Twenty foodie gifts from Cost Plus World Market

J. Wohletz

Chocolate liquor bottles mean it's Christmas time!

Cost Plus World Market is usually a one-stop gift shop for foodies, but during the holiday season it becomes a wonderland of seasonal edibles, drinkables and everything to create and serve them, including winter-themed cookware and dishes that you'll only use once a year. The prices are reasonable for imported merchandise -- which explains why it's so frickin' easy to drop a few bills and not even realize it until that pesky cash register spits out the numbers.

So I went, I shopped, I bought a lot of stuff, and then discovered the answer to an age-old holiday question: Are those shelf-stable Christmas cakes in the boxes any good? I also came up with a list of twenty foodie gifts available at Cost Plus -- including guesswork-free eggnog, bacon-flavored popcorn, chocolate donkeys and yellow snow that you can eat.

See also:
-Five perfect holiday wine gifts for every budget
-Medical marijuana holiday gift guide: High ho-ho-ho!
-Our favorite local culinary gifts of 2012: Spuntino's hot chocolate mix and salted caramel marshmallows

J. Wohletz

20) Nothing says holidays like mincemeat pies on sale.
It's possible that Cost Plus has had mincemeat pies all year, but nobody buys them unless it's December. It's also possible that not many people buy them now, since there is a mountainous display of them on sale.

J. Wohletz

19) Tiny tiramisu
Yes, it's a box of miniature dessert-flavored chocolates. Tiramisu is not the insanely popular dessert that it was in the '80s, but the box also holds tiny crème brûlée chocolates, as well as an after-dinner sweet that never goes out of style.

J. Wohletz

18) It's Hello Kitty...
It's not just pink hot chocolate, it's Hello Kitty pink hot chocolate, so it's a safe bet that kids will love this stuff. I bought a packet, took it home, followed the microwave instructions, and drank: The result was Easter egg pink and tasted exactly like melted cake frosting. Yep, kids will love this stuff.

J. Wohletz

17) Numi Flowering Tea Set
This tea set is pretty rad. It reminds me of that part in Sophia Coppola's incredibly underrated movie Marie Antoinette, when the doomed queen made flower tea. She got hauled off to prison later, and there was that whole guillotine thing, but it really wasn't the flower tea's fault.

J. Wohletz

16) Numi Artisan's Tea Blending Kit
Numi also makes a tea-blending kit that comes with a glass pot, bags and all sorts of teas, berries and herbs to mix and match and then flood with hot water. No, fellow Coloradans, there is no cannabis for sleepytime tea, but if you live here you probably already have some of that to add to the kit.