On the gift box, and why we did it that way
We get asked about the gift box a lot. Here's what's in it, why it's in it, and why we don't ship a fancier version.
From the kitchen · 3 min read
We resisted making a gift box for a long time. Everyone in food has one, and most of them feel the same — a box that's bigger than what's in it, a ribbon that's nicer than the product, and a little card with a font someone picked because it looked expensive.
We didn't want to be that. But we also wanted something that worked when you needed to give someone a gift in fifteen minutes and didn't want to think about it. So we built one.
What's in it
An Amber syrup, in the same bottle we sell on its own, paired with a small seasonal extra. The extra rotates — in the fall, that's usually a small jug of cider; in the spring, a tasting sampler of the other two grades; around the holidays, a hand-stamped tea towel from the kitchen.
Hand-packed in a single layer of stiff paper, tied with cotton twine, with a small card you can write on if you want. That's the whole gift box.
Why it's this way
Three reasons.
First, because the syrup is the gift. Anything bigger and the recipient ends up writing more thank-you for the packaging than the product. We've all received that gift.
Second, because we ship a lot of these. Holidays especially. The smaller and simpler the package, the more we can hand-pack in an afternoon. The fancier the packaging, the more it costs you. The math is straightforward.
Third, because we wanted something that would still look right four years from now. Trendy packaging ages badly. A kraft box with cotton twine has been correct for about a century.
“The syrup is the gift.”
If you want to make it more
You can. Most people don't, and that's fine. But if you want to add something at checkout, the handwritten note is real — Dave or someone at the kitchen writes it out by hand. We don't do the laser-printed-cursive thing.
If you want a larger gift, the sampler in the same packaging works. So does ordering the gift box and adding a separate cider or a second bottle of syrup; we'll pack them together. The corporate-gifting page exists for anyone needing more than ten gifts at once.
For most of what life requires of you in terms of giving — a thank-you, a hostess, a someone-who-already-has-everything — one gift box and a handwritten card does the work.
