Not all gift baskets are created equal...Our elegant BCS cheese gift baskets are fashioned to excite and delight the eye and palate. Each offering starts with specialty items nestled within a beautiful gift basket, these items are a unique collection of tantalizing small batch products from local makers, small national to international farms, and hard to find specialty items, all intentionally curated by the Bedford Cheese Shop owners and team. From there, customers may select one or more “add on” options to create the ultimate cheese gift basket, meat and cheese gift basket, or cheese and crackers gift basket. To further explain our gourmet cheese gift baskets “add on” options, these selections include one or more of our year round, crowd pleasing cheeses, or seasonal cheeses and beautiful quality charcuterie, all hand selected by our incredibly knowledgeable cheesemongers. Should you choose to elevate your gift basket please note we include proper cooling supplies to keep cheeses and charcuterie at their best flavor profile. Additionally shipping overnight or two day is required. These coveted cheese gift baskets are wonderful gifts for any occasion. Rest assured, when our gourmet cheese gift basket is received full of hand selected items, beautifully assembled with an eye for detail, the recipient will experience excitement, pleasure and satiating joy! Our cheese basket gift will elevate your gift to the next foodie level! Worth noting, each cheese gift basket is designed so that the standard speciality items within can stand alone, be they sweet or savory artisanal jams, local honey, unique hot sauces, or perfectly salted marcona almonds (just to name a few possibilities), they are also intended to bring the best flavor profile of your selected “add on” cheeses and charcuterie should you decide to elevate your gift. Please note our cheese gift baskets can also be created in the shop! If our pre-organized beauties do not fit your desire, we would love to help create your vision in person. Come to our shop, take your time and select from an extensive selection of local and international items spanning from pairing jams to artisanal dried pasta (once you taste it you will fall head over heels), and then of course cheese! Soft cheese, bloomy cheese, wash rind cheese, hard cheese, varied milk cheese, spreadable cheese, melting cheese, stinky cheese, mild cheese, seasonal cheese and specialty cheese. And yes, this list goes on, and on and on……..

When is the best time to give a BCS gourmet cheese gift basket?

We here at Bedford Cheese Shop feel that anytime is the right time to gift one of our baskets, be it a cured meat and cheese gift basket, cheese basket, charcuterie basket, or stand alone gourmet specialty item basket. Our expectation is that the cheese gift basket recipient will have a delicious sampling of our highly curerated, unique and mouth pleasing offerings. Perhaps nestled within will be a delightful surprise cheese pairing item never considered before, a grocery item they never knew they needed until they tried ours, an elegant olive oil peppery,bright and flavorful -- satisfying pleasure achieved! Should you select to include one, or more, of our artisanal cheeses to be enjoyed at their peak of perfection, you will enchant your cheese foodie recipient.

What we want to express, is that our gourmet cheese gift baskets are for truly any occasion. We feel passionately that cheese should be savored and enjoyed whenever desired! And as such, our cheese baskets offer the opportunity to taste a broad array of delicious specialty items offered in our shop with the option to add on the finest cheeses and charcuterie, at the peak of their flavor profile perfection. Our baskets can be delivered in the NYC area and beyond for a variety of events, ranging from birthdays, hostess/host gift, thank yous, get well soon, happy graduation, congratulations on your new job, congratulations on your new baby, dinner parties, cocktail parties, treating yourself, cheese enthusiasts, friends who love highly curated delicious products, just for fun, thinking of you, you’re the BEST, valentines, holidays, special life events, new parents date night kit, and…. Just because. You get the picture...

What size basket is best?

Traditionally we offer 2 cheese gift basket sizes, medium and small. But of course we can accommodate our valued customers (just give us a call or stop on in to our shop). We offer a few delivery options to get our cheese and meat gift baskets to the lucky recipient. Depending on proximity, we have same day delivery in Manhattan and surrounding 4 boroughs. We coordinate overnight and 2 day options with proper cooling packets (the only way our gift boxes travel if they are carrying precious cheese cargo- integrity of our product is critical to us), and we offer 2 or 3 day for gift boxes containing amazing local and international specialty items that are sealed (ie: no refrigeration required). Another idea is to pick up your gift and take it with you. To that end we here at BCS welcome and enjoy the opportunity to speak with you in person, talk more about our products and of course… Cheese!

So you get a cheese gift basket, WOW... what next?

If it is us, we dig in… of course allowing a good 45 minutes to an hour for cheese (if included) to get to its optimal room temperature ensuring the most delicious mouth taste imaginable. If you want to create an intentional presentation with your cheese gift basket, grab a presentation board (decorative plate, cutting board, slate) whatever you have at hand. Place pairing jars of jams and the like as is on the board or put in small bowls of your choosing. To the cheese add a spoon or small blunt cheese knife (for creamy, soft, bloomy or wash rind cheese), or a small sharper cheese knife (for semi hard to hard cheese such as L’amuse, Manchego, or Brabander). Lay out your crackers, and any accoutrements if included. Fold or lay out your charcuterie. If there is a sweet for example (chocolate goes beautifully with a blue), put it in a bowl or roughly chop and lay on your board. Allow your BCS cheese basket delivery goodies to get to room temperature, then slice according to cheese style. Let your imagination run wild from there, mix combinations that seem unique, unexpected and yet divine. Yes, a gorgonzola drizzled with tahini and honey is astounding!! Perhaps you prefer a more savory option, a slice of Oma with caramelized onion jam and that beautiful salty slick marcona almond placed on top screams perfection!

Our cheese shop is independently owned and personally outfitted with the most meticulous of care. We love cheese, we love good food, we want to share these wonders with our treasured customers. We care deeply that what we send out to the world brings happiness, surprise, and delight. Creating packages that are meaningful, intentional, and thoughtful brings us extreme satisfaction and why customers come back to us time and time again. We are supportive of local small businesses, independent national and international farms and more. We care about our shop, our customers, our BCS team, our brand and how we source our offerings. Yes, a BCS gift basket will bring pleasure, comfort and joy to all those who receive them! We could not ask for more.