Where We’re Shopping on Small Business Saturday This Year

Brooklyn-based brand Big Night is the kind of shopping destination that inspires gift giving all year long, whether it’s a little treat moment for yourself or a sought-after collaboration that will win holiday host gift-giving. Founder Katherine Lewin blended her career experience working in food, restaurants and retail to create a one-stop shop for living the good life at home, whether it was a pantry ingredient to take your weeknight dinner into restaurant-worthy meal territory or a special gift for the consummate host, discerning diner or home cook extraordinaire. Since then, she’s published a cookbook, created a signature candle and launched Big Night as a digital shopping destination.

Find bestsellers like Crunchy, Roasty Glitter, a collab with Sweet Deliverance starring a medley of pistachios, seeds, spices and salt that adds a magic pop of texture to salads, dips, pastas and more; the Aperitivo Spoons Set with lemon, olive and tomato designs for festive snacking anytime (plus the reusable tin is so cute!); or the Big Night Striped Butter Dish, a beautiful vessel designed and crafted in Portugal in collaboration with Valsa Home that begs to be left on the countertop.

When Big Spoon Roaster’s co-founders met in 2010, they bonded over their shared passion for making food for others and belief that food “should be good for the people who eat it, good for the people who grow it and good for the planet.” That guiding ethos is at the heart of their products, including their small-batch nut butters, nutrient-rich nut butter bars (don’t miss the apricot pepita peanut butter bar) and wag butters for dogs.

Just in time for holiday gift-giving and hosting, the team launched a new Holiday Trio gift set that includes one 13-oz jar of each: Gingerbread Crunch Almond & Pecan Butter, Linzer Cookie Cashew & Almond Butter and Sugar Plum Almond & Hazelnut Butter. The Sugar Plum is especially a knockout, starring a smooth blend of heirloom Mission almonds and rich Oregon hazelnuts studded with organic cashews and dried cranberries and apricots, punched up with a warming blend of cinnamon and clove and rounded out by Ugandan bourbon vanilla and Jacobsen sea salt. It’s irresistible spread on toasted sourdough, tender challah or buttery croissants, but we won’t blame you if you eat it by the spoonful to fuel late-night gift wrapping sessions.

When Lucia Flors and Carlos Leiva moved to California, they found themselves stocking their suitcases with their favorite foods to bring back from return trips to their native Spain. Siesta Co. built its reputation on exemplary Spanish conservas (tinned seafood), including wild-caught and sustainably sourced sardines, mackerel and white tuna, all packed in extra virgin olive oil, as well as mussels in organic pickled oil and white clams in brine.

Other sought-after Spanish delicacies to upgrade your holiday charcuterie board or aperitivo game include a two-pack of hand-carved Iberico Ham — aka Jamón Ibérico de Bellota —that’s crafted from free-range Iberian pigs exclusively fed on acorns, cured for four years and boasts a silky texture and earthy, rich and subtly sweet; Spaghetti Seaweed with Green Garlic in Olive Oil, harvested from the waters of Galicia and preserved in organic extra virgin olive oil with sweet green onions; and Seaweed Salad in Vinaigrette, a vibrant, refreshing salad that’s ready to eat or top toast with tomato.

When chef Meherwan Irani launched Spicewalla in 2017, his goal was to supply chefs with quality-sourced, hand-roasted spices. Since then, the brand has grown a loyal following among home cooks, too (including Oprah!) and now offers more than 250 small-batch spices and over 60 blends that are roasted and packed by hand in Asheville, North Carolina. The Kitchen Essentials 18 Pack is a must-have and includes sought-after spices such as Kashmiri Chilli Powder, Cumin Seed and Herbs De Provence.

This season’s highly coveted, chef-approved spice collection includes the Made With Love in Asheville Collection, a limited-edition 10-pack of blends that benefits hurricane recovery efforts and feature collaborations with local makers and chefs, like Ashleigh Shanti ‘s bright and tangy Good Hot Fish Salt & Vinegar Seasoning and Katie Button’s Cúrate Pincho Moruno Rub, an aromatic Spanish street food-inspired mix of paprika, cumin and garlic. For the perfect stocking stuffer or gift swap, reach for Levigne Olive Oil. Irani fell for the silky, peppery cold-pressed oil on a trip to Perugia, Italy and knew he had to bring it back stateside. It’s as delicious swirled with Spicewalla spices for an inspired dipping oil or dressing as it is drizzled on ice cream.

You might know East Fork Pottery for The Mug, a thoughtfully designed cup that basically breaks the internet every time a new glaze comes out, like the recently released Fall/Winter colorways Sepia and Malachite. The latest offering to cause a furor is The Matisse Collection, which pays homage to Henri Matisse, CEO and founder Alex Matisse’s great-grandfather. The dinnerware collection showcases a range of iconic cut-outs and prints inspired by Matisse’s body of work.

All of East Fork’s wood-fired ceramics are made with clays from the American Southeast and backed by a values-driven business that centers diversity and giving back to the Asheville community. We especially love gifting The Coupe, which combines the best features of plates and bowls into a lipped dish that’s perfect for plating saucy pastas, hearty salads and all manner of side dishes, and doubles as a dredging dish for kitchen prep. For a two-in-one gift, opt for the candles, developed in collaboration with Joya Studios, which are poured in reusable ceramic vessels and come in earthy scents that are as collectible as East Fork’s glazes, such as High Timber (balsam fir, maplewood, sandalwood, cedar and smoke) or Brownstone (sage, citrus, patchouli, leather and clove).

These snackable, giftable, almost-too-pretty-to-eat chocolate bars prove that natural, beautiful and delicious are not mutually exclusive concepts. Founders Kathryn Shah and Sarah Bell were inspired to create a better-for-you chocolate bar, so they opted to sweeten the bars with dates and chose flavor profiles inspired by their travels and the seasons.

We love the Lavender, Bee Pollen and Rose Petal, a 72% cacao bar that “tastes like an aromatic bouquet” and “feels like Sunday on the balcony,” and the Mixed Berry, chock-full of dried strawberries, blueberries and raspberries, which has been known to stave off deadline-induced stress and pairs well with a glass of jammy red wine.

Peruse their website for the widest range of flavors, including the Essence Line, unadorned bars infused with aromatic oils made from leaves, rinds and seeds in flavors such as Mint Leaf, Coffee, Blood Orange and Bergamot, now available in Essence Painterly Set, a limited-edition gift set illustrated by Brooklyn-based artist Phthalo Ruth.

Kola Goodies was founded by Sri Lankan immigrant Sajani Amarasiri as a first-of-its-kind line of “lazy girl approved, feel-good chai and milk tea lattes.” The brand has quickly earned a loyal following for its top-notch Masala Chai and award-winning Sri Lankan Milk Tea, both made with ingredients sourced directly from smallholder farmers in Sri Lanka, including Ceylon tea leaves and aromatic spices like Ceylon cinnamon, ginger and cardamom. The mood-boosting Sri Lankan Milk Tea, fashioned after Amarasiri’s amma’s recipe, makes for a cozy, quick tea ritual any time of day.

This season, Kola Goodies has two holiday-ready gift sets: The Gingerbread Chai, a festive sipper that marries the warming flavors of a cozy cup of chai and namesake holiday cookies (perfect for a little treat moment, too!) and The Lazy Girl Chai Starter Kit, which comes with everything you need to perfect a three-minute chai ritual — a full-size latte (either Masala Chai or Milk Tea), their glass LazyCup with a built-in strainer and scoop — all packaged in a chic, limited-edition holiday gift box. Shop the brand’s website for the best Small Business Saturday deals or to subscribe for savings throughout the year.

Brooklyn-based City Saucery was founded on a simple notion: Source “ugly produce” like overripe tomatoes and oddly shaped carrots and upcycle them into delicious, chef-quality vegan sauces and condiments. The team includes co-owners Jorge Moret and Michael Marino, as well as Michael’s mother, Lina, aka “Sauce Boss,” whose Calabrian preservation methods and recipes inspired the company’s sauces.

Try fan favorites like the signature Ugly Tomato Sauce, Sweet Veggies (with carrots and bell peppers), Vegan Vodka, Mushroom Ragu or Spicy Calabrian Sauce, all of which are great with pasta and pair well with proteins, veggies and soups. Don’t miss the Vegan Tomato 'Nduja, a riff on the spicy Calabrian pork spread crafted with tomatoes and Calabrian chilies, which adds a dash of heat and an umami explosion to any dish, whether you employ it as a sandwich spread, incorporate it into dips or stir it into sauces and soups.

City Saucery’s latest modern takes on pantry staples include Calabrian Chili Oil and Calabrian Chili Spread, where the tangy, fruity and slightly smoky peppers bring their bold yet tempered signature heat, and a brunch-ready Shakshuka Sauce crafted with fresh local tomatoes, red bell peppers, onions, garlic, spices and fresh cilantro (just add farm-fresh eggs and crumbled feta!).

Andia Xouris started her namesake ice cream company in 2017 with one humble scoop shop in Cary, North Carolina. Since then, the brand has blossomed into four retail outposts, including a double-decker ice cream bus in Durham, with a roster of 24 flavors, including several seasonal options. Xouris and her ice creams have racked up accolades along the way, including national Blue Ribbon-winners Double Dark Chocolate and French Vanilla, which earned Xouris two Grand Master Ice Cream Chef awards.

Andia’s sensational scoops ship nationwide via Goldbelly, including pints inspired by Xouris’ Cypriot heritage, like Rose Pistachio and Baklava, as well as fan-favorites such as Malted Twix and the vegan, gluten-free Ube. Snap up her latest creation, the Mango Jalapeño Margarita, which was named Best Flavor of the Year at the North American Ice Cream Association conference. For a unique gift for the ice cream lover in your life, opt for the TikTok-viral ice cream crème brûlée cups, featuring a base of award-winning French vanilla or robust Coffee Bean Crunch ice cream, topped with a thin layer of torched sugar.

Family-owned business Modern Sprout has earned a well-deserved reputation for their user-friendly garden jars, grow kits and indoor gardening staples. The mission-driven brand, founded by Sara Burrows and Nicholas Behr, has taken the Safe Seed Pledge, meaning they only source domestic seeds for edible plants that are certified organic and/or non-GMO (talk about a growth mindset).

We especially love the Mason jar indoor herb garden and the gift-ready, botanically inspired soy candles that are poured into reusable planters and are accompanied by a matching seed packet, like the herbaceous-fresh rosemary and cucumber candle plus rosemary seeds. For an especially imaginative stocking stuffer, opt for one of their new holiday releases like the Home Grown Ornament Kit, which includes a festive ornament with an herb-growing kit in basil, lavender or peppermint, or Jingle Plops, whimsical wildflower-growing seed balls.

Since Cara Barde took over the heritage brand Crow Canyon — known as the O.G. splatterware design brand — she has put sustainability front and center. The durable yet stylish enamelware brand helps reduce waste from disposable paper and plastic products, whether you’re picnicking, camping or sitting down for a weeknight supper.

The product lineup spans everyday items like plates, bowls and cups and giftable serving-ware such as festive serving platters and display-worthy serving bowls. One of Barde’s favorite items to gift is the enamelware pitcher, which makes a beautiful hostess gift that doubles as a flower vase. Her personal favorite product is the splatter jelly roll pan, a workhorse piece of oven-safe dishware that she uses as a roasting pan or cookie sheet and that can be used as a serving tray, too.

Sana Javeri Kadri founded Diaspora Spice Co. with a mission to reclaim and revitalize the spice trade in a way that centers farmers, sustainability, equity and flavor. Since she launched Pragati Turmeric in 2017, she’s grown the brand to over 30 single-origin spices from over 150 farms across India and Sri Lanka, paying farmers an average of three to five times above commodity price.

Shop the bestsellers to scoop up fan-favorite spices such as Pragati Turmeric, Aranya Black Pepper and Kashmiri saffron. The brand’s ethos extends to the beverage blends too, including Chai Masala, with an ideal sweet-spicy profile from a mix of cardamom, ginger, fennel and cinnamon plus a dash of pepper and cloves, and Haldi Doodh Masala, a golden elixir made with cinnamon, ginger, cardamom and pepper. The Hot Cocoa mix is guaranteed to deliver cozy sips this winter and beyond; it gets its velvety texture from Anamalai Cacao’s cocoa butter and caramelly sweetness from Madhur jaggery.

For an inspired seasonal sipper, gift the new Masala Chai, a fragrant, spicy-sweet blend of CTC black tea (what you’ll find in cups of chai across India), cardamom, ginger, and fennel, or go all in with the East Fork x Diaspora Spice Co. Chai Kit.

Josu’s Salts Co. represents a family legacy and an all-around flavor powerhouse in equal measure. The brand is owned by Hae-Sin Thomas, who created a line of flavored salts made with salt from her family’s farm on the tiny island of Imjado in South Korea. The flavors draw inspiration from Korean and Asian flavors, such as seaweed or garlic chive, and are often developed in collaboration with other food creatives and small businesses.

A recent favorite is the Volcano Kimchi Salt, featuring dehydrated then ground Smokeshow kimchi from Volcano Kimchi blended with Josu’s Just Salt, a hint of onion powder and a whisper of gochugaru. It’s a tangy, umami flavor bomb that works its magic on egg dishes, stir fries and noodles. You can use Josu’s salts as either a finishing or cooking salt — Thomas’s advice is to use it wherever a recipe calls for salt and promises it’ll immediately make it better. She also keeps a mortar and pestle handy to grind down larger grains — like Just Salt or Five-Year Aged Salt — into sprinkling size. For a pantry upgrade for the discerning home cook in your life, click "add to cart" on the natural sea salt, now available in easily shippable pouches.

Founder Danielle Martin was inspired to start Soap Distillery to create product and owner diversity in the beauty space. This translated into a line of quality soaps, oils, balms and candles, crafted with sustainably sourced ingredients and compostable, colorful packaging, all dreamed up in original, crave-worthy scents.

Naturally, we’re partial to the “foodie and gourmand” category, where you’ll find holiday-ready soap bars in scents like peppermint hot cocoa or an iced coffee body scrub bar that promises to keep dry skin at bay. If your recipients’ tastes skew boozy, shop “cocktail and spirits” for giftable bars such as Hot Toddy, Mulled Wine or the Whiskey Lovers' Bar Soap Bundle. To upgrade your kitchen hand soap to a nourishing formula, look no further than soap pump dispensers (that double as body washes) in aromatic Limoncello or Sunset Fig.

It’s hard to decide what we love most about Storied Goods’ sugar cubes’ gift-giving potential: the flavors, the beautiful packaging or the delicious, drinkable promise that each cube holds. The Cinnamon-Vanilla cubes jazz up cocktails and coffee drinks alike, while the Orange-Cherry is ideal for your favorite cuppa tea or cocktails like an Old Fashioned or mulled wine. We’re partial to the Rose Petal, which turns any sparkling wine into a luxe cocktail, but some fans swear by adding it to coffee, too.

Founder Martha Bourlakas is especially excited for the seasonal limited edition Celebration Sparkle Sugar Cube, crafted with Brew Glitter edible glitter and Fee Bros Rhubarb Bitters. It makes an ideal addition to a flute of bubbly or a non-alcoholic spritz, but the brand’s site and Instagram are chock-full of recipe inspo should you need it.

After more than 20 years in the music business, Biambu “Bee” Garrett parlayed his creativity and love of cooking into a hot sauce company with his business partner and creative director, Megan Balli. But his bottles of handcrafted spicy sauces are not spicy for spicy’s sake — they’re crafted to reflect Garrett’s love for unique flavor combinations and his preference for heat that complements food rather than masks it. Take Apple Rosemary Habanero Hot Sauce: It’s just as perfect alongside grilled pork chops as it is with roasted squash. Meanwhile, Citrus Thyme Jalapeño is poised to become your ultimate Taco Tuesday upgrade. Proof of the sauce’s versatility is the Pineapple Coconut Ginger Habanero, which we can see adding to tropical-leaning stews and spicy punch or margarita riffs, but Garrett says it’s amazing on shrimp tacos with a mango-cucumber salsa.

Their latest creation is their hottest yet, in more ways than one. The limited-batch, online-exclusive Mango Menace is a tangy, tropical number featuring a mango-pineapple base spiked with fiery Carolina Reaper peppers. Can’t decide? Go for the Sampler Gift Set, a travel-friendly collection of five 50-ml bottles.

These vegan chocolates and sweets have earned a following beyond New York for its obsessive commitment to not only flavors and techniques but to their social justice and environmentalist values, too.

Perennially popular picks include filled bonbons, such as Peanut Butter Cups, Tahini Meltaways and Yuzu Cashew Creams, and the fan-favorite caramels and toffee, including best-sellers such as the salted Galapagos turtles and maple honeycomb. Seasonal flavors and one-of-a-kind confections rotate throughout the year, but we can’t stop thinking about the Holiday Bark. Each bar is a work of edible art, swirled with white chocolate and festooned with candied citrus and mint, cranberry, hibiscus, raspberries and a green-and-white chocolate leaf. If you’re in New York City, drop by Confectionery to peruse the latest offerings and to sample mind-bendingly good vegan baked goods from Sweet Maresa.

Since co-founders and former fine dining chefs Nick Wiseman and Ronen Tenne started making hummus in a 500-square-foot Washington, D.C. pop-up, their goal has been to make freshly spun hummus with bold, delicious flavors. They’ve achieved this (and then some) with a line-up of impossibly creamy hummus in flavors like Golden Garlic, Mexican Street Corn, Green Goddess and the sold-out truffle hummus, all dreamed up in the test kitchen of their D.C. flagship restaurant.

You can find their restaurant-worthy hummus in grocery stores and specialty shops nationwide as well as online, where you build your own bundle, stock up on Hummus For Kids cups or pick up a Taster Pack, which includes their core four flavors — Smooth Classic, Preserved Lemon, Herby Jalapeno and Caramelized Onion — plus a five-pack of their pillowy, crave-worthy pita bread.

Ancient grains are lauded for their nutrient-rich composition and deep flavor, and the einkorn, emmer and spelt grown by Grand Teton Ancient Grains are no exception. For more than 15 years, the family-run, organic farm and mill, located at the foothills of the Grand Teton mountain range in southeast Idaho, has dedicated itself to bringing these ancient grains to families’ tables, all while employing regenerative farming practices that help restore soil health, conserve water and promote biodiversity.

The operation started with einkorn, whose nutty, toasty and slightly sweet flavor lend itself nicely to milling into flours destined for bread, pasta and pastries. The einkorn berries cook up like a dream — make a pot of these tender, nutty wheatberries and set yourself up for delicious and nutritious meals all week long, from soups to salads, grain bowls to cereal bowls. And because einkorn has a weaker gluten structure, it’s easier to digest than other wheat grains. We also appreciate that the company has a robust resource offering, including recipes (like whole grain einkorn pancakes or spelt tortillas), frequently asked questions and a tips and techniques for cooking whole grains.

When Cumin Club co-founder Ragoth Bala moved from Coimbatore, India to the U.S., his homesickness manifested in a longing for foods that felt like home. His mom began shipping him meal kits with dry-roasted and freeze-dried ingredients, which satisfied his comfort food cravings and planted the seed to launch The Cumin Club.

There are over 30 freeze-dried packaged meals to choose from, each crafted by chef-experts to reflect the wide diversity of regional dishes and flavors from the Indian subcontinent. Each proves that convenience, authentic flavors and nourishment aren’t mutually exclusive concepts, like the better-than-take-out Paneer Tikka Masala or the north Indian-inspired Methi Matar Malai, where sweet green peas and earthy fenugreek leaves mingle in a silky, spiced cashew-onion sauce. All you have to do is add hot water and you have a nutritious home-cooked meal in minutes!

The brand’s pantry-ready meals are finding a following among busy families, world travelers and even climate scientists — the Cumin Club team heard from a customer leading a science expedition on a Greenland glacier who’s feeding her entire team Cumin Club meals to rave reviews.

Los Angeles-based Prosperity Market lives up to its billing as “not your average farmers’ market” with a lineup of curated products featuring Black farmers, food producers, and chefs. The mission-driven company was founded by makeup and fashion industry vets Carmen Dianne and Kara Still amidst the pandemic and social unrest in 2020 as a way to support Black-owned businesses while creating food access for all. In L.A., they’re a farmers’ market on wheels and food truck, bringing a line-up of sought-after products and produce to pop-ups, events and neighborhoods across L.A. Luckily for everyone else, you can order bestsellers and bundles to be shipped right to your doorstep.

Holiday gift boxes make seasonal gift-giving a breeze, like the Taste of Prosperity Box, stocked with boldly flavored and imminently snackable pecans from Pecan Amor; Savory Bites’ gourmet crackers, just the thing to elevate your cheese board game; sweet or savory plantain chips from Banane; Gloria’s Shito, a Ghanian chili oil that wakes up everything from scrambled eggs to a bowl of steamed rice; and sipping inspo courtesy of California Coffee Company’s ground coffee or Tranquilitea’s hand-blended, loose-leaf tea. L.A. locals can snap up Farmer Ken’s Harvest Box, an ideal gift to give (or keep!) featuring a combination of 10 to 12 items including seasonal ingredients like chard, persimmons, oranges, squash, beans, okra, tomatoes, nasturtiums and mint.

Middleton Made Knives is based in Saint Stephen, a small, rural South Carolina town that belies its national reputation among professional chefs and home cooks for its bespoke, handmade and ultra-durable chef knives. Founder and master culinary bladesmith Quintin Middleton followed his passion for making knives — as a kid, he was known to turn household items like shower rods into knife handles — and apprenticed with legendary bladesmith Jason Knight, where he learned to make hunting knives, swords and fantasy-style weapons.

Years later, Middleton started making high-carbon steel chef knives for some of South Carolina’s top chefs. Every heirloom-worthy knife is still handcrafted by Middleton himself, including the workhorse 8" Chef's Knife, the prep-work-ready 4" Paring Knife and the Brew Shucker, a two-in-one tool designed to open oysters and bottles.

J.T. Copper’s founders, lifelong baking enthusiasts Theda Anderson and Jolie Greatorex, were inspired to create their own extracts and syrups when they couldn’t find additive-free flavorings on the market. They pride themselves on their small-batch syrups, each of which is made by hand in Floyd, Virginia, using traditional techniques that preserve the aromas and enhance the flavor profiles of their thoughtfully sourced ingredients. The result is an intensely flavored syrup that works wonders to elevate everything from coffee to cocktails to baked goods.

Gift-ready sets include the Barista Syrup Sampler, which includes Sweet Mint, fan-favorite Vanilla Bean, Amber Caramel and the mocha-ready Single Origin Chocolate, as well as the Cocktail Syrup Sampler, Grenadine, Sugar & Spice, Firecracker, and Golden Turmeric, a Good Food Awards winner that mixes beautifully into warm beverages like golden milk or cold beverages like mango lassis. J.T. Copper’s newest syrup is destined for greatness too: the Masala Chai Syrup is crafted with Ceylon tea from its sister company, Red Rooster Tea and fashioned after Red Rooster Coffee's café’s in-house chai recipe.