The edible half of the trove — the Café Britt coffee my mom reorders by the bag, the Tokyo snacks that never survive the flight home, Tanya's Italian honey, Auntie Kristen's Panama hot sauce — plus the serving pieces it all gets eaten and poured from. Everything's still filed under its home region; this is just the whole table, gathered in one place. — Eris
Picked by Micki
The everyday one — Café Britt's Tres Ríos Valdivia, a single-origin Costa Rica arabica grown in the volcanic Tres Ríos highlands and ground for drip or French press. This is the bag my mom reorders on repeat: the mornin…
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Picked by Micki
Café Britt's decaffeinated Costa Rica Arábica — 100% arabica, ground for drip or French press. Micki keeps a bag in the kitchen for the afternoon pour that doesn't need to mess with sleep, and for guests who never quite…
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Picked by Micki
The Café Britt souvenir-section classic. Roasted espresso beans wrapped in milk chocolate — the variant Micki used to grab fistfuls of for the office snack drawer, the I-thought-of-you drop-by, the Tuesday-afternoon pic…
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Picked by Micki
The grown-up cousin of the milk version. Same Café Britt espresso bean, swapped into a dark chocolate shell — bitter notes from the coffee and the cocoa pulling in the same direction. Mic's pick when she's bringing back…
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Picked by Micki
The variant nobody guesses works until they try it. Roasted Café Britt espresso beans coated in white chocolate — sweeter and softer than the milk or dark, with the bean's bitterness cutting through what would otherwise…
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Picked by Micki
The last-stop-before-the-gate purchase. Two Royce' specifically: the Nama Chocolate squares — fresh-cream chocolate kept cold, dusted in cocoa — and the Chocolate-covered Potato Chips, Hokkaido chips half-dipped in dark…
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Picked by Micki
Three boxes in Micki's pantry, always. Mary Chocolate Co.'s Fancy Chocolates — deep red and navy plaid, the tiny chocolate-maker silhouette tucked into the pattern, made in Tokyo since 1950. The box itself feels like Sh…
Picked by Micki
Micki picks up six boxes every time she flies through Tokyo — usually alongside the I Love Custard cookies. The Cookie Sand variant of Tokyo Banana: two crisp cookies pressed around banana cream, not the famous 1991 spo…
Picked by Micki
The companion to the Tokyo Banana haul. NEUF NEUF's I Love Custard — yellow-polka-dot box, soft custard-filled cookies, the kind of bakery branding that makes you want to keep the empty package. Micki picks up at least…
Picked by Micki
Mamemasa has been making bean confections on Ebisugawa Street in Kyoto since 1884 — 140 years of roasting and coating peanuts. Micki pours them into a small bowl, sets them out with a cold sake, and watches them disappe…
Picked by Micki
Not a product. A morning ritual. On a departure day, Micki walks down to Brewer's 2 Go in the lobby of the ANA InterContinental Tokyo (Akasaka), picks up a chocolate croissant and a few pastries for the ride to Narita,…
Picked by Tanya
Tanya's Lake Como pick for the Italian-breakfast curious. Mulino Bianco's Abbracci — the "hug" cookies, chocolate and vanilla shortbread halves embracing a cream filling. Mulino Bianco is what Italian kids actually grow…
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Picked by Tanya
Mulino Bianco's Baiocchi, the pistachio version: two thin shortbread discs hiding a pistachio-cream center, named after an old papal coin. Tanya's tea-time cookie — the one that disappears two at a time. — Eris
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Picked by Tanya
"Heart of apple" — a soft Mulino Bianco shortbread filled with Golden Delicious apple jam, 100% Italian fruit, no palm oil. Tanya's breakfast-on-the-go; it's basically a tiny apple crostata you can hold in one hand. — E…
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Picked by Tanya
Tuscan cantuccini — the little twice-baked biscuits — studded with dark chocolate, from a Florentine maker going since 1832. Traditionally dunked in Vin Santo; Tanya dunks them in espresso and isn't sorry about it. — Er…
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Picked by Tanya
Ferrero's Raffaello — coconut-and-almond confetteria wrapped in a crisp white wafer, a whole almond at the center. Tanya's box never makes it to a dish; they get eaten straight from the wrapper, cold from the fridge. —…
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Picked by Tanya
Italian fruit drops made with real fruit juice and vitamin C, no sugar — the orange-and-citrus pack Tanya keeps in her bag. The grown-up version of the candies the nonne always seem to have on hand. — Eris
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Picked by Tanya
Just coconut — dried slowly for over ten hours, no added sugar, nothing else. Tanya's plane snack and her answer to an afternoon sweet craving she doesn't want to feel guilty about. — Eris
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The other essential at Micki's sushi night, sitting beside the his-and-hers soy. Mizkan's Yuzu Ponzu is brighter than plain ponzu — citrus-soy with the unmistakable lift of yuzu, the small green-yellow Japanese citrus.…
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The kitchen-side of the yuzu shelf. Where the Mizkan Yuzu Ponzu lives next to the soy at sushi night, the bottled juice lives by the stove — concentrated, ready to brighten a marinade, a vinaigrette, a cocktail, a pan s…
Picked by Kristen
Panama's #1 hot sauce. D'Elidas Picante Chombo is habanero-based, with a recipe that traces to early-1900s Antillean-Panamanian families — 120 years of family hot-sauce-making. Auntie Kristen used to bring it back from…
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Picked by Tanya
Tanya — who lived in Italy for years — brought this back from Lake Como. Apicella's Millefiori is wildflower honey, certified organic; "millefiori" means "thousand flowers," which is what the bees take from whatever's b…
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Picked by Tanya
Southern-Italian orange-blossom honey, raw and unpasteurized, from Tanya's haul. It sets pale and creamy and tastes faintly of citrus blossom — lovely stirred into the chamomile further down this list, or spooned over r…
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Picked by Tanya
Tanya's Tuscan everyday oil. Toscano IGP means it's certified to come from Tuscany's groves — grassy and peppery, with that little catch at the back of the throat that tells you it's the real thing. The bottle she finis…
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Picked by Tanya
The lentils Italians drive to Umbria for. Castelluccio di Norcia IGP — tiny, thin-skinned, grown on the high plain above Norcia — hold their shape and don't need soaking. Tanya simmers them with a glug of the Farchioni…
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Picked by Tanya
Spelt linguine, bronze-drawn and slow-dried the artisan way, from Tanya's Italian pantry. Spelt — farro — gives it a nuttier bite and a rougher surface that actually grabs the sauce instead of sliding out from under it.…
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Picked by Tanya
Hand-packed yellowfin fillets in brine — the Italian tuna that makes you realize what you'd been eating before. Tanya keeps a jar for tonnato, for a quick pantry pasta, for a tomato-and-tuna lunch that tastes like the c…
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What Micki reaches for when the bottle matters. Dassai 23 is the premium junmai daiginjo from Asahi Shuzo in Yamaguchi — the rice polished down to 23% of its original size, which is what produces the orchid-clean, almos…
Picked by Micki
Micki's summer drink. She juices fresh orange, lemon, and lime and mixes it with Iichiko barley shōchū — a clean, distilled Japanese spirit, distinct from sake and gentler than vodka. Lower-ABV, brighter in citrus, and…
Picked by Tanya
Tanya lived in Italy for years and still goes back. This is what she came home with from Lake Como — Bolla's flagship Amarone della Valpolicella Classico, 2021 vintage. Amarone is made by partially drying the grapes bef…
Picked by Tanya
Tanya's Lake Como find. Russo 1899's Crema di Melone — cream-of-melon Italian liqueur, pale and dessert-companion. It's the bottle Italian dinners actually end on, in the same tradition as limoncello cream but softer-fr…
Picked by Tanya
A proper Tuscan red from Tanya's haul — Cecchi's Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, DOCG, built on Sangiovese. Cherry and dried herb and a little leather, the kind of bottle that turns a Tuesday dinner into something that fe…
Picked by Tanya
The instant chamomile every Italian household has had since 1908 — soluble granules, one cup, done. Bonomelli is the bedtime ritual Tanya grew up with: a spoonful in hot water and the day is officially over. — Eris
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Picked by Tanya
Tanya's other nightcap — Twinings chamomile rounded out with honey and vanilla. Softer and sweeter than the straight Bonomelli; this is the one for when you want the tea to feel a little like dessert. — Eris
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Picked by Micki
The set at the center of every sushi night Micki hosts. Sage-green celadon glaze, rust-edged brushwork, a single trailing leaf branch — quietly beautiful without being precious. The large rectangular platter holds the r…
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Picked by Micki
Four small ochoko cups, each illustrated with a different Kyoto landmark — Kiyomizu-dera in olive green, again in copper, Kinkaku-ji in deep black, a maiko in white. Micki gathered the set from temple gift shops in Kyot…
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Picked by Micki
Black-lacquered with geisha illustrations. Red-lacquered with kabuki figures. Plain bamboo with floral cuffs. The chopstick drawer in Micki's kitchen is a souvenir of a hundred different stops — Tokyo, Kyoto, Asakusa so…
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Picked by Kristen
Auntie Kristen's Tuscan find. A hand-painted ceramic cruet with a landscape scene wrapping the body and the word OLIO across the front — Italian for oil. Functional kitchen object that doubles as decor. Goes next to the…
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Picked by Kristen
Auntie Kristen's Oktoberfest 2002 stein — Munich's commemorative design for the 2002 festival. Each year's Oktoberfest releases its own collectible; this one came home with her from a German trip. A specific vintage, a…
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Picked by Kristen
Auntie Kristen's traditional German stein — cavalier figure circling the body, hinged pewter lid that hisses open the way the good ones do. Classic beer-hall shape, the silhouette every beer stein aspires to. Pairs natu…
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Picked by Micki
Mic bought these in Mainz on one of her husband's trips — he's also an international pilot. Eisgrub-Bräu has been pouring in Mainz since 1989, inside historic underground cellars. It feels like a cave. A pair of cream c…
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Picked by Kristen
Auntie Kristen ate polenta in a restaurant in Argentina, asked about the pan it was cooked in, and the restaurant sold her the actual pan. A disco de arado — literally a plow disc, the traditional Argentine field pan fa…