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Whoever came up with food advent calendars had a masterful understanding of what appeals to the human mind. You could fill an advent calendar with say, plastic garbage from the street, and so long as the little compartments were satisfying to tear open it would still be a somewhat thrilling activity. I know this is true because I’ve had fun with plenty of advent calendars filled with dusty chocolate and generic stale candy. But the best food advent calendars are the ones that nail both presentation and taste.
This is why we decided to take a more methodical approach to this year's roundup of the best advent calendars. We tried 16 food advent calendars in an effort to separate the genuinely good from the decidedly meh and found a handful of standouts filled with high-quality candies, coffees, teas, and wines that are just as exciting to eat and drink as they are to open.
The Best of the Best
This Danish company specializes in chocolate-covered licorice balls in unexpected flavors like passion fruit and milkshake, as well as stronger salted and spiced flavors for licorice lovers.
Appearance: In typical Scandinavian fashion, this advent calendar has a minimalist design, foregoing typical festive colors for black and gold. The classic 24-door setup gives you a broad sampling of its different chocolate balls, with a few repeats and a couple of fun surprises.
Taste: If you’re not a licorice fan, trust us when we say that Lakrids by Bülow might make you into one—or at the very least introduce your palate to the polarizing candy. The licorice has a warm and mellow sweetness to it, somewhere between honey and molasses, and while that flavor is definitely in there, it isn’t overpowering. Texture-wise, the chocolate balls have a lot going on: They’re crispy, chewy, crumbly, and smooth all at once. These candies genuinely surprised us, and even a few self-avowed anti-licorice people liked them.
This French chocolatier has been around since 1977 and specializes in silky-smooth ganaches and rich pralines. Currently headed by chef Nicolas Cloiseau, the company prides itself on its “artisanal savoir-faire,” whatever that means.
Appearance: The Maison du Chocolat advent calendar looks like a large snowflake, with numbered drawers radiating out from the center with gold foil numbers. It’s topped with a large loop of gray satin ribbon so you can hang it up as a festive decoration. The drawers contain a selection of La Maison’s flavored chocolates, with many of the days featuring more than one.
Taste: This is undeniably exquisite chocolate, with an unparalleled smoothness and complex flavors. Hazelnut, almond, and pecan pralines dominate the selection, but there’s enough variation to keep the calendar from feeling redundant. The textural standout is the Grain Dentelle, with shatteringly thin layers of crepe inside a milk chocolate praline.
Palais de Thés is a French tea boutique with a broad selection of high-quality whole-leaf teas sourced from major tea growing regions around the world.
Appearance: I appreciate an advent calendar that requires you to do a little searching, and the numbers on this one are dispersed throughout an image of a snowy winter evening bursting with starlight. Each door contains a single bag of tea, with no repeats.
Taste: The Palais de Thés blends are nuanced and fragrant, which we noticed each time we opened one of the packets. The calendar had an exciting mix of green, black, roiboos, and herbal teas, with best sellers and limited editions included. Thé du Hammam, a green tea with notes of date, rose, and orange blossom is a Palais de Thés signature. The special holiday blend, Le Thé Magnifique, smells like a slice of fresh stollen, with notes of almond and pear. This is as much a sampling of the best this high-end tea brand has to offer as it is an advent calendar.
Bonne Maman’s advent calendars have a devoted fan base of people who snatch them up as soon as they go on sale. Much of the hype is because the calendar contains special-edition flavors you can’t purchase on their own. Be warned, these often sell out.
Appearance: It opens up like a trifold to reveal a festive snow-covered scene full of harried jam-making elves. The numbered doors are hidden throughout the image and conceal 24 hotel-room-service-size jam pots total. Whether you share them is up to you.
Taste: The limited-edition flavors are the main draw here, and Bonne Maman keeps things interesting by mixing up the offerings each year. We are fond of the jams featuring unconventional fruits blended with herbal or floral ingredients. Some particular standouts include strawberry and linden blossom, white nectarine with peach and lemon verbena, and mirabelle plum with spices.
Lady M’s Milles Crêpes cakes might’ve made them famous, but the New York City confectioner’s advent calendar is all about le bon bon, presented to you via wildly imaginative packaging concepts that change every year.
Appearance: This year’s theme is “festive delights.” The calendar lays open like a pop-up book and employs three-dimensional boxes instead of the more standard panel of doors. It looks like a miniature living room littered with presents, with a Christmas-tree-shaped box as the grand finale. Each gift contains one or two packets of little candies.
Taste: Variety is this calendar’s biggest strength. As the days progress you’ll encounter crunchy cookie puffs and pretzel bites alongside gently sour gumdrop jellies. While some of the bon bon are certainly more delicious than others (the cake bites in particular are a bit strange), this calendar will never bore you.
Onyx Coffee Lab is a direct-to-consumer coffee roaster that prides itself on transparent sourcing and pricing. It caters to people who pay attention to the nuances of their brew.
Appearance: Intricate gold embossing covers the box’s entire exterior, giving it an expensive feel. It opens from the center to reveal a semi-circular accordion of 24 numbered pockets containing individual packets of whole bean coffee. Each day showcases a different blend and has enough for around two cups of coffee.
Taste: While reviewing this particular advent calendar, associate editor Zoe Denenberg enjoyed learning more about different processing methods and growing regions of coffee. “Onyx does light and bright coffees particularly well (think Ethiopian beans with notes of sweet tea and strawberry), and as someone who formerly claimed to be a dark-roast person, I'm now a changed woman.” She says. “If you want to learn the difference between natural, washed, and anaerobic coffees but don't want to drop $23 on a full bag of each, this advent calendar is for you.”
Boozy advent calendars have a reputation for containing low-quality swill, but Vinebox is a rare exception. This mail-order wine tasting service puts together themed selections of actually good wine throughout the year, but the holiday season is all about its best-selling “12 Nights of Wine.”
Appearance: The calendar comes in either “Chill” (whites, rosés, and reds) or “Cozy” (just reds), each with 12 beakers filled with the equivalent of a full glass of wine. You don’t really get the unboxing experience of a typical advent calendar, but you do get a guide with flavor notes and pairing recommendations to enhance the experience. Order both if you want a proper 24-day experience.
Taste: Expect a decent spread of old- and new-world wines, with an emphasis on French and Italian growing regions. The taste ranges from decent to surprisingly good, with our preferences leaning toward the offerings in the Chill box. If you’ve ever wanted the opportunity to taste and compare wines from different regions side by side, this is an incredibly easy and relatively affordable way to do it.
Others we liked
While they may not have official standing in our winners’ circle, we still had a fantastic time opening these advent calendars.
If you like hazelnut spreads, you’ll love Venchi’s advent calendar. This Italian chocolatier’s offering contains 25 days of irresistible nougatine chocolate tucked away in a cute cabinet of drawers,
Nicole Patel is a chocolatier based in Austin who likes to make truffles with exceptionally unique flavors. Her advent calendar is a gustatory trip; each day has a unique flavor accompanied by a vague and poetic clue to what it is. There are some real curveballs in here, and while some are a little…challenging, many are genuinely delicious (seaweed salad was a surprise favorite).
Vahdam has several advent calendars, but we particularly liked the single-serving tea calendar. Every day brings a different flavor—they specialize in exquisite turmeric blends—and you get five bags of each for a total of 120 tea bags.
