Best Food Advent Calendars
By Holly Thomson
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September 29th, 2024
Browse hundreds of extraordinary Christmas food gifts at Sous Chef. Or for the foodie Christmas gift that every food-lover is hoping for, see our finest Italian panettone.
Advent calendars for adults have become hugely popular in recent years. Everybody loves an advent calendar, after all! The excitement of getting a treat each day brightens up even the darkest of December mornings and eases us into the festive season.
Take a look at our Luxury Food Advent Calendars in store - new calendars are arriving every week so keep checking back.
The Best Foodie Advent Calendars
Find inspiration in our edit of calendars from last year - to see the Lakrids Liquorice, Neuhaus Chocolates, Francois Doucet, and Lebkuchen Schmidt in the hand.
NB, packaging and range has been updated for 2024.
Here are Sous Chef’s pick of the best unusual advent calendars for adults, getting you into the Christmas spirit in the most delicious ways possible!
What Makes a Great Advent Calendar? (Top Food Advent Calendars!)
We've brought together a selection of calendars here that are full of surprises. Plus some calendars you won't find anywhere else. Each year, we spend months sourcing the finest Advent treats from the world's best producers – from Danish liquorice to delights from Provence.
Melt’s 12 Days of Christmas Advent calendar is inspired by the much-loved Christmas carol. It’s designed to look like a book with a golden reindeer design on the cover. Open it up to reveal 12 hand-painted doors with illustrations referencing the song. There are French hens, lords a-leaping and partridges in a pear tree!
Behind each door, you will find individually wrapped squares of Melt chocolate. Made from single origin cocoa, each slab is handcrafted by their talented chocolatiers.
Discover a different flavour every day in the lead up to Christmas. There’s rich gianduja chocolate, milk chocolate with sea salt and their famous pistachio blonde. Dark chocolate lovers will adore the bittersweet notes of 68% Amazonian dark chocolate.
This luxury advent calendar is a wonderful festive gift for friends and family. Or, keep it for yourself and indulge in some of London’s finest chocolate.
Melt’s Notting Hill House Advent calendar is filled with luxury chocolates. The design is a love letter to the London neighbourhood that the chocolate shop calls home.
The beautiful Advent facade opens up to reveal 24 smaller houses. Each bow-tied box is a different pastel colour, just like many Notting Hill homes.
Inside the boxes, you will discover Melt’s organic, fresh chocolates. They are made by hand using natural ingredients and single origin cocoa. Each day contains a new surprise, from sea salt thins to pistachio gianduja.
To get you in the Christmas spirit, the calendar is bursting with festive flavours. Expect chocolate bonbons flavoured with gingerbread, marzipan and pâte de fruit. Other delights include a mince pie caramel and a speculoos praline.
This stunning Advent calendar is a dream gift for chocoholics. It’s perfect for fans of the iconic 90s movie, Notting Hill. The packaging is plastic-free.
This giant Advent calendar is the ultimate festive sharing experience. It was designed in-house as an ode to London’s exceptional architecture. Open up the house to discover boxes with delicious treats inside. Each box features illustrations of iconic London buildings.
Count down the days to Christmas with Melt’s exceptional chocolate. Handcrafted in London, each bar is made with sustainable single origin cocoa. This calendar also includes a jar of their indulgent gianduja spread. You can spread it on your panettone on Christmas morning.
This Advent calendar is a wonderful gift for chocolate lovers. It will also delight fans of London history and architecture. The packing is beautifully designed and plastic-free.
Countdown to Christmas with Leone’s stunning Advent calendar. Decorated with a charming hot air balloon scene, it’s filled with Italian confectionery.
Open the doors to discover individually wrapped sweets and chocolates. Leone’s candies are made to age-old recipes, honouring Italian confectionery traditions. They use only the finest ingredients to create sweets with delicious natural flavours.
Ideal for gifting, this Advent calendar will delight anyone with a sweet tooth. With 24 doors to open, you can enjoy a different treat every day. There’s something for everyone, from sweet pastilles to Leone’s famous fruit jellies.
Chocolate lovers will adore Leone’s ‘Cri Cri’ chocolates. Each praline has a smooth coating of dark chocolate and a roasted hazelnut inside. They’re covered in tiny sugar grains for extra crunch.
This Christmas, bring the magic of Italian candy to your home. This beautiful calendar will be the star of your festive decorations. It’s the perfect gift for friends and family.
Countdown to Christmas with Neuhaus’ stunning chocolate pop-up advent calendar. The smart red box opens up to reveal 25 doors - once all the doors have been opened a festive scene is revealed. One of Belgium’s finest chocolatiers, these filled pralines are some of the very best we’ve tasted. The glossy, silky smooth chocolate is delicately flavoured and truly melts in the mouth.
Behind each of the 25 doors is a Neuhaus chocolate, from dark hazelnut gianduja to coffee nougat, spiced biscuit praline to soft caramel. The selection of white, milk and dark Belgian chocolates in fruit and nut flavours means this Advent calendar has something for every chocolate connoisseur.
The Francois Doucet Advent calendar is a festive showstopper from the traditional French praline specialists. Find an assortment of crunchy caramelised nut pralines, aromatic fruit jellies and stunning chocolates behind each door. Printed with a beautiful winter snow scene, it makes a lovely addition to any Christmas decoration.
And behind every window there is often more than one treat - which we're confident you won't want to share! A great gift to spoil those with a sweet tooth.
Spice up the festive season with the Chili Klaus Chili Advent Calendar. It’s the perfect gift for the chilli lover in your life. Open each door for a game of spice roulette - one treat is hot, the other is not.
The calendar has 24 doors and a bonus door to open on New Year’s Eve. You’ll discover a variety of tongue-tingling treats throughout December and start 2025 with a bang.
Behind the doors you’ll discover chilli balls, liquorice, wine gums and more. There’s fiery marzipan and hot chocolate flavoured with jalapeño. Each treat is ranked on the Chili Klaus wind force spice scale. It starts out mild, like a cool breeze, and goes all the way up to 15, ‘apocalypse’!
With several treats behind each door, this calendar is great for sharing. Challenge friends, family or work mates to a daily taste test. It’s a fun, fiery way to count down the days until Christmas.
The luxurious Lakrids Christmas advent calendar returns with some brand new flavours! The card and plastic in this beautiful advent calendar are both made from recycled materials, and the whole calendar is 100% recyclable.
Behind each window you could find an old favourite, or a surprising new flavour combination – all executed with Lakrids’ signature flair. You’ll discover chocolate, coffee, raspberry and other ingredients expertly married with the finest Danish liquorice.
This calendar has 24 windows, and comes all the way from one of the finest liquorice producers in Denmark, the home of liquorice. And behind each window there are two pieces of liquorice: two for you, or - if you're feeling generous - enough to share!
Behind every door you will find a different spice sachet, alongside recipe ideas and tasting notes. It's the perfect calendar for those who love to try new flavours.
⭐ Loved by all who try it
- "For someone who likes trying out new recipes, this is a brilliant way to countdown to Christmas." - The Sun
- "This calendar from Terre Exotique, a spice company who work directly with specialist producers around the world, is a treat!" - Delicious Magazine's Best Food & Drink Advent Calendar
- "Ideal for foodies" - Mirror
⭐ 24 incredible spices
Open a door each day of December for a new individual sachet of sweet and savoury spices.
Each one comes complete with tasting notes and recipe ideas. Experiment with new flavours in your cooking each day, or spice up your dishes well into 2024.
⭐ A daily recipe
You'll try a new recipe every day. Just scan the QR codes on the inside of each window to find the recipe on the Terre Exotique website (just pick "English" language in the menu dropdown).
French classics are taken to a new level, as well as twists on global recipes.
- Pair ‘Cheese maker’s pepper’ with baked brie – a unique blend created just to eat with melted cheese! You’ll taste the heady notes of warming long pepper and tingling Szechuan berry, together with eight other spices.
- ‘Japanese Gomasio’ combines white, black and ‘ume’ plum-flavoured sesame seeds – for a quick upgrade to seared salmon.
- Nepalese ‘timur berry’ brings extraordinary grapefruit notes to a mini tartelletes au citron.
- Try speculoos spice blend for festive biscuits,
- A ma keen marinade or oyster pepper for much more than just oysters!
This is a flavour packed way to countdown to Christmas from the finest spice merchants in the world.
Discover the sweet flavours of northern Italy with this Tuscan biscuits Advent calendar. As you count down the days until Christmas, the doors will reveal traditional biscotti, cantucci and soft nougat. Each artisanal Italian treat is a delicious discovery that will transport you to the picturesque Tuscan countryside. Savour one as a treat before breakfast or enjoy them with your morning coffee.
Behind the decorative doors, you will find crunchy biscotti, chewy almond nougat and sweet biscuits flavoured with cocoa, coffee and limoncello. Our favourites are the canestrelli, which are small flower-shaped biscuits with a crumbly, buttery texture.
This luxury Advent calendar is decorated with red poinsettia and an illustration of the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore. It’s an elegant addition to your festive decor and a wonderful gift for friends and family to enjoy this December.
Neuhaus’ classic chocolate advent calendar makes for an indulgent Christmas countdown – from one of Belgium’s finest chocolatiers. Filled with 25 of Neuhaus’ best-loved chocolates, from hazelnut pralines to pure caramels and sesame centres, this sweet advent calendar is a real treat for both children and adults. The glossy pralines are a piece of true indulgence, to savour every day throughout December.
Beautifully illustrated, this calendar is a suitably festive addition to every kitchen.
Amatller’s chocolate Advent calendar is a selection of exquisite chocolate from one of Barcelona’s most famous makers. Presented in a beautiful box, decorated with gilded flowers and Amatller’s signature Art Nouveau design.
Exclusive to Sous Chef, the Amatller Advent Calendar is filled with beautiful pralines.
With six different pralines to discover, enjoy beautiful filled chocolates flavoured with lemon, coffee, raspberry, hazelnut and orange.
For more Christmas inspiration take a look at all our Christmas food gifts here,
