Where We’re Shopping on Small Business Saturday This Year

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. Now it’s added another Spanish delicacy to the line-up: a two-pack of hand-carved Iberico Ham. Known as Jamón Ibérico de Bellota in Spain, this ham is crafted from free-range Iberian pigs exclusively fed on acorns, takes four years to cure and boasts a silky texture with a complex flavor profile that’s at turns earthy, rich and subtly sweet. In other words, it’s the perfect way to upgrade your holiday charcuterie board or gift to impress your favorite cured meats connoisseur.

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. The highly anticipated seasonal launch is Spicewalla x T-Pain The Sauce, a spicy-tangy number created with rapper T-Pain. It features a blend of sheville-grown red jalapeños, red wine vinegar and Spicewalla smoked paprika and is excellent drizzled on fried eggs, roasted veggies, tacos and wings. Plus, 50 percent of the proceeds of the collab will be donated to help folks impacted by hurricanes Helene and Milton.

Founders Esha Chhabra and Smita Satiani blended their professional backgrounds in climate change and social impact with their Indian-American heritage and daily tea-drinking rituals to create “a fresher, kinder tea.” Alaya Tea lives up to its ethos by sourcing teas and herbals directly from farmers and tea estates, giving farmers a higher price and ensuring a shorter supply chain so customers get the freshest product, and by using compostable packaging. Standout teas include Assam Golden Tippy, a unique variety with a slight golden tip and one of the highest grades of black tea on the market, as well as the Bihar Oolong Rolling Thunder, an amber-hued tea that tastes of roasted walnuts and molasses. For a perfect pairing, opt for the tea and mug gift set, featuring tea, an infuser and The Morning Mug, which is handcrafted by an eco-friendly South Indian pottery studio and ingeniously fits two cups of tea.

Kola Goodies was founded by Sri Lankan immigrant Sajani Amarasiri as a first-of-its-kind line of functional wellness beverages. The brand has quickly earned a following for its top-notch Masala Chai, award-winning Milk Tea, and superfood lattes crafted with ingredients sourced directly from South Asian farmer collectives, 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-edition gift sets: the smoky-sweet Maple Chai Latte Book Box created in collaboration with Lilly’s Library by Lilly Singh, as well as their Special Edition Chai Latte and Milk Tea Latte Kits, which include ten servings of delicious instant chai packaged in a chic, embossed gold-foiled tin with a custom gold strainer keepsake. Shop the brand’s website for the best Small Business Saturday deals or to sign up for a subscription.

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 Wine Dark Sea, Big Sky, and In The Pine. Beyond the iconic mug, East Fork boasts a full line of top-notch, wood-fired ceramics, all 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 Dreamscape (florals and leather).

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, chockful 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.

Josu’s salts represent family legacy and 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 that’s 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.

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.

We can’t think of a better way to sate your favorite foodie’s sweet tooth (or your own) than with an assortment of bite-size blondies from professional pastry chef Auzerais Bellamy. After working in some of NYC’s top kitchens, she developed her now-signature treat and direct-to-consumer bakery (rumor has it she took three years to perfect her blondies). You can’t go wrong with an assortment of core flavors, such as birthday cake or Brooklyn blackout, but don’t sleep on the holiday line-up. The mix includes whimsical creations you won’t find anywhere else: think, Gingerbread studded with candied ginger, Coquito, paired with a layer of coquito cheesecake (a nod to the classic Puerto Rican holiday eggnog-esque drink), Cranberry Orange and Dark Chocolate Peppermint, topped with dark chocolate ganache and crushed peppermint candies.

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 chockful of recipe inspo should you need it.

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.

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 sake — they’re designed with Garrett’s predilection for unique flavor combinations and preference to add heat that complements food rather than masks it. To wit, Apple Rosemary Habanero Hot Sauce is as excellent paired with grilled pork chops as it is with roasted squash, while Citrus Thyme Jalapeno is destined to become your next Taco Tuesday flavor 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. 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.

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 Confectionary to peruse the latest offerings and to sample mind-bendingly good vegan baked goods from Sweet Maresa.

Sana Javeri Kadri founded Diaspora 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 30 single-origin spices from 150 farms across India and Sri Lanka, paying farmers an average of three to five times above commodity price. Shop the best-sellers 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 Hot Cocoa Mix or Pumpkin Spice Masala, plus a spice spoon for good measure, or go all in with the Holiday Beverage Bundle.

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 weeknight supper. The product line-up spans everyday items like plates, bowls and cups and giftable serve-ware such as festive serving platters and display-worthy teapots. 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 dishwasher that she uses as a roasting pan or cookie sheet and that can be purposed as a serving tray too.

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.