As the festive season draws ever closer, you might be scratching your head for a suitable gift for those people in your life who already have enough to read, watch or listen to. Hampers have been a good go-to option for a while, and something we have used previously. The guys from Bodgega Hampers have created the opportunity to double down on the particular vibe and excellence from a Spanish perspective. Below are our testers thoughts. Our team reviewed this particular hamper from Bodega Hampers

Feliz Navidad, Bodega Hampers reviewed

It is fair to say that several members of our reviewing testing team were slightly licking their lips when news of this product review came in. Naturally it didn't hurt that a few of the team with Spanish links, including those that moved to Ireland from Spain, were very keen to take on this onerous task. For those familiar with the food, wine and cuisine from Spain, you will recognise that simply creating a Spanish derived hamper service for the Irish market is already a pretty strong idea.

In no particular order we will serve up a few comments and observations. First up though, some other hampers that we have encountered can actually be slightly disappointing when you contrast the weight and volume versus the price and heft of what actually arrives. Bodega Hampers offer quite a wide price range of products, from financially quite conservative, to completely blow the budget out of the water. The hamper we received for review seemed quite reasonably priced relative to the range and amount of content contained inside. Therefore on this overall consideration our reviewers gave it a thumbs up and felt that, for gifting, there was good scope to tailor the gift suitably to make both sender and recipient happy.

If you are already a fan of Spanish food and wine, you will be happy with the range of products in the hamper. If you are not familiar with the benefits of Cava, then this is a fantastic, and, in many ways superior alternative to champagne for a light Christmas lunch toast. The one supplied in the hamper is great, and there are plenty of other options if you fancy something different. Spanish reds and whites are always pretty good, and the two included in this hamper very much felt like something to be appreciated over the Christmas period.

The cheese and ham were great, as you would expect, and we suspect they had fun curating (terrible pun alert) the selections for the hamper series. For those who have not lived in Spain, you might not realise that nougat is such a Christmas thing. We remember stands piled high with Turrón in the Madrid megastore Corte Ingles. If this is not familiar to you, then do try it, but just chew carefully, as no one wants to visit the dentist over the festive break. Similarly a can of sardines might not seem like the obvious part of a Christmas hamper, but it is reflective of something popular from Spain. Tuna is another seafood well loved in Spain too, so it is logical to appear here, although it did make our testers have Proustian yearnings for aceitunas rellenas de anchoas, or perhaps almejas or pulpo in place of either the sardines or the tuna.

Overall it was a definite thumbs up from our testers, who all agreed that they would happily do more hamper testing going forwards. The dispatch and delivery of the hamper was super speedy too, coming fast and efficiently. As a new Irish / Spanish company there are one to watch, and hopefully they have a positive first Xmas season.

Items included

DELICATESSEN

1 Sliced Ham 50% Iberian Cebo 100 g LEFT IBERIANS (Salamanca)

1 Case 400 g 100% Truffled Sheep Cheese and Raw Milk Cheese Sheep and Goat Intense CARMEN

1 Chorizo 240 g approx. 100% Iberian Acorn-fed JABUGUITOS de Sánchez Romero Carvajal

1 Sobrasada de Mallorca 250 g MUNAR

LIQUEURS

1 Organic Cava JUVÉ & CAMPS ESSENTIAL PURPLE Brut Reserva

2 Red Wine D.O. Rioja Alta MONTE REAL Reserva Familia

1 White Wine Verdejo D.O. Rueda VIÑA ALBINA

NOUGATS AND SWEETS

1 Supreme Qual...