You don’t need to wait for a special occasion to treat your loved ones. If you’re looking for gift ideas for your favorite people, consider a gift basket. While gift cards and flowers are nice, you can’t go wrong with an edible gift basket — especially if the person you’re shopping for is a regular chef or food connoisseur. From pastries to cheese to chocolates and more, we rounded up the best gift baskets to gift your loved ones.
To help you find the best gift baskets for 2025, we nibbled our way through a variety of tasty treats — all in the name of research. It’s a tough job, isn’t it? The items below cater to different preferences and tastes — you just need to choose a theme. If you’re shopping for someone who loves sweets, you can’t go wrong with the delightfully delicious cookies from Levain Bakery. Is your recipient of choice more into savory foods? Perhaps a Momofuku ramen pack or charcuterie box will be the winning ticket. From brand-new collections to tried-and-true classics, we’ve got the best gift baskets for every palate. Don’t take our word for it. Start scrolling and pick the perfect present.
Best gift baskets overall
When it comes to edible gifts, Harry & David is a classic choice. The company is known for its gorgeous boxes of juicy pears, but you can find much more that’ll please even the pickiest palate. We’re fans of Harry’s Gift Box, which offers all the greatest hits at an affordable price. For $60, you get:
- A half-dozen pears
- Moose Munch popcorn
- Hickory-smoked summer sausage
- Sharp white cheddar cheese
- Mixed nuts
This one gets props from our team for including a bottle of Veuve Clicquot, a champagne that instantly elevates any gift basket. The McCreas caramels, among other goodies, are a nice touch too. This sophisticated gift basket will make a loved one feel special no matter the occasion, whether you’re celebrating a birthday, the holidays, or just saying, “thank you.”
Zingerman’s is a beloved Michigan brand, but since it ships throughout the US for free, these gift boxes can be enjoyed by all. The Weekender Gift Box is the most popular option. The colorful box contains an assortment of sweet and savory treats, including bread, cheese, beef sticks, coffee cake, peanut brittle and more. Everything we sampled had held up well during shipping and arrived fresh, with flavors that invoke the Midwest. We liked that there were instructions on the baked goods about freezing them if you weren’t planning to eat them right away.
New York’s Manhattan Fruitier is known for its thoughtfully curated gift baskets, and this fruit and snacks tower is no exception. Inside this snack tower you’ll find a delightful assortment of its most popular items, from fresh fruit, to chocolate covered orange slices and pretzels, to an assortment of nuts, trailmix and more.
Best breakfast gift baskets
Give your friends and loved ones a taste of Southern comfort. Callie’s Hot Little Biscuit is based in Charleston, S.C., and delivers sweet and savory buttery biscuits straight to your door. Biscuits arrive fully cooked and frozen, so all you need to do is pop them in the oven whenever you’re ready for buttery biscuit goodness. We tried the Charleston Cravings Biscuit Sampler (linked below) and especially enjoyed the sausage biscuits and the pimento cheese.
Start their morning off the right way with flaky, buttery croissants hot out of the oven. This mixed assortment of 12 pastries will transport your friends or loved ones straight to Paris with each buttery, crisp bite. Each box includes an assortment of chocolate croissants, au beurre croissants, almond croissants, kouign-amann batons, chocolate kouign-amann and pain aux raisins. The pastries arrive frozen, so you can defrost them one at a time or eat as many as you want, which may well be all of them.
Carb lovers will swoon for this collection of English muffins from Model Bakery. These are the English muffins that Oprah confessed she has specially flown in from Napa Valley. Goldbelly offers a variety of options. A package of 12 muffins with a jar of seasonal preserves costs $60.
If your gift recipient has a soft spot for East Coast classics, a New York bagel box is the way to go. This curated selection from legendary Russ & Daughters includes some of the city’s finest hand-rolled bagels, creamy spreads and exquisite Nova lox to layer on top. Finishing touches include a rich chocolate babka, a bag of Private Blend coffee and a Russ & Daughters ceramic mug to enjoy it in style.
Best savory gift baskets
Whether you want to impress everyone at a party or indulge someone who lives afar, a charcuterie board from Boarderie is an ideal choice. These best-selling boards are expertly crafted using premium ingredients, including specialties like black truffle salami, merlot pecorino, creamy aged gouda, and dried fruit such as hand-cut Turkish figs. Everything is thoughtfully prearranged and ready to serve. Just pop the cellophane wrappers off.
Classic cheese and charcuterie boards start at $129. Holiday boards start at $139, but you’ll want to order yours quickly as these tend to sell out.
If you’re gifting a cheese-lover, you can’t go wrong with a delivery from Jasper Hill Farm. The Vermonter includes three lovely Vermont-specific cheeses (Whitney, Harbison and Cabot Clothbound Cheddar) plus Brewer’s Sea Salt Crackers and Squirrel Stash Nuts.
Olympia Provisions has packed bites inspired by the best of Europe into this tasty box of snacks. Salami made in the styles of France, Italy, Spain and Greece is the main event, but there’s also paté, a wedge of cheese, honey, pickled beets, crackers, hazelnuts, olives and a mini mustard in this heavenly package. You may want to sample some of this gift before you send it out.
It’s only fitting that a “beehive” crate would come with a jar of luscious honey. This gift crate actually gets its name because it’s packed with all sorts of cheeses from Utah-based Beehive Creamery. Our favorite is the Seahive cheese, made from cow’s milk and rubbed with sea salt and honey. Overall, this crate offers a nice blend of curated snacks and aesthetic appeal.
Best sweet gift baskets
We love these massive cookies from New York’s Levain Bakery. One cookie goes a long way, and if you pop it in the oven for a few minutes, it comes out with a marvelous ooey, gooey center. Each batch of cookies arrives thoughtfully wrapped with cellophane and ribbons and comes packed in a beautiful blue box with a personal message. Get a four-pack for $29, an eight-pack for $49, or a 12-pack for $79.
Oregon-based Salt & Straw churns out deliciously fresh ice cream using local and sustainable ingredients, and as ‘s David Watsky noted, “it’s become something of a staple on the West Coast.” But wherever your gift recipient lives, they’ll appreciate incredibly inventive flavors like honey lavender, blackberry tamales, and cinnamon and honey fried chicken. You can buy curated packs or make your own selections and mix and match flavors. A minimum order is five pints for $75.
Our office is dangerously close to legendary chocolate shop Recchiuti, located in San Francisco’s Ferry Building. That means that luckily for us, we’ve gotten to sample plenty of the company’s signature chocolates and creative flavors, including bergamot tea, fleur de sel caramel and currant cognac. You can purchase a mixed assortment of chocolates starting at $32, or the company also sells smaller packs of specialty items such as peppermint thins, Pates de Fruits and candied orange peels.
This option will go over especially well with children. There are four gift boxes filled with different chocolate treats from the famous candy emporium Dylan’s Candy Bar. Chocolate-coated pretzels, milk chocolate sandwich cookies, rainbow milk chocolate nonpareils and more will make their day.
Best unique gift baskets
The flavors of the storied Momofuku restaurant and culinary brand are now available at home, and this gift box doesn’t disappoint. Chef David Chang includes his faves: five servings of Soy & Scallion Noodles, Chili Crunch and tamari sauce, plus Spicy Seasoned Salt. Pro tip: If you haven’t tried the spicy-crunchy chili oil, you’re missing out. It has a delightful crunch with just the right amount of heat. You can add it to any dish to elevate your meal, from ramen to grilled chicken to bagels.
Think outside the (gift) box and give beans. Everyone (including O, the Oprah Magazine) has been raving about Rancho Gordo beans, so this is a great gift option for cooks in the know. Included are six bags of the company’s all-time favorite beans, including cooking instructions and tips.
Actual whiskey is not included in Man Crates’ Whiskey Appreciation Crate, but so many other things are. A personalized decanter and glasses, for starters. Your lucky giftee will also find ice sphere molds, coasters, savory snacks and even a pocket-sized whiskey-tasting journal to record their notes about favorite drams.
What makes the perfect gift basket?
The perfect gift basket depends on who you’re buying for, but there are a few general things to keep in mind. You’ll want a gift basket that has a good variety of high-quality products, rather than a few eye-catching items and a bunch of filler items that no one really wants. You’ll also want to make sure you’re getting a good value. Of course, you might pay a bit of a premium to have the company curate and assemble a gift basket or box for you, but make sure that the value of the items included isn’t drastically below the cost of the final basket. You don’t want to be spending $150 on a gift basket that’s only worth $50.
Where should I buy the best gift basket?
There are two main categories of the places to buy the best gift baskets. First are the national retailers, including Williams Sonoma, Goldbelly and Harry and David, which offer a lot of variety at different prices and ship pretty much anywhere in the U.S. The second is to check out individual retailers that you know your giftee loves to see what kinds of gift baskets or gift boxes they offer.
