I’ve said this over and over, but it’s worth repeating: The only thing that’s better than a food gift is a food gift that keeps on giving again and again — a delicious déjà vu. You can find food subscriptions for just about anything — coffee, bread, wine, cheese, chocolate, fish and premium cuts of beef — and there are even wallet-friendly choices starting at around $15 a month. Best of all, a food subscription won’t clutter up the space of someone you suspect already has all the tech, trinkets, art and jewelry they need.
Everyone loves to nibble and sip something, which is why food and drink subscriptions make an ideal gift even for those who are difficult to shop for. If you’re having a hard time choosing a gift for someone on your holiday list, consider a membership to one of these excellent food or drink clubs. We’ve been testing up a storm to find the best.
These are the best food and drink clubs and subscriptions to gift this holiday. And, yes, we’ve sampled everything on this list before giving them all our full-bellied stamp of approval.
Best food and drink subscriptions to gift in 2023
A coffee subscription is about as foolproof a gift as it gets. As long as the person being gifted, ya know, drinks coffee and all.
I’ve tried and really liked many of the top coffee subscription services including Trade, Equator and many others. One stands out as particularly giftable and that’s Atlas Coffee Club. For one, the coffee comes from all over with lots of interesting roasts from Africa and Central America. Each bag arrives as if sent by a friend (in this case it has!) with a glossy postcard and some information on both the beans and the region they hail from. A three-month gift subscription starts at $50.
Blue Apron delivers everything you need to make amazing home-cooked meals. Choose from 80-plus weekly options, including meals designed for easy prep and quick cook times. With an ever-changing menu offering a variety of cuisines, there’s always something new to try. Looking for a last-minute gift? Treat friends and family to the joy of home cooking with a Blue Apron gift card. Get 50% off right now.
Chocolate and snacks are a welcome indulgence but some folks might just want a little boost putting dinner together or appreciate a way to find new recipes to add to their routine. Green Chef offers some of the best meal kits for mid-level cooks with wholesome organic ingredients and a flurry of interesting weekly recipes.
The best way to give meal kits is with an e-gift card so the giftee can set up their own account and shipping dates and choose recipes for themselves.
Read more: Best Meal Delivery Services
The Bokksu collects some of the best snacks from Japan and compiles them in a one-time or recurring monthly curated tasting box. I’ve both given and received a Bokksu and it is always a hit.
Inside the unmistakable orange boxes, you’ll find eats like seaweed tempura, green tea and lemon cakes along with Japanese candy such as yuzu gummies and matcha-strawberry Kit-Kats. What’s more, Bokksu includes some info-packed literature explaining a bit about each, including historical and cultural significance. Bokksu boxes start at $40 a month for subscriptions and $50 for a one-time send.
Read more: The Best Snack Subscription Boxes
For a meat-eating foodie, a box of high-end meats is never a bad call and your gifting options abound in 2023. We’ve tried ButcherBox several times and it stands out as the best service for gifting a meat box or subscription for the griller in your life.
Other online butchers specialize in niche beef such as KC Cattle Co‘s stock of 100% American Wagyu. Another newcomer, Porter Road, has some interesting cuts and holiday bundles, while old standby Rastelli’s will let you curate a box of meat and seafood to send. See our favorite online butchers to find a little something meaty to gift to your favorite carnivore.
Bonus: When you sign up to try ButcherBox they often reward you with free steaks or a year or free bacon for life. You can pause or cancel if you’re not loving it.
Just ask CNET contributor and certified sommelier Pamela Vachon: This wine club is a shelf above the other subscriptions she’s tried. The Waves specializes in natural, organic wine and curates monthly sends to you or your giftee and the quality is extraordinary.
Subscriptions start at about $33 per bottle. While the cost is significantly more than some other bottle clubs we’ve looked at, The Waves chooses wine of a caliber to match someone ready to take their habit to another level. You can also skip the subscription and buy three-bottle bundles for around $105.
Read our full review of The Waves wine club here.
Spice is the backbone of any great food I’ve ever had. As a person who cooks often but doesn’t have great access to fresh spices, I can say I would personally love getting these.
Raw Spice Bar sends 2 ounces of a single spice or a spice blend such as Indian garam masala or Japanese furikake. Plus, you get chef-tested recipes to make with each one, all for just $15 a month. The best part is the spices come freshly ground, unlike that stuff you get at the supermarket. And believe me, they will be able to tell the difference.
Baking bread may be trendy, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. Wildgrain understands and will send a monthly drop of expertly baked sourdoughs, multigrain, baguettes, croissants and quality pasta to a carbivore on your list. The bread comes frozen with specific instructions to reheat. I found that most of the loaves in my box turned out better than the grocery store selection and unless you live near a good bakery, Wildgrain may be the next best thing.
Boxes range from $69 to $109 (shipping included) and include as many as three loaves of bread, two boxes of pasta, four pastries and 10 small desserts like apple pie bites or tartlets.
Wine may seem like the fallback gift with a, perhaps rightful, reputation as impersonal. Winc, like a few of the other wine clubs, is hoping to change that by delving deep inside your palate and making ordering wine by mail an engaging experience. If there’s someone on your list you suspect would love to learn more about wine or their own preferences — strange as that may sound — a Winc subscription is a great place to start. The company starts you off with a profile and palate analysis, and then sends wines it thinks you’ll like. Each time you rate them so the shipments from various producers start to jibe better with your taste.
Winc monthly memberships start at an affordable $60 (plus $9 shipping) for three bottles a month. You can buy a gift card for as few or as many months as you’d like to bequeath, or just send a one-time shipment of wine. Who doesn’t love that?
Everything I’ve ever ordered from Fulton Fish Market online has been fresh, and when you’re talking seafood that’s about as important as it gets. For someone without a good fish market in their neighborhood, some quality fish by mail from this trusted fishmonger based in New York City is a total treat.
You gift your person a seafood subscription aka “The Fish Drop” and Fulton will send a monthly, bimonthly or weekly curated box of fish starting at $93 a month for four fresh 6-ounce portions.
Read more: Best Seafood Delivery Services
The best thing about Mouth is the seemingly endless options for gift boxes, baskets subscriptions and more. I’d venture to guess that even if you’re not sure what food gift you’re looking for, you’re still bound to find it in the sprawling online marketplace of quality eats. Mouth has monthly subscriptions for everything from pickles to cocktails, jerky and general snacks. You can also peruse the gifts, where there are even more options like a Sunshine in a Box kit or a Bloody Mary Cocktail Kit.
If you’re too busy to plan a cross-country road trip to nosh on all the best eats this land. has to offer, Goldbelly has a backup plan and you’ll spend way less on gas. This is the Best of Goldbelly subscription and it includes three months of curated monthly boxes with some truly legendary food from places like New York’s Magnolia Bakery or the famed Russ & Daughters deli.
Each delivery is different and they can’t be modified, but that’s really the fun of it and Goldbelly does a great job of making sure everything is packaged safely and securely. Three months of the Best of Goldbelly is $249.
Hot sauce people are very serious about the stuff and Fuego Box makes a perfect gift for anyone who is a bit of a hothead. Fuego Box’s hot sauce subscriptions start at $13 a month for one sauce — although $30 a month for three bottles is for sure the better deal.
There are also plenty of one-off gift boxes like this one with hot honey, peach habanero hot sauce and spicy garlic seasoning. Plus, Fuego Box is a small business that supports other small businesses, so you can feel good about that.
You have some options when it comes to tea subscriptions to give as a gift. I tried five earlier this month and one stood out as a particularly good one to gift. Tea Runners does an especially nice job with its curated selections or ones based on your taste preferences. And the monthly mailers are put together especially well, wrapped in tissue paper all inside charming boxes. Gift subscriptions for Tea Runners start at $22 and go up from there depending on how many boxes you get.
This is one for someone you really like. Or for someone who really likes tasting new whiskeys — and hopefully both. Flaviar sends include tastings and full bottles. Flaviar starts at $51 a month for the Basic membership and goes up from there.
You can also nab Flaviar’s limited-edition whiskey advent calendar with 24 1.7-ounce pours of whiskies and whiskeys from all over the world. It’s on presale now for $250 and typically sells out every year.
There are dozens of cheese subscriptions but Curdbox has consistently been one of my favorites. The service sends monthly deliveries of three kinds of cheese (4 ounces of each) along with three pairings including fancy crackers, preserves, nut mixes and sweets from other small producers.
I think it’s well worth the $50 since you can easily spend that on three hunks of cheese at a gourmet cheesemonger. Choose a three-, six or 12-month plan for you or a special cheese-loving someone. Curdbox even curates a special Spotify playlist for each month’s box so you can rock out with your cheese block out.
While Curdbox gets my pick for most people, hardcore cheeseheads looking for rare and intense creations might prefer Murray’s cheese subscription. Iconic New York cheese shop Murray’s has a few subscription options to choose from if you want to hook someone up with impossibly good bries, blues and manchegos each month.
While we’re not talking about budget cheese here, you can prepay for three months of cheese deliveries for $175 total or go month-to-month for $58 every 30 days. Each shipment will include three to four expertly selected cheeses from the masters at Murray’s. I’ve personally tested the melty wares from Murray’s subscription and can confirm this is a choice food club to join.
Chocolate is about as safe as it gets, making this a great gift for someone you’re not sure what to buy — or a known chocolate lover, of course. Bar & Cocoa chocolate club will send some of the best bars in the biz (four full bars per month, to be exact) and we’re not talking mass-produced Hershey here either. Some of the premier chocolate producers include Amano, Chocolate Madagascar and A. Morin. All are ethical, sustainable and eco-conservative. Like I said — the good stuff.
A three-month subscription starts at $135 total but you can spring for a six or 12-month run and any of them can be canceled at any time.
Shaker Spoon sends all the ingredients (minus the booze) packaged for you to make interesting cocktails. What’s included would be really tricky to find anywhere locally so you’re having drink-making fun with some truly unique ingredients. We’re talking artisan cherry-vanilla bitters, pineapple shrub and a spritz bottle of white sage hydrosol.
There are recipes for each themed box including Fall for Mezcal or All Eyes on Rye but you can freestyle with the ingredients too. Each box is about $59 (cheaper if you gift more than one month or subscribe). Either way, it’ll lend plenty of cocktail inspiration to the budding bartender on your list.
