Our friends at The Republic Of Tea have created this Christmas-red mulled apple-hibiscus cider, which gets its color from hibiscus tea. (You can buy The Republic Of Tea’s hibiscus tea online.)

Ingredients
For one large mug or two cups:

Individual-portion boxes of original Saratoga
Chips make great stocking stuffers and party
favors. Photo by Jaclyn Nussbaum | THE
NIBBLE.

Our second group of recommendations focuses on savory gifts: coffee and tea, condiments, cured meats, seafood and snacks—including the original potato chip recipe in a reproduction of the historic box in which it was sold, in 1853.

Prices start at $10.99, with most items under $40.00.

There’s still plenty of time to order gifts for Christmas delivery.

Take a look at the gourmet gifts.

See last week’s selection of sweet gourmet gifts.

Nothing picks up the flavor of a mousse recipe—be it chocolate, coffee, raspberry or other favorite—than a spirit or liqueur (liqueur is a spirit that has been sweetened with flavors, oils and/or extracts).

We always add a tablespoon of cherry, coffee or orange liqueur to chocolate mousse. In the recipe below, SKYY vodka replaces cherry liqueur with its cherry vodka.

You can try other flavor-infused vodkas with the recipe—orange or espresso, for example—but first try:

SKYY Infusions Cherry Vodka Chocolate Mousse

Kids might prefer a box of chocolate-covered cherries, but adults tend to favor cherry-vodka-spiked chocolate mousse. If you’re making dessert for both kids and adults, split the batch before you add the vodka.

And should you happen to have a box of chocolate-covered cherries, add one to each plate as “the cherry on the cake.”* Serve a shot of cherry vodka or cherry liqueur with the mousse.

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

1. Place the semisweet chocolate in a large bowl in the microwave. Microwave on high for 1 minute, give the chocolate a stir, then microwave for another 30 seconds until completely melted. Set aside.

2. In a clean bowl, beat the egg whites with an electric mixer at high speed until it holds medium peaks. Set aside.

3. In a chilled clean bowl, beat the cream with an electric mixer at high speed until it holds medium peaks. Mix the yolks and vodka into the melted chocolate. Fold in 1/3 of the egg whites to lighten the mixture; add the remaining 2/3 of the egg whites and fold gently to keep the air in the beaten egg whites.

4. Add the whipped cream and fold in gently, taking care not to over mix. Spoon the mousse into 4 martini glasses.

5. Using a vegetable peeler, shave chocolate on top of the mousse. Garnish with mint. Chill for at least 1 hour or up to a day ahead.

*An idiom for “something wonderful at the end of something good.” In French, it’s a direct translation, “la cerise sur le gâteau.”

More Mousse Recipes

Find more mousse recipes in our Desserts Section.

The obol you’re most likely to come across today is a clever polypropylene dish: Obol, the Never-Soggy Cereal Bowl.

Many of our friends and family start the day with a bowl of cereal. The tendency is to eat it faster than we’d like, because the cereal gets soggier the longer it sits in the milk.

Obol solves the problem by dividing a bowl into two sections: an upper area that holds the dry cereal, and a lower reservoir for milk. Scoop up a spoonful of cereal, then dip the spoon into the milk reservoir. You get a crisp bite of cereal every time.

Colors include blue, cranberry, green, orange, watermelon and white. At $19.99, it’s a great problem solver that you can buy online or in Brookstone stores.

Some NIBBLE staffers swear that they’d never buy an item that can only be used for one thing. So rest assured, Obol is versatile.

Use it for milk and cookies, soup and crackers, chips and salsa or anything you want to keep crispy to the last bite.

Obol is easy-to-hold with a non-slip grip and rim. It’s dishwasher-safe, BPA-free, unbreakable—and made in the USA.

If you’re giving Obol as a gift, package it with a box of your favorite whole-grain cereal. It’s an easy way to start eating healthier in the new year.

Chocolate peppermint Christmas tree
cookies. Photo courtesy Mackenzie Ltd.

They’re sugar cookies instead of our butter cookies recipe (sugar cookies use a different type of shortening and thus don’t have buttery flavor).

You can send these cookies ready-to-eat; or get out your Christmas tree cookie cutter and head back to our chocolate mint butter cookie recipe.

You can add crushed candy canes, as shown in the photo here; or use the dragées and sprinkles from the recipe.

See all of your favorite cookies—and discover new ones—in our Cookie Glossary.