A big thankyou to Booths for sending me one of their Christmas Hampers to review recently. Booths are a company based in Preston specializing in luxury gifts and have quite an impressive range indeed, with everything from wines, coffees, chocolate hampers, alcohol baubles and more. To see the whole range do check out their website: https://gifts.booths.co.uk/
The hamper they sent me was the Luxury Christmas version, containing a varied selection of everything you could need for Christmas; from Christmas Cake Slices, Scottish Shortbread, Truffles, Coffee, Tea, Mulled Wine and more!
The hamper is all packed in a lovely wicker hamper, perfect to re-use for picnics. It's generously filled to protect the contents, with a festive message and a Booths themed bag on top. A nice touch!
The hamper is filled with an All Butter Scottish Shortbread assortment, as well as Iced Christmas Cake Slices. Both great quality products, with the shortbread being handmade from real butter - perfectly traditional. The Christmas cake slices are moist, fruity and with a lovely marzipan layer. Thankfully the icing isn't too thick so they're not overbearingly sweet like some Christmas cake slices can be!
No Christmas would be complete without wine, and luckily there's one of each variety: a red mulled wine and a white Pinot Grigio. Now I'm quite fussy with my wine, and usually prefer white over red, but on this occasion I couldn't get enough of this red Mulled Wine! I made it the traditional way, heating it gently on the hob and drinking it warm. Delicious! Perfectly warming and a real treat. The Pinot Grigio was good quality; nice and crisp and would be great with Christmas dinner, but it was a bit too strong for me. Although at that point I had drunk so much Mulled Wine maybe I couldn't judge it properly, haha!
The Milk Chocolate Anglesey Sea Salt Thins are made in Lancashire and are simple squares of chocolate with a subtle touch of salt. Delicious and very tasty, a simple but moreish combination - ideal for sharing around at Christmas.
The Breakfast Tea Bags are a mixture of Kenyan, Indian and Sri Lanken tea leaves and make for a crisp, flavoursome cuppa. Stronger than your average morning tea and a nice change for the Christmas holidays.
The Christmas coffee is made from small batch beans, hand roasted and packed in Preston. It's described as "a velvety dark coffee with chocolaty tones, perfect for after dinner, pre-party or the morning after". It's a good blend, rich and flavoursome but not bitter or burnt like some strong coffees can taste. I preferred it over the ones I usually buy from supermarkets, even the more expensive stuff from the likes of Waitrose.
The Winter Loose Leaf tea is a mix of malty Assam, smoky Lapsang Souchong, and delicate Ceylon. Now the first and last teas I love individually, but Lapsang Souchong is just a tea I cannot stomach so I had to pass on drinking this. Next!
The Marc De Champagne Truffles are hand crafted in Lancashire, containing a white chocolate champagne centre, rolled in icing sugar. And they're pretty bloomin' nommable! Gently boozy and not too overpowering (which spoils some alcoholic chocolates in my opinion), with the creaminess of the white chocolate complimenting the champagne nicely.
The Christmas Pudding is made with sultanas, cider and rum. I can't say how it tastes because I didn't open it yet - it's far too early! Needless to say I'm sure it's great quality.
Lastly, not something edible (although I'm sure some people like to nibble on tea towels?) the hamper has a Booths Tea Towel. Good quality and durable, these always come in handy during the festive season!
Well there you have it, a selection of delicious hand-made food and drinks perfect for a bumper Christmas! I can't imagine what more one would need for the festive season - this hamper makes an excellent gift for almost anyone. A big thank you to Booths for sending me this, it's been a great selection of foods I wouldn't normally get to try. Highly recommended!
To see the whole Booths gift range visit:
