Review: Great Harvest Gift Baskets

When looking for a PERFECT gift basket for any gift – don’t look anywhere but Great Harvest.

You are looking at perfection. This is one of the Gift Baskets from Great Harvest and it is… correction, it was… out of this world. It’s from the Great Harvest store on Frederica in Owensboro, Kentucky and it was delicious right down to the last bite.

I read not long ago that, when it comes to favorite gifts, people tend to prefer experiences over possessions. I had just gotten something pretty darn cool, so my reaction was, “I.. dunno….” But, then I thought about some of my favorite gifts over the years and Great Harvest gift baskets came immediately to mind. I also thought of gourmet coffee… but, then again, I’m a coffee fanatic, so I’m always thinking of coffee.

There are a lot of things to love about receiving a beautiful gift basket from Great Harvest:

The sight of the beautifully arranged and decorated gift basket, itself, makes you smile ear to ear.
The bread is always beyond fantastic – unlike any bread you’ve ever had.
A lot of baskets will include a soup starter, like the Chicken Dumpling Soup in the basket above. They’re always fantastic.
The Vanilla Honey Butter (front and center) was one of the most delicious things I’ve ever tasted. I spread it on the Heavenly Cranberry Orange Bread and did a happy dance with each bite. I felt like crying when the last bite was gone. They make this Vanilla Honey Butter “in store” and you WILL NOT believe how good it is.
The Ham Spread is also too good for it’s own good. When I finally pulled myself away from the Vanilla Honey Butter and tried the ham spread, I realized that it was the stuff dreams are made of too. AMAZINGLY delicious!
The Kentucky Blend black tea included in a lot of these gift baskets is wonderful. I have to confess that I sweeten most of my tea, but I wouldn’t dare add anything to this particular tea. The flavor is more than perfect just like it is. Once you’ve had this blend, it’s hard to go back to any other black tea.
The cookies!!! The best cookies from Great Harvest are their Snickerdoodles – which are more like giant sugar cookies. I could eat 100 without taking a single breath. Their chocolate chip cookies are also fantastic – and so big!
After the wonderful food’s all gone, you’re left with a great looking and highly serviceable basket. There was a card in the bottom of mine which said I could return the basket for a free loaf of bread. Although that sounded delicious, I’d rather simply pay for the bread and keep my great looking basket for fruit, chips, and future loaves of Great Harvest bread. One of our cats, Hannah, still uses a basket from 3 years ago as a bed. She recommends them highly.
Any jam or jelly I’ve had from Great Harvest puts store-bought jams and jellies to shame. They put tiny little paper sacks over their heads.
Not only do you get a huge thrill when you see the big and beautiful gift basket, you get a huge thrill each time you return to it for another bite! If you’re keeping score, that’s a lot of thrills.

The gift baskets vary, of course, but I’ve had enough of them to know that it’s impossible to go wrong. The friendly people who work at Great Harvest stores will fix you up with a gift basket that’s just right.

No matter where you live in Kentucky, there’s a Great Harvest near you. Simply go to Great Harvest’s Website and click on “Find a Great Harvest” at the very top. Whether you go for a couple of loaves of bread, a stack of cookies, or a gift basket, you can rest assured that you’ll be nothing but blown away.

Fair warning, though. If you buy someone a gift basket, they probably aren’t going to share. You’d better secure some baked treasure for yourself!

EDIT 3/23/2015: I’d love to see Great Harvest incorporate “gluten free” bread into their stores. Even if they were unable to make it “in store,” due to cross-contamination, maybe they could provide gluten free bread (and even pastries!) from verified gluten free sources.

As it is, I really miss their gift baskets!