Utah food gifts that ship, and when to order them

Cheese and chocolate, mostly, with a lot of sugar in between. Utah has a taffy maker that dates to 1916 and a newer crop of chocolate makers who start from the bean. At least one creamery here rubs coffee into its cheddar. None of these needs a Utah reference to explain it, which is the point. A gift that only works if you already live here is a souvenir.

Beehive Cheese was founded in Uintah in 2005, and the cheese with the best name is Barely Buzzed, a cheddar rubbed with espresso and lavender. The coffee is a South American blend called Beehive Blend, which Colorado Legacy, a roaster in Grand Junction, Colorado, shipped to Beehive weekly. SeaHive follows the same habit. It is rubbed with honey from Slide Ridge Honey, which keeps some of its bees on Beehive's undeveloped land in Morgan County, and with salt from Redmond Real Salt, mined from ancient salt beds in Redmond, Utah. Beehive says it has won more than 130 major awards in 18 years.

The shipping rules are specific. Beehive delivers only Tuesday through Friday, and a Tuesday arrival needs overnight service. It won't ship to P.O. boxes or military bases. It doesn't ship internationally either, and processing can take up to two business days. Order early in the week.

Heber Valley Artisan Cheese comes from a dairy farm in Midway that its site says has been in the same family for more than 100 years. The specialty is juustoleipa, a Finnish bread cheese. The farm also sells curds and gift baskets. It ships in refrigerated boxes, and the company says it checks the weather where you live to time the arrival. That is more attention than most of us give our own mail.

Taffy Town has been at this since 1916, when James Glade started the Glade Candy Company, and it became Taffy Town in the 1990s. The taffy is whipped with egg whites instead of pulled, and the West Jordan factory turns out more than 20,000 pounds of it a day in more than 90 flavors. Orders ship within the United States, usually within one business day, and it can take up to five at peak times.

Ritual Chocolate makes its bars in Heber City, and every batch spends 72 hours in a conche built in 1915. Its process page names two ingredients, cacao and organic cane sugar. Cofounder Robbie Stout told Visit Utah⁹, "For every pound of chocolate we sell, we lift it 25 times." Ritual ships only Monday through Thursday, so a Friday order sits until the next week rather than spending a weekend in a truck.

Amano started in Orem in 2005, when Art Pollard set out to make chocolate from the bean. It was the first American bean to bar maker to win gold at the Academy of Chocolate Awards, and the first U.S. maker to use the Chuao bean from Venezuela. The shop sells single origin bars and flavored ones such as Mango Chili. There are gift bundles too. For a chocolate person, the single origin bars are the gift, since the label tells them exactly which country they are tasting.

Caffe Ibis has roasted in Logan since 1985 and traces its start to 1976, when Randy Wirth and Sally Sears opened the Straw Ibis Market and Cafe there. It describes its coffee as organic, Fairtrade and Smithsonian Bird Friendly shade grown. The roastery works to order. It roasts and ships Monday through Thursday and asks for a one-week lead time, so a coffee gift ordered on December 20 is a New Year's gift.

Stephen's Gourmet began as a present. In the 1980s Stephen Story mixed batches of hot chocolate and gave them to his neighbors at Christmas, and by 2000 the brand held about 40 percent of Utah's hot cocoa market. It is run from Farmington now, and the lineup includes Mint Truffle and Citrus Spice Wassail, in sizes from 14 ounces up to 4 pounds. The original gift is still the best use of it.

Lehi Mills bagged its first flour in April 1906, and it still mills in Lehi, where it sells flour and a long shelf of baking mixes, pancakes and muffins included. In 1952 it supplied the flour for the first Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant, which was in Salt Lake City. Kevin Bacon worked at the mill to prepare for Footloose, which gives a box of muffin mix more backstory than it strictly needs. Shipping is free on orders over $69.

Earlier than you would order a sweater. The makers above each run on their own shipping days, and they don't line up:

• Beehive Cheese delivers Tuesday through Friday and may take two business days to process an order.
• Ritual ships Monday through Thursday.
• Caffe Ibis roasts and ships Monday through Thursday, with a one-week lead time.
• Taffy Town usually ships within one business day, and up to five in busy weeks.

The safe move is to have everything ordered by the first week of December and send the cheese last, so it spends the least time in a box. If you would rather hand it over in person, Lehi Mills¹⁶ keeps a store at the mill, and Heber Valley runs farm tours daily at 11. The food and drink page has the rest of the Utah food makers.