Tote-ally Great Gifts for Mother’s Day

Welcome back to the CMB Blog! April absolutely flew by in a whirlwind: the store launched an in-store Beer and Cheese Happy Hour on Thursday nights, David travelled to California and China looking for and designing baskets for Holiday 2013, Jessica was accepted at University of California: San Diego, and Tina got married!

April was also a chance for us to create several new gift baskets and fill the pantry with recently arrived new products, including three Mother’s Day gifts that will delight your mom or the special mother-figure in your life on May 12th, 2013. One thing especially great about all of these gifts is that they each come with a tote bag, so, long after the contents have been consumed, your gift will be used and appreciated: now that’s a tote-ally awesome gift!

If your Mother’s Day celebration begins with breakfast (possibly in bed!), start with a wow factor: 12 ounces of freshly ground beans from La Colombe in our La Colombe Coffee Tote ($36)! La Colombe’s Corsica is a full-bodied, rich coffee that is the best-seller in our store, and served by some of New York’s finest restaurants, like Daniel and Le Bernardin, so your mom will feel special and invigorated! If you prefer to take your coffee in the afternoon, we’ve also included an assortment of Shortbread House of Edinburgh Shortbread Fingers. These buttery cookies are handmade in Scotland, and the assortment includes the classic Original as well as Shah Ginger and Chocolate Orange varieties. Of course, seeing that it is an international holiday, if you wanted to enjoy the shortbread for breakfast on the 12th, we certainly wouldn’t stop you! The jute-woven Chelsea Market Baskets rice tote that holds these CMB signature items is durable and natural with a purple contrast stitching that adds a fun pop of color. For a coffee drinker, this is a great gift to say “thank you!”

If tea is your mother’s drink of choice, then don’t worry; we’ve got you covered. With our Kusmi Tote, All About Tea ($89.00). Kusmi Tea comes from Paris, but they now have New York City outlets at the Plaza Hotel, on Madison Avenue, and in CMB; and the brand is about creating luxury comfort in the perfectly brewed cup of tea! This gift lets you sample a variety of their black tea flavors and comes with a mesh infuser for easy in cup brewing. If you’re celebrating with family, the Claro Glass Teapot in this gift allows you to steep more than one cup at a time, and with it’s stylish trim and glass sides, you’ll get to watch the process of tea leaves infusing water in minutes! Tea time wouldn’t be the same without some accompaniments, so this gift also includes: Prestat’s Velvety Milk Chocolate and Earl Grey Thins, and Cranberry Pistachio Biscotti from My Boy’s Baking. The bright, metallic tote that carries all these tea treats was designed by Kusmi and features their eye-catching logo. This is a taste-forward gift: both fashionably and for your palate!

Springtime in New York is the perfect time to shop at the City’s outdoor markets, except when you don’t have time to visit them all!  CMB has curatored Markets of New York ($45) with products that we think are exceptional. Coming from some of New York’s most prolific markets, including Union Square’s Greenmarket, Essex Street Market, Brooklyn Flea and Smorgasburg, and, of course, Chelsea Market! These are not tasting samples either, but the full-sized item or product that you would get if you had purchased it directly. From a green Chelsea Market Baskets tote, the recipient will unpack: crispy, salty Martin’s Pretzels (8 oz), a four pack of Butter+Love Sweet and Savory Thumbprint Sandwich Cookies, a bag of Roxbury Mountain Maple Caramel Peanut Brittle, and Roni-Sue Beer & Pretzels Popcorn Mix, and finally a bottle of Luscombe Organics Sparkling Raspberry Juice complements the snacks! We are proud to support these local, small batch producers, and hope you enjoy the fruits of their labors as much as we do.

I know I said that we had three Mother’s Day gifts to share in this post, but I would be remiss to not mention one of the perennial favorite gifts for this season: Keep the Queen Calm Hamper ($59). An anglophile dream gift, and a trendy, thematic gift that is filled with sophisticated fun, it comes packed in a Union Jack box and contains some of the best-selling items at CMB: a natural canvas tote bag imprinted with “Keep Calm and Carry On,” a matching enamel mug, and cocktail napkins; Uncle Joe’s Mint Balls; Shortbread House of Edinburgh Original Shortbread Fingers; and a tin double-decker bus filled with Ahmad tea. After sending this gift for years, we know that this is always a Mother’s Day pleaser!

All of these gifts are available online or by calling our Customer Service department toll-free at 1-888-727-7887. Please remember that UPS does not have Sunday delivery, although in Manhattan we can arrange a messenger service delivery on May 12th, and our Customer Service department can help you determine shipping to be sure your gift arrives on-time. Happy early Mother’s Day and see you soon at the store!