Buying a gift takes special consideration. And we’ve all been on both sides of the exchange, whether it’s gone well or not so well. You know when the wrapping paper comes off whether a present is a winner. In our Gifted & Approved series, we tell the stories of those winners, the best presents our editors have either given or received. We hope they provide a little inspiration and advice as you go about your holiday shopping and gift search.
In my opinion, some of the best gifts to give and receive are foodie gifts that are a little more splurge-y than what someone would normally impulse-buy for themselves. A few Christmases ago, I decided that gift would be The Big Dill Gourmet Pickle Box for my dad.
My dad is a fun gift recipient to buy for because we’re very similar. While we both love bold, punchy flavors and unique, where-the-heck-did-you-get-this oddities, we’re also persnickety to a fault and not good at hiding when someone gives us a gift that misses the mark. Finding a good holiday present for him (or me, for that matter) requires deep listening, careful observance of likes and dislikes, and elaborate charting of family lore and inside jokes.
Fortunately, we happen to share a love of pickles. I, naturally, inherited my hankering for all things sour from him, while his was passed down from his great-aunt, whose homemade bread-and-butter pickles were the stuff of legend, to hear him tell it.
With the mission of finding a pickle-related present for him, I decided to see what Mouth had to offer. Mouth specializes in small-batch foodie treats sourced from independent makers around the U.S. I first came across the brand’s curated gift boxes, which cover every craving from chocolate to cheese. Mouth carries a wide assortment of pickle packages, including a pickle-of-the-month subscription that was particularly appealing.
However, I ended up getting The Big Dill Gourmet Pickle Box. This box of eight to nine jars offers just enough variety for an adventurous pickle palette. This is the current lineup:
- Gordy’s Pickle Jar Sweet Chip Pickles
- Pacific Pickle Works Mother’s Puckers Garlic Dills
- New Road Brinery Curry Ginger Pickle Chips
- Yee-Haw Pickles Bronc Buster Spicy Dill Pickled Green Beans
- Kansas City Canning Hoppy Pickles
- Frankie’s Sweet Fire Pickles
- Backyard Brine Everything Bagel Pickles
- Doux South Pickled Cherry Tomatoes
Oh, and you can buy all of these pickles a la carte, as well, if one happens to be particularly pleasing.
The box arrived less than a week after I ordered it, with the precious cargo securely packed and intact. And what was Dad’s reaction to receiving a pile of pickles as a Christmas present? He loved it, and I think he felt deeply seen by this quirky gift.
The jar of Gordy’s Sweet Chip Pickles was the first he sampled, and it was probably his favorite of the bunch. But it’s been nice to see some of the flavors and brands from that gift box reappear in his pantry, long after he finished the first batch. It’s a high compliment to see something you’ve introduced to someone else to make it into their regular rotation — and a sign you nailed the gift.
Buy the Mouth Big Dill Gourmet Pickle Box
Melanie Yates is the Senior Digital Editor at House Beautiful, where she oversees design, gardening, and home renovation content. Since joining the team in 2024, Melanie ideates, assigns, and edits digital stories from in-house and freelance writers and helps execute big-picture projects for the brand. Prior to this role, Melanie was a senior editor at Best Products for over eight years, where she launched the site’s home vertical, conducted numerous bedding product tests, wrote The Present Perfect newsletter column, and produced video tutorials on how to wrap a gift. A lifelong enthusiast of the written word, Melanie holds a BA in broadcast journalism from Hofstra University and a certificate in copyediting from UC San Diego Extension. She’s always on the lookout for the next vintage find to furnish her Queens apartment.
