Good Taste | Essentials Keep all your beverages and snacks cool with this cooler backpack chair. It’s the perfect lightweight alternative to a separate large chair and cooler. Koozie Group / PPAI 114187, S13 www.kooziegroup.com Deborah Gaspar, marketing director at New York-based supplier NC Custom, says experiential gifting is a huge trend for 2023. “We love the idea of an experience with food. It is something people remember! Interactive experiential items like smash chocolate and hot cocoa bombs, or even DIY baking kits, all play into that theme,” she says. “We have also found it is super important to include a keepsake hard good, which is why, for our smash chocolate, we include a custom keepsake mallet. Or for our DIY kits, we have kitchen accessories like an apron or board, so once you experience the gift, you have a wonderful sentiment left behind.” This two-pound chocolate bottle is filled with 16 ounces of candy “champagne bubbles.” NC Custom / PPAI 111662, S7 www.chocolateinn.com treat. Whether it’s dropping a ball of chocolate into hot water or cracking open a chocolate heart, chocolate is food everyone will want to play with. “As the COVID fears fade away, I think people are leaning back toward being together and sharing a meal or treat. Our cookies remain popular,” says Pilon, “either a chocolate Oreo cookie or a sugar cookie topped with Belgian milk. They have been popular during COVID, as they are individually packaged. But we have several packaging options for them, from one to 24.” Shareable food experiences like these will dominate 2023: This cookie gift pack features six cookies with Belgian chocolate and five packets of Sorrento Chocolate Truffle gourmet hot chocolate mix. Chocolate Chocolate PPAI 111668, S5 www.chocolate2.com PPAI • MARCH 2023 • 25
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