TO be brutally honest, you can stick your socks where the sun don’t shine. Sorry, Santa but quite frankly, we’ve had it with stocking fillers that you can’t gobble or guzzle.

Last year, we threw the limelight on the Liverpool bars and restaurants that had the merchandise to match the menus, with a rundown of the venues offering tangible momentos of their cult dishes, coveted recipes, slapstick straplines and tasty little trinkets.

This year, we’re making it super easy for you to treat the special foodies and booze connoisseurs in your life with a whole load of epic food and drink-based gifting ideas. We’re not just talking restaurant merchandise and vouchers either - so shop local this Christmas and save the socks for birthdays, weddings and bar mitzvahs.

Read on for some tasty Christmas prezzie ideas...

Liverpool Cheese Company Cheese Club membership

It’s safe to say Scousers love a bit of cheese. In fact, Liverpool is now home to its very own cheese carousel. Give the gift of pungent dairy goods this Christmas by bestowing your nearest and dearest with a three month luxury cheese club membership courtesy of the Liverpool Cheese Company. Each month, the lucky recipient will get five hand-selected cheeses with tasting notes, recipe inspiration, a packet of posh biccies and a jar of specially selected chutney or relish. Cheese, Gromit.

Cheese club membership, £100. Buy now - Liverpool Cheese Company

Liverpool Christmas Gift Guide Food And Drink 30 Minute Mowgli Recipe Book — **Delicious meals in a whizz** Image: Mowgli

Nisha Katona - 30 Minute Mowgli

Nisha Katona - mother of beloved, Liverpool-born, Indian street food restaurant, Mowgli - has released her brand-new recipe book, just in time for Christmas. Entitled 30 Minute Mowgli, the book was conceptualised during lockdown and showcases fast, easy and healthy meal, dessert and drink ideas spanning the Katona family’s Anglo-Indian heritage. It’ll look bloody gorgeous on the bookshelf too.

30 Minute Mowgli, £30. Buy now - Mowgli

Liverpool Christmas Gift Guide Food And Drink The Fermentation Station Christmas Specials — **Relish this idea** Image: The Fermentation Station

Festive ferments from The Fermentation Station

It’s fair to say that the festive season is a little merciless on the old digestive system. Do your good deed for your loved one’s gut and treat them to something wholesome and healthy from The Fermentation Station’s Christmas exclusives. We’re talking Champagne cassis kombucha, pomegranate and hibiscus water kefir and cheeseboard-ready kombucha pickled onions. Buying for someone who’d love to roll their sleeves up in the world of ferments? Check out The Fermentation Station’s roster of upcoming events for 2022 (including multiple kimchi workshops) if gifting tickets is more your Santa style.

Christmas bundles from £14. Buy now - The Fermentation Station

Liverpool Christmas Gift Guide Food And Drink Leaf Tea Shop Festive Tea Tin Candy Cane 400X400 Copy — **Get the par-tea started** Image: LEAF

Festive tea tins from LEAF

If anyone knows the real tea it’s LEAF and this Christmas they’ve curated a collection of festive tea tins inspired by flavours of the holiday spirit to razzle-dazzle any respectable loose leaf collection. The six flavours include apple strudel, candy cane, marzipan delight, mulled fruit, nut cracker and cranberry, sage & citrus - so when you’re full to bursting with yule log and mince pies, you can start taking your dessert in liquid-form instead.

Festive tea tins from £6.95. Buy now - LEAF

The Art School gin hamper

What’s a Scouse Christmas without G&T? The Art School’s luxurious gin hamper, packed to the rafters with everything you need to get the festive party started. Take your pick from a choice of two Art School gins - a citrusy pomelo or the limited edition lime & ginger - both of which come accompanied by Fever Tree tonic, fresh ginger root, Mexican limes and dried juniper berries for garnishing. The deluxe set also comes complete with a measurement jigger and two Riedel balloon glasses for the full bar experience at home.

Gin hamper £60. Buy now - The Art School

Liverpool Christmas Gift Guide Food And Drink Crosby Coffee Subscription — **Full of beans** Image: Crosby Coffee

Subscription to Crosby Coffee

Nothing says Merry Christmas quite like a year’s supply of caffeine. Local roastery Crosby Coffee is offering a 12-month subscription to their single origin, house blend coffees for less than a hundred quid. You’ll spend more than that collecting Christmas cup selfies at Starbucks if you’re not careful. Subscriptions also come in three-month and six-month options though if the pursestrings are a little tight this year. Deliveries are letterbox-friendly and you get to choose whether the coffee arrives as whole bean or ground. What a time to be alive.

Coffee subscriptions from £21.30. Buy now - Crosby Coffee

Liverpool Christmas Gift Guide Food And Drink Flour Will Fly Cannoli Workshop — **Cannoli? Yes, we can** Image: Flour Will Fly

Cannoli workshop with Flour Will Fly

Flour Will Fly are known and loved across the city for their coveted masterclasses in pasta-making but did you know they also run cannoli workshops too? Giving the gift of knowledge on how to make this glorious Italian dessert at home is sure to put a smile on the face of whoever has made it onto your "Nice List" this year.

Cannoli workshops, price varies. Buy now - Flour Will Fly

Liverpool Christmas Gift Guide Food And Drink Lost Dock Rum Liverpool — **A lotta bottle** Image: Lost Dock Rum

A bottle of Lost Dock Rum

Lost Dock Rum is a pioneering byproduct of the city’s entrepreneurial spirit and love for literal spirits. As Liverpool’s first and only locally-made spiced rum, this is a bottle of plonk that is sure to make pride of place on any drinks shelf. Inspired by the rum, tea, sugar and spices that flowed through the Old Dock of Liverpool in bygone times, the tipple is steeped in history and heritage, as well as alluring notes of vanilla, ginger, cardamom, black tea, orange zest and a whiff of smoke.

70cl bottle of Lost Dock Rum from £32. Buy now - Lost Dock Rum

Liverpool Christmas Gift Guide Food And Drink Lunya Christmas Hamper — **Deli delights** Image: Lunya

A Christmas Gift Pack from Lunya

Christmas in Liverpool hasn’t happened until you’ve gifted or been gifted a Lunya festive hamper - them's the rules and we don’t make them. This year, there’s a selection of five Christmas Gift Packs to choose from, all full of delicious deli knickknacks, plus an additional Christmas gin gift pack thrown into the mix. The lovely lot at Lunya are warning those planning to purchase a gift pack to do so pronto though to avoid disappointment around goods shortages - so if you want one, don’t hang about.

Christmas gift pack from £29. Buy now - Lunya