Gift a celebration
Make your diwali gifting truly special with these fun ideas, such as zucchini tea cakes, healthy dry fruit chocolates, exotic tea hampers and more.
Te.Cha Tea Boutique
Skip the typical sugary sweets and gift a tea hamper instead. At Te.Cha, Ahmedabad's first luxury tea boutique, owners Avi and Rishabh Duggar have curated a collection of exotic tea blends that make for thoughtful and memorable gifts. Try their moonshine geranium tea, a delicate white tea from the Nilgiri mountains blended with geranium flower and packed with antioxidants.
If you're putting together a hamper, get a mix of different varieties -- the Darjeeling imperial is a classic that's light on the palate; the Kashmiri kahwa is perfectly blended with spices and rose petals to make it a comfort drink for the winters. Don't miss the lavender blossom, the signature blend for Diwali which has subtle aromas of rose petals and lavender buds or the silver needle, a champagne coloured tea made up of soft leaf buds with a mellow taste. The gift packs have an assortment of 10 green and black teas. To complete the experience, they even have a bright red cup, a travellers flask and a kettle and infuser that you can add to your gift.
At G-12, Galaxy Bazaar, NR Gopinath Society, Vastrapur
Details Techatea.com
Taking its name from The Hamsa, skincare brand Hamsa offers face scrubs and cleansers, body butters, lip balms, soaps and hair balms. Entrepreneur Foram Gandhi, 27, has curated a collection of exotic scrubs depending on the skin type-an orange green tea blend for normal skin, a rose hibiscus for dry skin and a bergamot scrub for those with oily skin.
Price Rs 350 to Rs 1,000Details facebook.com/Hamsaproducts Tel 9428493567
At Busy Bee Bakers, Honey Rodrigues customises her goodies to suit the clients palate. So, she has chocolate fudge, brownies, cupcakes, cake pops, macaroons and dessert jars that come in varied flavours such as tiramisu, mango, blueberry cheesecake and caramel. They have different sizes-small, medium and big ones with an assortment of goodies in each. She thoughtfully makes small sizes-mini cupcakes and cake pops and small macaroon jars that make for good gifts in hampers.
Tel 8511497744
Hampers start at Rs 500
Their website tempts you into trying almost everything on the menu, with delectable pictures of a chocolate orange liquid jar, red velvet chocolate filled cookies and cashew bites, among others. So, when you're packing a festive hamper for a friend who is a chocoholic, don't miss the offerings by Ombre, a dessert brand by baker and entrepreneur Dharmaja Patel. Jars are the flavour of the season so try the liquid chocolate jars that can be spread on cookies and crackers or drizzled on fruits.
The Diwali collection features a generous dose of chocolate-almond truffles, paan chocolates and dried fruits coated in rich chocolate. They don't use artificial flavours-the paan has actual mukhwas, the rose and pista sweet is filled with gulkand. The hampers are customised so you can throw in your favourite food into their neatly packed hampers that can be personalised with a company logo or a message. If you are visiting someone for Diwali, try buying their motichur laddoo cheesecake which doesn't go into hampers because of its rather short shelf life.
Hampers start at Rs 200
Details ombre.co.in
Tel 7600002020
Get creative with these tea cakes in offbeat but delicious flavours. The Mad Oven by Roma Kastia introduced these tea cakes to Ahmedabad two years ago. While she usually bakes in a 500 gm loaf, for gifting bulk orders, she also makes them in 250 gm loaves. If you're headed for a Diwali visit, pick her no-bake, eggless cheesecakes that come in a variety of flavours such as a classic orange zest, sea salt caramel, toffee sauce, lemon curd, Nutella nutties crunch and the India-meets-the-west Boondi cheesecake or a gulab jamun pistachio option.
Price Rs 800 for 500 gm of teacake
Tel 9909903856
Details facebook.com/themadoven
Wagh Bakri, Gujarat's own tea brand, has launched a range of rather offbeat iced tea flavours that could add variety to your gift packs. Aloe vera, known for its health and skin enhancing properties, combines with litchi and green tea in a recently launched blend. Other options in their premix boxes include lemon, orange, peach, khus and saunf. Go for their neatly packed gifts in elegant wooden boxes.
Starts at Rs 75
Details buytea.com
Spice up your gifts with attractive little cakes in jars, mendicants and chocolate truffles in flavours such as hazelnut, orange, mango, strawberry and the good old vanilla. Entrepreneurs and chocolate makers Shital and Rashmi Chheda have a range of goodies that can go into your personal or corporate gifts. Their speciality however is fudge-so stock on some delicious walnut fudge. Besides this, there's stuffed dates, almond crunch, disks of pure cocoa studded with nuts for the right crunch and a dose of good health. And if you're watching your calories, opt for their artful preparations made with nuts and fruit.
Boxes start at Rs 430
Details rashisfudge.com
With aromatherapy and essential oils making their way into people's homes, attractive diffusers with oils to match, will make for a memorable gift. Soulflower has launched flower diffusers that double up as decorative pieces. The ceramic diffusers come in four varieties-orange, lemongrass, lemon and lavender with a bottle of the same flower aroma oil. The Diwali gift packs come with t-light candles and a coaster.
Price Rs 1,000
Details soulflower.biz