Gift baskets for men are so difficult to find because most popular gift basket companies miss the elephant in the room – guys don’t do gift baskets. The reason gift baskets for men is almost an oxymoron is that gift baskets for guys tend to look a lot like gift baskets for gals – with flowery over-wrap, big fluffy bows and pretty foo-foo stuff that most guys would not want to be caught dead with in their man cave. Even those chocolate gift baskets for men that are supposed to be just for him tend to have the same delicate selection of truffles, bars and ordinary bite-size chocolate treats that she gets in hers. Frankly, those tiny morsels leave most guys wondering, where’s the sweets?
But one company has this dilemma solved. Chocolate Pizza Company is Central New York’s largest chocolate maker and its 29-year-old CEO, Ryan Novak, a former Syracuse University football player, knows exactly what gift baskets for men should be, starting with his bare-bones original, the Mansket.
At least, Mansket, is what he calls his “man’s basket” and it is the answer to prayers for what to get the manliest-man on your gift list. This is certified man cave material.
Forget the usual trappings of any of those pre-canned gift baskets from cookie-cutter companies, the Mansket delivers the goods in authentic tough-guy fashion, a brown paper bag. And lose the rainbow tissue paper of typical gift baskets, the Mansket uses newspaper to line the inside (the sports page if they can find it). So, what’s in this brown paper bag lined with newspaper? None other than cocoa booty worthy of a pirate king himself.
The humble outside shields prying eyes from a stash of chocolate goodness that any guy will love. It starts with famous Peanut Butter Wings® – rippled potato chips covered in creamy peanut butter drenched in milk chocolate. Bar the door, Katie, these things are wicked good with a salty-sweet taste that is almost intoxicating. There will be no sharing I assure you. Follow that with a Candy Avalanche Slice. Skip the mystery truffles made with goat cheese, this is man’s-world chocolate here, the good stuff without the goats. Weighing in at scale-busting 9 ounces, it’s the highest quality Swiss-style milk chocolate blended with toffee and topped with a virtual candy store. But there’s more. How about some snacks? The Mansket knows to skip the delicate finger foods in favor of a chocolate covered Twinkie® (yeah, the same snack he loved as a boy) and half-a-dozen chocolate covered cookies (that’s 6 cookies, not some one-zy-two-zy pack).
Altogether, this gift basket for men delivers over 1.5 pounds of chocolate – impressive indeed – but it’s the final touch to this manly masterpiece that sets the Mansket apart. The piece de resistance is literally, a “piece” – of silver duct tape. Yes, topping the Mansket and holding all that chocolate inside the brown bag is a swatch of man’s other best friend, duct tape. Now that’s a “bow” he can relate to.
There’s nothing else like it – order your tough guy a Mansket and then drop the mic. You’ve hit the pinnacle of gift baskets for men. Problem solved – you’re now a hero in his eyes.
