American Cheese Society Winner! Unlike the cream cheese we’re used to, this award-winning cheese is made using old techniques and long set times to bring out the full-flavor of the milk. Made with no preservatives or vegetable gums, it has a soft, fluffy texture and boasts a rich, creamy citrus taste.

$10.99/lb (reg. $12.99/lb)

A dynasty of smoke and salt. A winning formation of cheese, sauce and bread. A terrific line up of warmth and crunch that will have your fist pounding in the air. It’s Sandwich Line Sous Chef Schoenfeld’s signature tribute to the Wolverines. It’s… the Smokey Hokey. Smoked turkey, applewood smoked bacon, smoked mozzarella, and barbeque sauce on a grilled onion roll.

$11.99/one size

The belly cut from the finest hand-caught Spanish Albacore available. This tuna is as buttery and tender as it gets; it will take any snack or meal to the next velvet-y level.

$10.71ea (33% off, reg. $15.99/ea)

With visions of olives dancing in our heads these Kalamata’s are a perfect table treat. Plump, firm and bursting with the flavor, these oval jewels are brined with Greek red wine and compliment your party tray perfectly.

$9/half lb; $18/lb

Available everyday in December!

Bread fans everywhere wait all year long for this bread! It’s a perennial favorite for the holidays. When we sample it, there’s a phenomenon of customers who grab a piece as they’re leaving and come back a few minutes later asking “what did I just eat? That’s amazing!”. This bread is a magic combination of our San Francisco Sourdough, toasty pecans, and dried New England cranberries.

$10.99/ea

Special Bakes!

Green Olive Paesano 11/30 & 12/1
A chewy round of our Paesano bread with savory green olives. Makes an instant appetizer.

Pepper Bacon Farm 12/7 & 12/8
Everything is better with bacon right? Check out applewood smoked bacon and black pepper in a crusty loaf of our signature farm bread. Try it on an egg sandwich. Nearly a pound loaf. A meal in itself and our most popular special bake!

• Panettone: All December
• Stollen: All December
• Hungarian Beigle (Walnut & Poppy): Available Mid-December
• Chocolate Cherry, Chile Cheddar, Pain de Montagne: available daily 12/20-12/23

A delicious blend of two of our favorite winter flavors, rich Scharffen Berger chocolate syrup and cool peppermint combined with our espresso, Calder Dairy milk and real whipped cream.

$4.00 Tall: $4.75

Creating our Holiday Blend is one of our favorite things to do. This year, we were inspired by the diverse wonderful flavors found in the Bakehouse’s Hungarian pastries – in particular, the prevalent use of nuts and citrus.

We imagined that we could find some good nuttiness by roasting our Espresso Blend #1 from Brazil’s Daterra Estate a little more quickly and lightly, so we did. But it didn’t have the slightly bitter notes from walnuts used in Hungarian pastry. We added a bit of a Sulawesi from the Toraja region (Sulawesi was formerly known as Celebes – and the coffee is also known as kalossi), which gave us the touch of earthy bitterness we were looking for.

For the bright citrus flavor, we initially were drawn to a Colombian sample that we had recently roasted. It was delicious but needed more “sparkle.” Our next combination was with a newly found (for us) Salvadoran coffee from Las Ranas. It is a pulped natural or “honeyed” coffee, meaning the fruit is crushed and set out to dry before processing. It added the sparkle (brightness from acidity) that we needed along with flavors of tart cherry, bright honey and a little bit more walnut.

We hope you’ll enjoy our Holiday Blend 2012 as much as we’ve enjoyed crafting it. Please let us know what you think! email: coffeezingermanscom

$14.99/12 oz bag

Sweet, salty, peppery and finally overwhelming. We slather our pecans with butter, cloves, cinnamon and black pepper & then roast them til crispy. Bet you can’t just eat 30.

$24.99/16oz. bag

Fran’s Coconut Gold Bars
I thought I was feckless in the presence of an Almond Joy; I hadn’t yet met the Coconut Gold Bar. Soft shredded coconut, held together with a bit of white chocolate and spiked with a tiny touch of rum, topped with almonds, all enrobed in dark chocolate. Zingerman’s Deli has had the distinct honor of being the only shop other than Fran’s own retail stores to sell this confection, and so while we never have too many on hand, I’ve stocked up a little bit for the winter holidays. Hurry in though, they never last long!

Chocolat Moderne’s Snake Charmer Cocoa
Chocolat Moderne’s Cocoa Casbah line converts me into a bonafide hot chocolate drinker when the temperatures begin their steep decline. Joan’s entire suite features dark Valrhona chocolate, which with a bit of milk transforms into a silky smooth potion. I find her Snake Charmer blend absolutely tantalizing; the addition of cinnamon and anise transports me as the most aromatic steam gently sweeps up from a small ceramic cup of this elixir. Try it with a shot of ouzo for an “after hours” delight.

Comptoir du Cacao Croustines
Ari and I both found ourselves enamoured with this confection after tasting at the Fancy Food Show, which must say something since neither one of us really harbors a big sweet tooth! A total dream for anyone who likes a little texture in their chocolate. Impossibly flaky clusters – imagine shredded corn flakes – but dipped and held together by either dark chocolate and candied orange pieces or milk chocolate and hazelnut paste. Perfectly balanced sweetness, wonderfully clean flavor, and terribly addictive. Share with friends, but squirrel some away for yourself before they’re all gone!

Patric Chocolate’s Holy Mole!
a collaboration with Zingerman’s
The apple of my eye this holiday season. Alan “Patric” McClure phoned me last fall to ask if I was interested in producing a collaborative bar with him, a proposition which I giddily accepted. I could not be more thrilled to share it with you. Inspired by the Deli’s dry goods selection and the colorful history of mole, we set forth. Fairly traded cacao provides the framework for a beguiling blend of smoked paprika, a special blend of chilies, Indonesian cinnamon, and vanilla salt. Our recipe didn’t involve any praying nuns or calculating wind, but we think a visiting archbishop would be most pleased with our resulting bar!

Askinosie Licorice Bar
A dangerously delicious combination that has held my attention all year. Missouri Chocolate Maker Shawn Askinosie teamed up with Swedish licorice company, Lakritsfabriken, to craft a bar one might suspect rained down from Valhalla. Dark milk chocolate provides a bed upon which anise seeds, black licorice bits, and a pinch of fleur de sel happily rest until melting and mingling in one’s mouth.

Bonajuto Black Bars
These most unassuming of bars from Modica, Sicily have been my go to chocolate over this past year. Crunchy, coarse-ground. The perfect size for tucking away in knapsacks and the perfect antidote to indecipherable food cravings. We’ve carried ‘Muscovado’ (or ‘Cane Sugar,’ as it’s now being somewhat poorly translated!) for a year now which strikes me with its aromas of hay & caramelized sugar and flavorful notes of scotch and savory herbs. New this year is ‘White Pepper’ which strikes me as a perfect winter chocolate; low, low notes reminiscent of woodsmoke, char, nutmeg and honey with a subtle tongue tickling pepper finish.

La Fournette Hazelnut Spread
When Flora Lazar, who crafts beautiful French-style nougat for us, told me her friends — French Pastry School instructors, no less — were churning out a hazelnut spread that was “to die for,” I listened and promptly tracked down a jar. Perfectly nutty, smooth on the tongue, well-balanced sweetness. Chocolate hazelnut spreads have never really been my thing, and yet this one frequently has me debating a small spoonful while working at my desk.

Marou Chocolate’s 70% Tien Giang
It’s a real treat when food tastes as good as it looks. For their branding, Marou teamed up with Ho Chi Mihn City’s Rice Creative, who drew inspiration from Vietnamese handprinted ceremonial papers and cacao pods’ diverse spectrum of hues. Unwrap one of these beauties and take a bite! Notes of cinnamon and cloves, with a touch of acidity, happily reminded me of pflaumenkuchen, a German spiced plum cake.

Askinosie Peppermint Bark
Once again, we’ll be bagging up a modest 25 pounds of artisanal “bean to (peppermint) bar(k),” handmade in Springfield, MO. These slabs of single-origin dark chocolate, buttery white chocolate, and all-natural, crushed peppermint from Denver’s Hammond’s Candies inspire cheer upon sight. Perfect for sharing amongst family and friends – but I know plenty of people who’d much rather keep it all to themselves, the perfect late night nibble alongside a cup of hot cocoa.

Truffles, Caramels, & Bonbons!
I mean, really, who isn’t delighted by a custom box of handmade confections? I love the holiday season for allowing me to go whole hog and outfitting the Next Door’s truffle case with a treasure trove of handmade confections from producers located all over the States; come peruse the selection or let one of our staff cull together the perfect assortment of flavors and textures. Some of the pieces I am looking forward to include Chocolate in Chelsea’s Malted Milk (a soda fountain classic inspires this velvety ganache); Sweet Gem’s Chocolate-covered Raspberry Pate de Fruit (a nibble reveals a glistening French-style fruit jelly made with Michigan fruit); Chocolat Moderne’s Baby Bourbon (milk chocolate & single-grain bourbon whiskey from NY’s Tuthilltown Spirits); and Grocer’s Daughter’s Pomegranate Ginger (oozing with flavor; pomegranate extract, fresh grated ginger)