Gourmet Coffee Gifts

Are you scrambling for ideas for a gift--whether for a family member, a friend, a client, or an acquaintance who's done you a favor? Think about gourmet coffee. The world's most popular drink at the start of the 21st century, coffee goes down the throats worldwide, about 400 billion cups every year. All it takes is a passing conversational remark to narrow down whether your recipient is a tea or coffee drinker. (You certainly don't want to go wrong on that basic choice.)

Gourmet Gifts: Something for Everyone

Let's talk about the coffee drinkers for a minute. What are your options? Maybe a straightforward one-time bag of coffee would be in order. Another possibility is an assortment of quarter- or half-pound bags of different types of coffee. Gift baskets--a bit of coffee, a bit of tea, some coffees, a few fancy candies or chocolates, a nice mug--have long been popular for reasons easy enough to understand.

Another thought is membership in a coffee of the month club. To be safe, of course, you might want to choose membership that offers both coffee and tea. What do such memberships offer? Most often it's a selection of coffees, either the customer's choice or a rotating variety of specials, typically a pound or two, delivered like clockwork to one's door once or twice a month.

While choosing the coffee is important, you can always leave it in the hands of the coffee shop to decide if you don't know the recipient particularly well. Another option is to gear the gift toward a theme--an espresso sampler, for example, or a travel gift pack to include a thermos mug, or a beginner's brew assortment that combines equipment and coffee. The price ranges of many gift packs are usually comfortable, beginning at perhaps $30 and running well up the scale.