Christmas gifts for coffee and tea lovers

Why coffee and tea work as Christmas gifts

A good present is one that gets used. Coffee and tea have that going for them: they are consumed and enjoyed rather than stored in a cupboard until someone feels guilty enough to bring them out. They suit almost any budget, they travel well by post, and they say something a gift card cannot, because choosing a flavour for somebody is a small act of paying attention.

They also work across the awkward gaps. The colleague you know only through meetings, the neighbour who fed the cat, the in-laws who already own everything: all of them drink something hot in the morning.

Choosing a gift for a coffee drinker

The one thing worth checking before you buy is how they actually make their coffee, because it decides what they can use.

• Bean-to-cup machine or grinder — whole beans. Anything else is a step backwards for them.
• Filter machine or cafetière — ground coffee, unless you know they own a grinder.
• Pod machine — stick to what fits their machine; a bag of beans will sit unopened.
• Not sure at all — a tasting or sample pack, or something that does not depend on a machine.

Roast level is the second question, and it is easier than it sounds. If they drink their coffee with milk or pull espresso, a darker roast will land well; if they drink it black and filtered, look at something lighter. Our dark roast and light roast pages explain the difference, and sample packs let them work it out themselves.

Choosing a gift for a tea drinker

Tea is more forgiving, because almost everyone has a kettle. The choice is mainly between convenience and ceremony. Loose-leaf tea is the better gift for somebody who enjoys the making of it and owns a pot or an infuser; tea bags and tea sticks are the better gift for a desk, a suitcase or a busy kitchen.

For flavour, winter blends tend to do the heavy lifting at this time of year: warm spice, apple, orange and darker fruit. Fruit tea, rooibos tea and chai tea are the places to look, and rooibos and most fruit blends contain no caffeine, which matters for an evening cup.

Gifts for staff and clients

Business gifting has its own rules. It has to be appropriate for everyone on the list, it has to arrive in one piece, and it has to look like a decision rather than a job someone rushed on the last afternoon. Coffee and tea clear all three, and they avoid the alcohol question entirely.

Quantity is usually the constraint. Work out the number first, settle on one or two options rather than a different thing for every person, and remember that a modest gift that suits the recipient beats an expensive one that does not. Our staff gifts pages are built around that, and jute gifts add packaging that looks the part without extra work.

Sending a gift by post

If the gift is going to an address rather than into a hand, the shape of the parcel matters. Mailbox gift sets are made to go through a letterbox, so nobody has to be at home and nothing ends up at a depot waiting to be collected in the week before Christmas.

Order earlier than feels necessary. December post is slower than the rest of the year everywhere, and a present that arrives in January has lost most of its point.

When you genuinely do not know

Some people are impossible to read, and guessing badly is worse than not guessing. Two honest ways out: a tasting pack, which turns the decision into part of the present, or the Café du Jour gift card, which arrives by post, hands the choice over completely and still shows you thought about where to send them.

A third option, if the gift is for a household rather than a person, is our mulled wine spice mix: loose spices to warm a pan of wine on a winter evening. It sidesteps the question of what they like to drink in the morning.

The rest of the gift range

Christmas is only one occasion, and most of what works in December works in March. Have a look at coffee gifts and tea gifts for the full picture, or start at gifts and work down. If the recipient is the sort who would rather have the kit than the coffee, the equipment section runs from grinders to pots.