selling and trying to capture the spirit of an older work food shop.   If there is anything that you especially interested in please email me and I will be looking.