It’s the holiday season, friends, and that means one thing around these parts—gift guides aplenty, each more indispensable and authoritative than the last. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll be moved to e-commerce. This is the Sprudge 2014 Holiday Lifestyle Gift Guide.
Monarch Methods Copper Kettle—$159 CAD Up your kettle game with this stunning design piece.
More than a pound of copper went in to making this stunning kettle from Monarch Methods, designed and made by Chris Chekan in Toronto. This is a geek’s dream, basically, and has a whole bunch of features for you to debate the efficiency of and nerd out about. Do you want a kettle that gets compliments and makes you stand out? This is that kettle.
Holiday Gift Pack by Spyhouse Coffee—$78—Does this gift pack have totes? Totes!
Get some goodies under the tree this year from Minneapolis, Minnesota’s own Spyhouse Coffee. This bundle features a dashing black Spyhouse tote, your choice of Spyhouse coffee, a classic diner mug, plus two gorgeous coasters and a keychain from Leather Works MN.
Keep Cup Brew x Olympia Coffee Roasters—$34.95—For those who like it hot…and want to keep it that way!
What do Melbourne, Australian and Olympia, Washington have in common? This hot Olympia Coffee Roasters/Keep Cup collabo, featuring Keep Cup’s glass Brew vessel emblazoned with the OCR logo.
New Harvest Coffee Roasters Monster Icon Plush—$25 —For the coffee-loving monster in your life.
This little monster is plush, red, and holding a coffee cup. We can relate to this little monster. Buy this as a holiday gift, and watch the recipient freak out. There should be more coffee plushies in the world.
Joe Coffee Gift Card—prices vary—For those bound for Manhattan…or just dreaming of it.
Unless you’re trapped in the Cloisters or something, if you’re on Manhattan, you’re within striking distance of one of Joe’s 10 locations. That makes this gift card super practical for friends that live and work in New York, while making for a whimsical gift suggestion for the rest of the world. Just keep this card in your wallet—all roads lead to New York, after all, and you’ll need coffee upon arrival.
Irving Farm City Never Sleeps Set—$32—Luxury on a budget for the big city.
A very reasonable $32 gets you a beautiful tote bag by BAGGU, a coffee-infused horchata chocolate bar from Raaka Chocolate, and a 12oz bag of beans from Irving Farm. Great price for a sweet little bundle.
Verve Farmlevel/Streetlevel Crewneck Sweatshirt—$35—From our personal stash and thereby recommended.
It may not be the flashiest item from Verve’s excellent street wear collection—that would be the Wave Trucker Hat, or perhaps the California Dreamin’ Tee—but hear us out, because this grey sweatshirt is the secret heavy hitter in Verve’s lineup. This is *the* perfect at-home grey sweatshirt, comfy and snuggly and even more comfortable the longer you wear it. You will love this sweatshirt. Recommended!
Peace Coffee Puddy Tats In Love Hoodie—$45—These cats are in love with each other, and you love them for it.
THESE CATS ARE HOLDING HANDS, PEOPLE. What else do you need to know? Peace Coffee’s hoodie is a front runner in this year’s hoodie arms race. You will not be disappointed in purchasing this. Just look at the logo:
It’s a buy!
ReAnimator Coffee T-shirt—$20—You will get like 10 million compliments on this shirt.
Philadelphia’s Reanimator Coffee has one of the coolest logos in the business, no bones about it. Now that logo is available in t-shirt form, in sizes from women’s S to men’s XL. Mark our words: this is the stuff of a thousand nice compliments. Recommended!
This Incredible St. Ali Christmas Pudding Contest —$65 AUD—Figgy pudding and a chance for glory.
It’s a delicious figgy pudding, sure, but it’s also a chance to win free brunch for a year from St. Ali, or a whole year’s worth of coffee deliveries for those unlucky enough to not reside in Melbourne. We got so excited about this gift we wrote a whole feature about it.
Stumptown x Mazama Stoneware Mug—$38—Beautiful piece from some Portland craftspeople.
You could think of Mazama as like a Portland version of Heath Ceramics, and that wouldn’t be too far off, but this likeminded group of “designers and domestic manufacturers” are making their own history from scratch up here in Oregon. This collabo between Mazama and Stumptown is a home run, and the resulting mug—wheel-thrown and made of vitrified speckled brown stone—is waiting to become your new morning favorite. Recommended!
Dogwood Coffee Company Snow Hat—$18—Be less cold and yet, look cool. [THIS PRODUCT IS SADLY SOLD OUT.]
Dogwood’s based in Minneapolis, so you know they know a thing or two about being cold. From their website to their tasting notes to their merch, Dogwood’s design style is singular, memorable, and just a tad oddball—we’re fans.
Incredible Marmot Sweatshirt by Olympia Coffee Roasting Company—$39.95—Hey, nice marmot.
The official Washington State Land Mammal is the Olympic Marmot, a noble and adorable creature that lives high in the Olympic Peninsula, not too far from the town of Olympia itself where Oly Coffee calls home. We just can’t, basically, with this sweatshirt—look at how cute the marmot is. How have you not bought one of these already? What is wrong with you?
La Marzocco GS3 from LM At Home—starts at $6900—Imagine the elegance. It can be yours.
Or you could blow off the whole “buying gifts for other people” and “having a family Christmas” thing and buy one of these beauties for yourself. Just think of it: La Marzocco’s spunky little GS3, outfitted to your formal requirements, occupying a place of great honor on your countertop. You’ll never have to leave the house again—but you may have to kick some people out.
Counter Culture Coffee x Espro Engraved Press—$99.95—Sterling luxury and a commitment to quality.
The Espro Press brings a refined cup profile and easy clean-up to the traditional French press paradigm. Counter Culture Coffee are specialty coffee industry leaders in the United States. Put the two together and you’ve got a really beautiful product. The press is made in Canada, and engraved with guidance by Counter Culture in Durham, North Carolina. Recommended!
EspressoParts Iconic Wrench Logo Mug—$8—A mug that’s like a hug.
This mug is fine—it’s better than fine, it’s great, actually, and you will enjoy drinking coffee out of it. But there’s some subtle psychology happening here, wherein we sincerely doubt your ability to click that EspressoParts link and come away *only* purchasing a mug. This place is like the Amazon of coffee, from gaskets to custom espresso machine set-ups and everything in-between. You will find something of interest to purchase at Espresso Parts, a company we’ve been proudly partnered with since 2009.
Ceremony Coffee Cupping Spoon T-Shirt—$18—It’s not just any spoon on your shirt.
“Why is there a spoon on your shirt?”
“It’s like, a cupping spoon? It’s for cupping coffee.”
It can be you in the above dialogue, with purchase of Ceremony Coffee’s fabulous cupping spoon t-shirt! Show the world that you take cupping really seriously, and/or are a spoon enthusiast.
Panther Coffee Burlap Messenger Bag—$50—Miami style with a sense of place.
Miami’s own Panther Coffee has an excellent merch store, but we particularly like this burlap messenger bag, produced in Haiti by members of the Atelier Thevenet Women’s Artisan Cooperative. Visually distinctive and memorable stuff from the team at Panther.
Phil & Sebastian’s Dope Ampersand Tamper—$75—For your inevitable need to curate coffee collaboration.
For Calgary-based specialty coffee leaders Phil & Sebastian, designing an ampersand tamper (“tampersand”) makes perfect sense: it’s in their very company name. But for you, just think of all the partnerships and co-curations an ampersand tamper might portend! Coffee & chocolate, or coffee & cocktails, or coffee & music—there’s no end to the amount of things that look great after that “&” totem. Let this tamper spur your dreams and go forth into this bold world, armed to meet your destiny. Recommended!
Colectivo Coffee’s World of Apparel—prices vary—A holiday buffet of apparel from an industry design leader.
Few coffee brands do merch better than Colectivo, boasting one of the industry’s liveliest design styles supported by an in-house art team. There’s something for everyone in the Colectivo apparel store, including hoodies, t-shirts, hats and scarves. Dig in.
Five Senses Hoodie Collection—prices vary—Stop just talking about Australian coffee and start buying their merch.
Knowing about Australia’s coffee scene is super *in* right now for American and Europrean coffee types. Why not put your money where your mouth is by rocking a 5 Senses branded hoodie? “They’re a really great coffee brand in Australia,” you’ll tell people, “based in Melbourne and Perth.” Look at how cultural you sound!
Coffee Supreme Ocean T-Shirt—around $34 USD—The coffee T-shirt you might actually wear.
Sporting an Escher-like graphic in gray on white, this t-shirt from Kiwi coffee & design wonks Coffee Supreme may well be the one coffee garment you actually wear in real life. Disorienting and beautiful, it’s the rare shirt that also makes for a tasteful conversation piece. Also available in women’s sizes. Recommended!
Perfect Coffee Subscription—starts at $15 per month—Pack light and take great coffee home for the holidays.
The debut of Perfect Coffee was one of our biggest stories in 2014, and the holidays are a perfect time to get started. Perfect coffee pouches snuggle up nice and neat in your luggage, and with its patented pre-ground technology, you’ll never have to resort to your mom and dad’s blade grinder again. Currently featuring fine roasters like Chromatic, Blue Bottle, Stumptown, and more.
Populace Coffee & Beer Hoodie—$29—For those who enjoy both coffee and beer.
Do you love coffee? How about beer? If you answered in the affirmative to those questions, have we got the hoodie for you. Populace Coffee’s distinctive design makes a bold statement about your daily beverage choices that leaves little room for misinterpretation. “Coffee for breakfast, beer for dinner”—you have been given your new mantra.
Ceramic Kalita “Pelican Pot” from Wrecking Ball Coffee—$74.95—The new hotness.
This induction-safe ceramic pot from Kalita can be used in place of a more traditional brass or steel gooseneck kettle, and adds a touch of elegance to any coffee service. This item only recenlty became available for North American distribution and is being proudly sold by the Wrecking Ball Coffee web shop. The golden pelican sticker is removable, but why on earth would you want to?
Ritual Coffee Seasonal T-Shirt—$20—When you want to wear a coffee shirt without it being obvious.
Sometimes you want to rock a coffee shirt, but you don’t want to be all like, *COFFEE* about it. This t-shirt takes a more subtle approach: designed by Jen Kruch and printed on maroon heather, your friends might mistake it for a vintage folk band album cover, or some other hippy San Francisco somesuch from a bygone era. Only you will know the truth.
Go Get Em Tiger Swag Bro Snapback—$21—Swag swag swag swag.
Do you love swag? No. Do you need swag? Let us ask you a frank and honest question: is there a lack of swag in your life? Do you need to be more swagged out, not less? Then buy this hat already.
Greenway Coffee Subscription—$50—Get to know one of America’s best small roasters.
At this point you are probably swagged within an inch of your life, but there’s one more purchase we’d recommend, and it’s a sincere one: Houston’s Greenway Coffee are one of our favorite American microroasters, and this subscription package means you can get acquainted with them from anywhere in the continental United States. You’ll enjoy this coffee!
