Photo: Murray’s Cheese
Even if you can go out to a restaurant this Valentine’s Day you should not. But, you can still show your valentine you appreciate them with the universal love language of food. Sure, if you’re living with your partner or best friend you can easily call up your favorite local restaurant for delivery (and create your own tablescape with some cloth napkins), or you can buy some expert-recommended meat or oysters online and make the meal yourself. For those valentines who are farther away, there’s a bunch of customary Valentine’s Day chocolates, candy, drinks, and food that you can send in the mail, as well as a few new takes on the classics — like vegan truffles, locally sourced liqueur, and a DIY fondue kit.
They can be in charge of pouring this “nutty and hearty” Swiss cheese mix into a pan, and stirring while it heats into fondue.
Derek Hanson, the chef and owner of Jacqueline in Portland, Oregon, swears that Hama Hama’s oysters are “some of the best in the world.”
They’ll know exactly how to sear this hand-cut, hormone- and antibiotic-free rack of lamb and make a mint yogurt sauce and glazed carrots to go along with it.
Writer Ivy Pochoda told us that this double-cut, long-bone pork chop is the best gift she bought herself during the pandemic, describing the chops as the “Cadillac of swine — velvety, perfectly marbled, with a wonderful, almost nutty flavor.”
A ten-pound delivery of fresh-harvested limes, lemons, oranges, mandarins, and grapefruits, to juice to their heart’s content.
It’s not quite the same as dining at Jean Georges, but this assortment of two-dozen cookies from the chef’s Valentine’s collection includes tasty, love-themed treats, like ganache-filled, heart-shaped oreos and red-toned chocolate nero cookies.
A six-pack of classic, snack-flavored cookies like Funfetti, “All That and a Bag of Chips” (brown butter and salted caramel), and two homemade Cosmic Brownies, all made in Brooklyn by Gracie Baked and shipped nationwide (though if you’re local, you could also get one of the bakery’s Valentine’s Day–themed treats delivered).
Photo: Caroline Taft
For a traditional Thanksgiving pie with a “creative and decadent” twist, editor Elle Simone Scott of America’s Test Kitchen recommends ordering a pie from this Black-owned bakery — like this apple pie topped with buttery brown sugar, which looks good enough to eat any day of the year.
Every Thin Mint and Do-Si-Do that you buy from Troop 6000 directly benefits the troop’s members, who are thousands of girls living in the New York City shelter system.
Say it with a vanilla shortbread cookie.
A chocolate-chip cookie with double the chocolate chips, which one pastry chef describes as “the weighted blanket of pastries.” Levain Bakery is now shipping these cookies nationally, just in time for Valentine’s Day — though we recommend ordering sooner rather than later (and you may have to pay a bit in shipping, depending on your location).
A vestige of Valentine’s Days past (with none of the hallway drama), these “mouth puckering” conversational hearts are emblazoned with phrases like XOXO and CUTIE, and happen to be a favorite of Little Spain’s executive pastry chef Thea Habjanic.
They’ll appreciate that the final ingredient in these vegan, refined-sugar-free truffles is immune-boosting elderberry extract, and we think their boob-shape makes for a somewhat cheeky Valentine’s Day gift.
Strategist writer Hilary Reid described this non-futsy assortment of miniature fruits as a “stylish alternative to the old Valentine’s Day box of chocolates.”
They can eat this maple-and-bacon chocolate bar for breakfast.
They can’t peruse the floor-to-very-high-ceiling shelves of vintage candy bars and rainbow gummies right now, but you can gift them a five-pound — or “approximately 20-25 handful” — bag of treats from New York’s most iconic candy shop. (If you live nearby, you can get your candy delivered, too.)
… that life is like a box of chocolates — in which case we hope it’s like this box of truffles, which come with intriguing flavors like hazelnut and currant, and lime and honey.
Now they can make cups of French truffle, peanut-butter cup, peppermint, and salted-caramel hot chocolate just with the swirl of a stick.
If they have a penchant for Danish design, we think they’ll also appreciate this mixed bag of sweet-and-sour red-toned candies from the Swedish candy store Sockerbit.
These are far from the cheapest gummies on this list, but the fruity hearts are made by one of the oldest confectioneries in Paris (and the gold-emblazoned tin would make for an actually nice-looking coin catchall).
When we arranged the Strategist White Elephant Gift Exchange a couple of years ago, these chocolate-covered malt balls were among the most-stolen items. Restaurateur Danny Meyer, who brought them to the gift swap and ate drugstore malt balls growing up, describes these as “something that tugs on your favorite emotional food memories, and then actually exceeds all the good feelings that you may have already had.”
All of the bean-to-bar chocolates at Askanya are handcrafted by women at co-founder Corinne Joachim Sanon Symietz’s grandmother’s childhood home turned chocolate factory in Haiti.
A cosmic twofer from our favorite flower-delivery service: a succulent in a celestial black-and-gold pot, and a six-piece box of galaxy-themed truffles.
If they thought the 800-page wine tome, which we dubbed one of last year’s most giftable coffee-table books, was a page-turner, then they’ll know enough to appreciate this “earthy, spicy, [and] floral” bottle of of Pinot Noir that’s produced by award-winning sommelier André Hueston Mack.
If they’re in Manhattan, Long Island City, or most of Brooklyn, they can do all of that with this package of two wines that comes with a box of locally made chocolate truffles and a bouquet of roses. All orders over $100 are 10 percent off, and it’s guaranteed to be delivered on February 12.
This four-pack of all-natural citrus and berry-flavored rosé spritzers are equivalent to two bottles of wine, for under $25 total. And, they’re named after the McBride Sisters’ SHE CAN Professional Development Fund, which promotes the professional advancement of women — and this year, specifically women of color — in the wine industry.
Just follow the instructions, and in a month they’ll have five bottles of sparkling wine. Everything is included except for the wineglasses.
If Regular Visitors co-founder Daniel Sorg still had his Brooklyn shop, he told us he’d stock the grocery (and his own at-home bar) with this black-currant liqueur made in the Hudson Valley by Rachael Petach. “The black currants used in Rachael’s bottles are grown just a few miles down the road from where the product is made,” he says.
When we asked drink experts about the best cocktails in a can, four of them endorsed Aaron Polsky’s cocktail line LiveWire, all of which are made with high-quality ingredients and give credit to the bartender behind the cocktail.
It might not be as traditional as a bottle of Champagne, but the Haim sisters told us they can’t live without a Corona and lime.
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