Christmas is coming soon and, as you can see, I am just starting a series of articles on this theme. Today, I am going to make your mouth water (well, I hope so…) with my selection of gourmet products to enjoy during the holiday season.
Because personally, I think that one of the great pleasures of this festive period is gastronomy. It is the perfect opportunity to treat our taste buds and eyes to refined dishes that are often more expensive than what we usually eat. But hey, these are exceptional moments and you have to know how to enjoy them!
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Would you like a bit of caviar?
Before this winter, I wouldn’t have been able to tell you if I liked caviar or not. It is such an expensive delicacy that it’s quite unlikely you’d be able to taste enough of it to form an opinion. Well, now after a few tastings, I’ve made up my mind: I have expensive tastes and I really like caviar, especially Beluga, the most expensive (because it is rare) of them all.
Regarding caviar, you should know that the size and color of the eggs vary depending on the sturgeon species they are extracted from, but also on the preparation method and the selection of the eggs. These changes affect the taste and texture of the caviar. The price is obviously set according to the rarity of the production.
Like all seafood products, it is a dish that smells of iodine and salt, which might give you a hint about your taste preferences. Personally, I find it a very fine and flavorful delicacy, but I completely understand that some people don’t like it at all; when it comes to taste, we are all different.
- Prunier, the French caviar
For almost a century, Manufacture Prunier has been raising sturgeons (a single type, Acipenser Baeri) in the purest tradition in France and producing several varieties according to the grains and the preparation “recipe”.
While Prunier is an institution for seafood products, it is also one of the biggest names in the caviar sector due to the very high quality of its production.
Moreover, for the holiday season, Prunier offers LOVE gift sets, containing a 50-gram tin of caviar decorated with Yves Saint Laurent designs, a 20cl vodka from the collaboration between Prunier & La Distillerie de Paris, two mother-of-pearl spoons, and two “Shot” glasses (price: €189).
The 4 varieties from the house: Tradition, Heritage, Paris (my favorite), and Saint-James
- Petrossian Caviar
The Petrossian house is a true institution in terms of caviar. Its history dates back to the 1920s when two brothers of Armenian origin, Melkoum and Mouchegh Petrossian, imported this product to Paris, which was very little known in France at the time, and founded the Petrossian Caviar company, which is now the world’s leading buyer of caviar.
The advantage of visiting a Petrossian boutique to buy caviar is the advice. Given the price of the product, it is better to be sure of your choice and not make a mistake. If you are a novice, this is the best way to know which caviar to buy according to your desires, the event, your budget…
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Foie Gras
, a brand specializing in products from the South-West, obviously offers a beautiful selection of plain foie gras but also truffle-infused this year. For my part, I admit that when it comes to foie gras, I’m a bit conservative and prefer the plain version.
The little extra: when you buy foie gras or a fresh product in a Comtesse du Barry boutique, it is sold in an insulated bag, which allows you to keep it at the right temperature, even if you are going to the theater afterward, like I was that night.
Price: €39.90 for 200g
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Christmas Teas
I am a tea lover, you’ve known that for a while, and I like to give quality tea to the people I love. The Christmas period is a great time to discover limited edition Christmas teas released by major houses and tea brands.
For example, I discovered and became absolutely hooked on Georges Cannon teas, which I’ve mentioned to you several times on the blog. This year, the tea house is offering a Christmas range, including Etoile du Sud (100g / €15), a rooibos with vanilla notes and gourmet aromas of honey and caramel.
For the first time, Thés de la Pagode (organic teas) are releasing a limited edition for Christmas, a Darjeeling black tea with notes of orange and chocolate.
price: €15.75 for a 90g metal tin of loose leaf tea
L’Autre Thé also offers a Christmas gift set for the holidays (€29), a journey of flavors to the four corners of France and the world, with 4 different teas: “Christmas in Paris”, “Christmas in Strasbourg”, “Christmas in Moscow”, and “Christmas Star”.
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Papillotes (Chocolates)
I don’t know if this is a tradition particularly rooted in the Lyon region, but I can’t imagine a Christmas without papillotes, just because it’s unthinkable in my family!
And then again, because of my Lyonnais origins, for me, papillotes mean Révillon, since the chocolatier also comes from the capital of the Gauls.
My little treat: eating the papillotes placed at the foot of the tree on Christmas morning while opening my presents with my parents.
Price for a bag of assorted chocolates: around €10.99
The Sève house, another Lyon institution, has wrapped its papillotes this year in riddles telling the stories of famous Lyonnais figures, in collaboration with the Fourvière Hôtel, whose rooms tell the history of the city of Lyon. In fact, hotel guests will discover them in their room as a welcome gift throughout the month of December.
The tip: if you collect the 12 different riddles from the papillotes, you can exchange them for a breakfast in the famous peristyle of the Fourvière hotel cloister (by reservation: contact@fourviere-hotel.com). This offer will be valid until April 2017.
Price: 250g tube, €25.30
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Les Délices Français Christmas Box
Les Délices Français offers a bimonthly box containing 5 to 7 products made in France that are emblematic of French gastronomic know-how.
This box, specially designed for the holiday season, offers: white chocolate-fennel appetizer balls from Bovetti, a duck breast terrine with honey from Maison Papillon, porcini mushroom and boletus pappardelle from Maison Pâtes Fabre, 3 apricot nonnettes from Maison Mulot & Petitjean, “Truffettes de France” fancy truffles from ChocMod, and Christmas tea in a ball from Maison Taillefer.
price: €29.90 + €5 shipping / box
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Some chocolate treats and other delicacies
Maison Puyricard offers Christmas ballotins with a selection of fine chocolates for the holidays
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The personalized message boxes from Jadis & Gourmande
Merry Christmas Box / 270g / €30.90
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Debout le Caribou, the cousin of the North American reindeer made entirely of dark and milk chocolate, a kit to assemble from Réauté Chocolat (price: €9.95)
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The Christmas Crunchy Chocolate gift set (price: €37.40) by Michel Cluizel and illustrated by Fabienne Legrand
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The Nutella collector’s Christmas jars (€5.17 for the big jar with the snowman; €1.79 for the screen-printed glass jar and €1.29 for the mini jar)
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Christmas drinks
Christmas is also the time for limited editions of Christmas beers, for example:
- The Polar Beer, a limited edition winter beer at FrogPubs.
- The Desperados Flare, a glittery version of the famous tequila-flavored beer (€1.89 per unit)
- The abbey beer Affligem invites you to rediscover its vintage Christmas cuvée (12x25cl pack €7.90)
- Another type of drink, coffee with the Christmas collector tins from Caffè Vergnano (by the way, I am giving away a tin at the end of the article for enthusiasts…). This Italian coffee brand has existed since 1882 and has been passed down for 4 generations now.
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Lanvin house chocolate snails
This gourmet tradition that dates back to my childhood is in a way my own madeleine de Proust. When I was little, every Christmas my grandmother would give me a box of Lanvin milk chocolate snails, and this tradition still continues today.
I always ate them very slowly (no more than one per day) so that they would last as long as possible.
This house, which has existed for more than 80 years now, remains for me the inimitable Christmas praline chocolate. Plus, this year the house is also making small chocolate ballotins (€3.25) to hang on the tree, as well as other chocolate gift sets.
Price for a 360g box of chocolate snails: €12.99
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GIVEAWAY:
To get this festive period off to a good start and to help you wait until Christmas, several brands are teaming up with the blog to give away some very beautiful gifts to my readers, all full of gourmet treats.
Prize #1 (1 winner): 1 set containing 5 bags of Révillon papillotes assortments (worth nearly €50).
- C’est Enfin Bientôt Noël – €10.99 for the 640g assortment
Milk Chocolate Caramel Shards Praline, Milk Chocolate Cookies Praline, Dark Chocolate Hazelnut Shards Praline, Dark Praline, Milk Chocolate Pure Almond Praline, Milk Chocolate Butter Caramel - Invitation au Voyage – €8.99 for the 375g assortment
Milk Chocolate Chinese Green Tea Ganache, Dark Chocolate Himalayan Salt Ganache, Milk Chocolate Pure Hazelnut Praline with Philippine Toasted Coconut Shards - Noël Provençal – €8.49 for the 360g assortment
Dark Chocolate Montélimar Nougat, White Chocolate Calisson Cream Ganache, Milk Chocolate Fig Ganache - Grands Caramels Lait – €8.99 for the 375g assortment
Blonde Caramel with Muscovado & A Touch of Salt, Brown Caramel – Costa Rican Rapadura, Dark Caramel – Mauritian Muscovado - Grands Pralinés Noir 70% – €8.99 for the 375g assortment
70% Dark Chocolate Pure Valencia Almond Praline, 70% Dark Chocolate Pure Roman Hazelnut Gianduja, 70% Dark Chocolate Pure Piedmont Hazelnut Praline
Prize #2 (1 winner) :
1 tin of 250g 100% Arabica ground coffee (worth €6.40), Christmas collector’s edition by Caffè Vergnano (Italy’s oldest coffee brand).
Prize #3 (1 winner) : 1 set with some new Milka Christmas products under a glass cloche (1 purple chocolate Santa Claus 175g, 1 box of Snowballs – these chocolate snowballs filled with milk mousse – and 1 chocolate snowman).
Prize #4 (1 winner): 1 super set of Lanvin chocolates with a box of milk chocolate snails, a box of exquisite arabesques, a box of gourmet magic, and a box of farandole.
To participate, simply leave a comment below this article telling me which prize(s) you are entering for and what foods you prefer to eat during these festive times.
A random draw from the responses to this question will determine the 4 winners of the prizes! Good luck to everyone and all I have left to do is wish you all a very good month of December!
Rules:
– Contest limited to Metropolitan France
– + 1 chance if you are a fan of the blog’s Facebook page; + 1 chance if you follow the blog’s Twitter page; + 1 chance if you follow the blog’s Hellocoton page + 1 chance if you follow the blog’s Instagram page + 1 chance for each share of the article (don’t forget to leave your usernames in your comment if you want to benefit from extra chances)
– 1 entry per IP address
– contest start date Monday, November 28, 2016 – deadline for participation Saturday, December 03, 2016 and results the next day on the blog in an update to this article.
Update of December 4, 2016:
Thank you all for your many entries, I see that you enjoyed this contest! Following the random draw, I announce that the winners of the different prizes are:
- LiliM81 for prize #1
- Catherine B. for prize #2
- EmilieTr for prize #3
- LinLin03 for prize #4
Congratulations, I will contact you by email shortly. Thank you all for your enthusiasm and loyalty!
Photo credits: Nicolas Diolez
