8 Last Minute "Of The Month" Gift Ideas

You’ve waited until the last minute to buy gifts but just can’t find the time. What do you do? Sure, one gift is good, but how about one gift plus ELEVEN MORE IMPLIED GIFTS?

Gifts “of the month” have a bad rap for being cheesy (heh), corny (hehe) or tasteless (hehe hehe) but the tasty gift offerings have snowballed in quantity, and quality as the e-food shopping landscape has expanded.

The best part is, you’re not necessarily beholden to buying 12 months of gifts: these foodie gifts are also offered in 1, 3, or 6 monthly subscription packages. Plus: no wrestling with wrapping for you!

Onward!

1. PieGram

Imagine a singing telegram, but with pie. The difference is, you never feel weirdly embarrassed for pie when it shows up on your doorstep. This adorable Midwestern company delivers hand-pies to your loved ones on the first Monday of every month.

Hand-hewn in small batches at Honeypie Café in Milwaukee, WI, these miniature pies get created with locally and regionally sourced ingredients. What’s even better is it’s insanely affordable: just $45 for a 3-month subscription.

2. Mouth

Mouth is a New York-based company that champions food made by people, not big business. Their packaging is stylish and fun, their food selection is surprising and fresh, and their passion for small-batch food makers is evident in their product.

Monthly subscriptions can specialize in anything from coffee to bacon to pickles to cookies, or the best of all the above. Their “Best of Mouth” monthly subscription boasts their latest discoveries combined with their all-time favorites, which may include Vermont goat milk caramel, PB&J candy bars, crunchy pickled cauliflower florets, and bacon-studded caramel corn.

Salivating yet? Us, too. (Wipes off keyboard.) Monthly subscriptions start at $45.

3. Skoshbox

We all need to bone up and face the facts: the Japanese know candy better than any of us. Maybe it’s that their packaging is a million times more kawaii than ours, but they’ve got the pre-diabetic-game on heavy lock.

At last, this company, founded by two Tokyo natives who moved to Hawaii and desperately missed their candy from home, created Skoshbox, which ships a box of Japanese sweets to your door every month. Plans start at just $10 per month!

4. Salt ‘n’ Straw

Okay, this one is dangerous. Best for a family of four or more unless you don’t necessarily want to recognize them at the next holiday party, the unparalleled ice cream company that recently moved from Portland to Los Angeles has a “Pint o’ the Month” club wherein they ship five pints of unique seasonal flavors every month.

All created with local ingredients, never hath an ice cream company so consistently produced flavors this ambrosial. Prices start at $65 per month, for someone you love very, very much: like, say, yourself. I mean your family. I mean yourself.

5. The Micro Beer Club

Got a pal that loves beer, but hates drinking what everyone else is drinking? You know, the snooty fashio-beer-sta in your crew? This club is THE gift for him or her.

This “Beer of the Month Club” has the most variety of all the beer clubs on the market (allegedly!), and prices are right: starting at $29 per month. The package includes beer news, brewery information, and beer tasting notes. Packages include four different beers (3 of each), from small-batch breweries around the country.

6. Taste Guru

My father began dating a woman, and once she revealed that she was a celiac, he paused, wondering how the relationship would work, and then quickly realized this meant he never had to share a bread basket again. He was elated.

Your gluten-free friend will be, too, when they receive this gluten-free snack box of the month from Taste Guru! Each box contains 12-15 different snacks and starts at just $24 per month. Also cool? For every box they send, they donate two meals to food banks across the U.S. ‘Tis the season for giving heartily!

7. Farm to People :::figure

For the friend that isn’t necessarily a Nabisco-freak, Farm to People creates monthly box subscriptions bursting with small-batch foods created by independent makers across America.

From a grow your own kale kit to acai pineapple fruit leather and back again to American dijon mustard, this company specializes in artisanal products using sustainable ingredients.

“The Casual Foodie” box includes 3-4 products each month at $30 per month and “The Food Critic” boasts 5-8 products each month at $50 per month.

8. Golden Coast Wine Club

The carry-all of gifts, wine, is a classic. Everyone loves wine, and even if you don’t LOVE it, every non-heathen should still have some on hand/tap to offer it to their guests. This domestic wine of the month club features a different California wine region each month.

Golden Coast chooses six small-production wines across all different styles and flavor profiles. On the first of the month, they notify you of the two wines they select for you (based on the taste profile you’ve given them), and you have two weeks to make changes to the selections until they ship them to you on the 15th. $40 per month for two bottles.

This list should cover just about every single foodie on your gift list this year! As a bonus, all of these are supporting independent farmers and food-makers across the country so you can pat yourself on the back, knowing you’ve done a gifting job very well done (but also super rare).