Gift Guide: Michigan Food & Drink
by Rebecca on December 3, 2010
The Hilltop Sweet Roll
If you do any driving in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, you’ll recognize these cinnamon rolls from the advertisements featuring the baby eating a gigantic cinnamon roll. We’ve yet to try one, as we’ve usually eaten french toast at Foothills or lunch at the Dogpatch when we drive through L’Anse, but one of these days we’ll get a taste.
Zingerman’s Mail Order
Zingerman’s is an Ann Arbor institution, but it’s also turning heads outside of the state of Michigan, being featured in numerous national magazines and blogs, including Mighty Goods. While not everything offered by Zingerman’s mail order catalog is from Michigan, a lot of it is and is made by Zingerman’s including: cheese, candy bars, bread, brownies, cookies, gelato, etc.
Ann Arbor Tortilla Factory
Here I go again, the tortilla chips from Ann Arbor Tortilla Factory are the best tortilla chips I’ve ever had! My favorite are the garlic chips, but the lime and the plain are both very good; I haven’t tried the chili lime version yet. They also offer tortillas and tostadas. Ann Arbor Tortilla Factory products are found at Whole Foods and Arbor Farms Market, as well as many other restaurants and stores. Add salsa or hummus from Garden Fresh Gourmet and you have a perfect gift for a fiesta!
Daily De-lish Granola
Hand-crafted organic granola in a variety of flavors straight from Ada, Michigan. Daily De-lish offers gluten-free, dairy-free, vegan granola. The peanut butter coconut crisp granola looks very tasty! Available through Foodzie.com.
American Spoon Foods
American Spoon Foods originally started with preserves, jams, and jellies, but now offer maple syrup, pancake mix, salsas, grilling sauces, relishes, vinaigrettes, dried fruits, gelato, and fruit cake. They work with local Michigan farmers to obtain the freshest fruits and vegetables for their products.
McClure’s Pickles
I just had the opportunity to taste McClure’s Pickles at the Detroit Easter Market recently and they’re very good, both their spicy and garlic pickles has great flavor and a good crisp texture. Their bloody mary mix is excellent, more garlicy and briney tasting than traditional bloody mary mixes.
Fusion Sweets
I saw Fusion Sweets on Etsy when she was the featured seller and noticed immediately that she’s from Southeast Michigan! Fusion Sweets specializes in all types of candies, including marshmallows, hard candy, butter caramels, with many unusual flavors including lemongrass, chai, and green tea.
Biggby Coffee
I’ve just become a coffee drinker (or really a mocha or latte drinker) and this is a perfect gift for the coffee lover in your life, or really non-coffee lover as they have a lot of non-coffee drink options available. Or as an alternative to a gift card, how about a bag of fresh roasted coffee beans from Biggby and a travel mug?
Michigan Venison Company
From Traverse City, the Michigan Venison Company provides all natural, whitetail venison via Foodzie.com. The meat is harvested humanely from free range whitetail deer raised in northern Michigan. Steak, loins, and ground venison are available.
Grand Traverse Distillery
The Grand Traverse Distillery offers both whiskey and vodka created using locally harvested grains. Their True North Vodka was recently rated Top 50 Spirits and Top 6 Vodkas in the world by Wine Enthusiast Magazine.
Bur Oaks Farm
Bur Oaks Farm is located just a few minutes from downtown Ann Arbor. They grow and process soybeans and sell a variety of different flavors of soynuts, in addition to traditional popping popcorn. I’m not a huge popcorn fan and I’ve never tried soynuts before, so this is something I’ll definitely have to try in the future!
Better Made Potato Chips
One of the more famous Michigan-made products, Better Made Potato Chips is celebrating their 80th anniversary this year! In addition to their many flavors of potato chips, they also offer popcorn, cheese puffs, and pretzels. Order big assortment boxes on their website or a retro looking tin filled with a pound of their signature potato chips.
