CHICAGO -- If you ask us, the best gifts are ones you can eat or drink or food-related experiences you can savor.
This year, gift your loved ones a food-focused gift, ranging from full-body soaks in wine or beer to a breakfast baking cookbook from Paula Haney, Chicago pie maven and founder of Hoosier Mama Pie Company.
Looking for other local gifts? Check out more than 100 ideas in our full gift guide here.
Here are 15 gift ideas that will please a range of palates.
Chocolate for Your Body Spa's Chocolate Signature Body Wrap Treatment, 1743 S. Halsted St. Website.
Do you know someone who loves chocolate so much they'd want to be completely enveloped in it? This is the gift for them. With this signature treatment, your giftee will be covered in a warm chocolate mixture of clay and cocoa, wrapped up and left to soak in the nourishing and hydrating qualities of the chocolate.
Some people are so meticulous about their hot chocolate making, it's an experience akin to a drip coffee ritual. If you have someone like that on your gift list, consider Hotel Chocolat's Velvetiser and a selection of chocolate mixes. The Velvetiser makes creamy chocolate drinks -- hot or cold -- in just two and a half minutes.
Buy online or in stores. From $165. Hotel Chocolat's Chicago stores are at 3334 N. Southport Ave., 900 W. Armitage Ave., 1617 N. Damen Ave. and 830 N. Michigan Ave., the flagship.
Katherine Anne Confections' Truffle-Making Party, 3653 W. Irving Park Road. Website.
Buying your loved one chocolate truffles? Take it one step further by giving them a chance to make their own.
Katherine Anne Confections' truffle-making parties take guests behind the scenes at owner Katherine Duncan's Irving Park cafe, where they design a truffle from scratch. All participants leave with a sample of each truffle style created during the party.
AIRE Ancient Baths has relaunched its Signature Wine experience for you and your favorite person. It includes a grapeseed scrub, grapeseed oil massage, a red wine bath soak and a honey hair mask, plus a three-wine tasting paired with cheese and stories about each wine.
During the three-hour couple's experience, you'll soak in the antioxidants from Spanish Ribera del Duero red grapes.
Uvae in Andersonville offers three tiers of wine club memberships. Sip and Savor, the lowest tier, includes two bottles of wine every month and a discount on the restaurant and in the shop. The next tier up, The Connoisseur, includes one more bottle and a wine-tasting experience. The final tier, The Aficionado, includes limited production and rare wines.
Email [email protected] with questions. From $55 per month.
Bronzeville Winery's Black on Black Wine Flight, 4420 S. Cottage Grove Ave. Website.
Black winemakers don't get nearly enough recognition in the wine world. Enter Bronzeville Winery's Black on Black wine flight: four glasses from Black-owned wineries around the world. The current selection includes three South African wines and one Napa wine.
For the steak-lover in your life, a 14-course dinner at Bonyeon, Chicago's first Korean steak omakase, will shower them in Wagyu delight. Chef Sangtae Park and his team just dropped the fall menu, which includes A-5 wagyu, galbi, New York strip and more. Note: Monday service is six courses.
Book or buy a gift card online. $255 per person for dinner Thursday-Sunday (5-10:30 p.m.) and $95 per person for dinner Mondays (6-10:30 p.m.).
Beautiful Rind's Non-Alcoholic Beverages and Cheese Pairing Class, 2211 N. Milwaukee Ave. Website.
Beautiful Rind offers cheese and cheese-pairing classes throughout the year, but this one features non-alcoholic and below .5 percent alcohol beverages for Dry January. Participants will enjoy a paired flight of N/A bevvies with a selection of five cheeses from the shop's massive cheese case. Attendees must be 21 or older; some of the drinks contain trace amounts of alcohol.
Beer enthusiasts can enjoy their favorite beverage in a more unique way: by soaking in an entire tub of it. Choose from a Silver, Gold or Platinum package. All packages include time to sit in the salt room, the steam room and the sauna, in addition to a half-hour soak in beer. The Platinum package also includes a chair massage and hydrotherapy massage.
This family-owned company was born out of a native Chicago couple's desire to help people discover new flavor profiles, and it's gone national with shops in 10 states. The shop in Lincoln Square has a special gift box set this year of The Essential Four, a four-jar set of the store's bestsellers: Capitol Hill Seasoning, Taco Seasoning, Pike's Peak Butcher's Rub and Black Garlic Salt.
Classes at Into the Feral sell out quickly. If you miss out, consider giving the gift of a freshly made tea blend from owner Nicole Picou's Avondale shop. The Full Moon blend includes lemon balm, peppermint, mugwort, chamomile, rose, lavender and vanilla -- herbs meant to induce a calm feeling (keep in mind that pregnant people should not consume mugwort). The Full Moon blend is perfect for drinking, using in a teacake recipe or to replace water in another dessert recipe.
Start the littlest ones in your life on a path to culinary greatness with a cooking class at Junior Chefs Kitchen in Lincoln Park. Each class is an hour long and gives kids from pre-K to high school a chance to cook global recipes on their own or under the supervision of a parent. For new or expecting parents, there's a Baby Bites class where you learn to make baby food from scratch.
Chicago-based cheesemonger Erika Kubick, of "Cheese Sex Death" fame, is back with her second book, "Cheese Magic." The cookbook is organized into eight sections according to the pagan wheel of the year and includes 100 recipes, as well as pairings, cheese plates and general information about cheese itself.
"The Hoosier Mama Book of Breakfast Bakes" by Paula Haney, $35
Publishing Dec. 16, this book from famed Hoosier Mama Pie Company owner Paula Haney is a follow-up to her 2013 volume, "The Hoosier Mama Book of Pie." Haney steps away from her store's namesake dessert in her new book, instead focusing on everything breakfast, from scones and muffins to biscuits, bread and brioche. The recipes are seasonal, affordable to make and usually take less than an hour.
"The Bottomless Cup" by Kevin Boehm, $28
Kevin Boehm is co-founder of the Boka Group, one of the city's most successful restaurant groups, but did you know he's also a motivational speaker and author? Give your Boka-loving bestie a copy of "The Bottomless Cup: A Memoir of Secrets, Restaurants, And Forgiveness," Boehm's new memoir that chronicles his journey of self-discovery amid the backdrop of becoming a James Beard Award-winning restaurateur.