As a business owner, it is important to celebrate the holidays with your customers and staff as a way to connect with them on a personal level. Corporate Gifting is a trend that is becoming increasingly more popular and despite the economy it is more important than ever to foster relationships with your loyal customers and employees. The most important aspects with corporate gift giving are personalization, uniqueness and practicality.
At Oil & Vinegar, we offer personalized gifts with customized labels so our guests can share unique, gourmet products with their loved ones, colleagues and patrons, while still branding their company’s logo. We offer a selection of over 40 different types of on-tap olive oils and vinegars from around the world and this allows for variety and personalization depending on the gift receivers likes.
Also, we offer practical gifts that your employees and customers can enjoy on an everyday basis for cooking and entertaining. Also, Oil & Vinegar offers our customized labels with a lead time of only 3 to 4 days. Our labels can be customized with companies’ logos and photos, messages or other holiday greetings. This is a fun service we provide our customers because it is a way to personalize gifts and offer something that the receiver will really enjoy. The best part is the labels are very affordable; individual bottles start at $14, sets start at $26.
To purchase a unique and personalized gift for your customers or staff, please visit a local retail store or www.oilandvinegarusa.com.
Growing Chain Continues to Provide Unique, Gourmet Products to Culinary Industry
SEATTLE —In addition to supporting the everyday foodies’ craving to become top-chef, Oil & Vinegar, an interactive gourmet culinary specialty shop packed with international flair, flavor and passion, has captured the culinary gift-giving segment. This holiday season, Oil & Vinegar, has launched its most unique product, “Lo Scrigno,” a customized Vinegar Box with some of the highest quality vinegars in the world, Giusti Vinegars. This customized gift is extremely exclusive and can only be found in the U.S. at selective locations, including Oil & Vinegar.
“We look forward to the Holiday season every year at Oil & Vinegar,” says Debbie Gokhan, COO and Chicago franchisee of Oil & Vinegar, “It is a time of gift-giving and we love being able to add some gourmet flavor through our customized gifts to families across the country.”
Giusti is the oldest and most awarded producer of Balsamic Vinegar of Modena. Founded 1605, first in writing Balsamic Vinegar recipe 1865, Giusti was awarded 14 gold medals during 1800’s prestigious exhibitions, granted Royal Seal of Approval in 1929 as supplier of King of Italy. Giusti boasts the largest and most recognized collection of ancient casks, dating back 1600-1800, drawing aromas and flavours created centuries before.
This collection of Balsamic Vinegars of Modena, originally created on the December 4, 2006 for a special request of the late tenor Luciano Pavarotti for a Red Cross Charity Auction, contains many different types of vinegars, each of which are made up of cooked must and wine vinegar.
The five types include “Silver Medal- Profumato,” which has a firm flavour, good balsamic acidity andintense bouquet of aroma. This vinegar is ideal for salads or raw vegetables and can be lightly heated to be added to sauces and condiments. The second type is “Gold Medals - The Classic”, which has a rich bouquet and perfect balance between sweet and sour that makes it and is the most versatile product. Its perfume makes it a high class choice for salads, meat and fish.
The third type is “Gold Medals - Riccardo Giusti” which is extraordinarily dense with a pleasantly sweet aftertaste. Rich and thick to the palate, it is ideal for barbecues, cheeses, fruit, and also devoured alone. The fourth is “Gold Medals - Fourth Centenary” which was extracted in limited quantity from casks from 1800’s, this quality, celebrating the four centuries of Giusti activity, is rich, full bodied and deeply aromatic Balsamic, to be used in drops for the highest culinary art.
And last is the “Gold Medals - Banda Rossa” which is the pride of the Collection, a very limited quantity of an irresistible Balsamic aged for many years in the most precious Giusti casks, dating from 1600s-1700s. This vinegar has a high density, intense perfume, and fruity notes. Gold Medals can be used for the most noble and special occasions.These five bottles are finished by hand with a selection of balsamic vinegars ripened in ancient casks of the “Gran Deposito Ace to Balsamico Giuseppe Giusti” collection and are matured respectively in oak, chestnut, cherry, mulberry and ash casks”
“We are honored to be able to offer this traditional, rare and high quality Vinegar Box for the Holiday Season,” said Gokhan, “We are looking forward to sharing it with our guests for gifts and to be able to have so much history and richness at each of our stores.”
In addition to the Vinegar Box, this holiday season guests can create their own gifts or meal flavorings with the “on-tap” oils and vinegars, along with mustards, sauces, pestos, tapenades, olives, marinated vegetables, sun-dried tomatoes, honeys, fig spreads, fondue chocolates, dried herb mixes, sea salts, spices and a variety of flavored pastas.
Later this year we are introducing a beautiful collection of vinegars in an exclusive box from the Giusti Family; the oldest producer of Balsamic Vinegar of Modena. Lo Scrigno, as the box is called, was produced for a charity auction at the special request of Luciano Pavarotti. The sale of Lo Scrigno was a huge success at the auction and Oil & Vinegar is fortunate to have, later this year, a limited edition, numbered replica of the original. I’ll tell you more about Lo Scrigno another time, but I wanted to let you in on a conversation I had with Claudio Stefani Giusti, 17th generation Giusti about the art of Balsamic Vinegar.
At Oil & Vinegar we have the good fortune of meeting the best producers of oils, vinegars and artisan food products from around the world and our franchisees and their staff reap the benefits by sharing their knowledge and passing it along to the guests in our stores.
There are a lot of Balsamic Vinegars out there, with a vast range of quality and a wide variety of prices which can be confusing to say the least and we receive a lot of questions on a regular basis.
My conversation with Claudio should help clear things up and introduce you to the complex and intriguing world of Balsamic Vinegar. I will publish the introduction of our conversation this week and will continue publishing our interview next week.
The first question most people ask is what makes a balsamic a balsamic, so that is where I started my conversation with Claudio. D: What makes a Balsamic a Balsamic?
C: There are three registered products that are recognized as Balsamic Vinegar. Balsamic Vinegar of Modena which also recently received IGP certification. (Indication of Protected Origin)
Traditional Balsamic Vinegar of Modena which is DOP, tasted by a panel of Consortium members and bottled only by the Consortium. (Denomination of Protected Origin) Traditional Balsamic Vinegar of Reggio Emilia which is DOP (Denomination of Protected Origin)
All three recognized Balsamic Vinegars must be made from Trebbiano and Lambrusco grapes and must have 6% acidity.
Traditional Balsamic Vinegar of Modena is always bottled in the same 100ml bottle (designed by Giugiaro in 1897), by the Consortium of Traditional Balsamic Vinegar of Modena, regardless of the producer. Only the label will change according to who the producer is.
Traditional Balsamic Vinegar of Reggio Emilia is also bottled in the same 100ml bottle regardless of the producer by the Consortium of Traditional Balsamic Vinegar of Reggio Emilia, but not the same bottle design as the Modena bottle.
Balsamic Vinegar of Modena (not labelled traditional) must be bottles in 250ml or 500 or 750 or 1 litre or superior. The choice of the bottle is free.
Balsamic Vinegars that are labelled Traditional, whether from Modena or Reggio Emilia are VERY expensive products, (more than 100 euros per 100ml bottle), and are also extremely protected with a DOP. The rules imposed by the DOP are quite severe and having your balsamic judged and bottled by the Consortium is very costly.
Balsamic Vinegar of Modena (not labelled traditional) can be very cheap, or very good. In fact the rules are much less severe, as they only require that the balsamic ages at least 60 days in wood, which is hardly anything and therefore the product can be very cheap. This is why you find in supermarkets large bottles of Balsamic Vinegars of Modena for a very low price.
Balsamic Vinegar of Modena can also be very good; in fact, there is a broad range of quality Balsamic before arriving at the Traditional Balsamic Vinegar of Modena. A producer can still do a great Balsamic Vinegar of Modena and bottle in their own 250ml bottle. In the case of our Giusti Balsamics, for example, our same bottle has been on the market for more than 100 years, so we were not interested in doing only the Traditional Balsamic Vinegar of Modena in the 100ml Giugiaro bottle, because our 250ml Giusti bottle is recognized as it is.
The big question from our guests this summer is when are you doing the bags again?!Well, for those of you that are not familiar, twice a year Oil & Vinegar has fun with surprise bags and they’re starting next week!Created after a Japanese shopping tradition, ‘fukibukuro’ or ‘lucky bags’ are the highlight of every sale event.The bags are full of interesting items at incredible prices.
The surprise bags at Oil & Vinegar are filled with five items from the store.Usually it is a combination of three food items and two non-food items and it can be anything from oils, vinegars, dried herbs, sauces, dip dishes, kitchen gadgets, and more.You have to be adventurous, but it is a great way to try new products, and, if you’re lucky, you’ll find one of the four gift cards that are hidden in the bags in every store.
The bags are double the value, so a $20 bag has $40 worth of products in it, and so on.They are packed randomly, so not even the staff in the shops knows what is in each bag or where the gift cards might be.It is so fun to see the excitement about this promotion.Besides our guests who have experienced it before, asking “when are the surprise bags coming?”, when the promotion starts, some guests will buy one for themselves and one for a friend, or co-worker just to brighten their day.Everyone has their own technique in finding the perfect bag; it might be closing your eyes and picking, wandering around lifting them and picking by weight, or just grabbing the first one you see!Anyway, it is fun and exciting and our most popular promotion ever!
Debbie Gokhan spent her career moving up through the ranks in the restaurant industry, working in several well know restaurants in the Detroit area. While continuing her journey in the restaurant world, Gokhan started working at Pan Am World Airways, traveling the world and experiencing the food and culture first hand. Gokhan relocated to Italy where she resided for 10 years working for privately owned restaurants and then worked at the Hard Rock Café in Rome and then in Amsterdam. Debbie and her husband Hakan discovered Oil & Vinegar and quickly became devoted customers. Two years later, Debbie & Hakan opened the first US Oil & Vinegar in Chicago and were also hired to develop a training program for the US stores. After arriving in the US, Gokhan was selected as the Director of Operations for the US and later moved into her current position as Vice President/COO. Gokhan focus is operations and she works closely with the buying team in The Netherlands and is in charge of product selection and product development for the US along with new store openings.
Also, we offer practical gifts that your employees and customers can enjoy on an everyday basis for cooking and entertaining. Also, Oil & Vinegar offers our customized labels with a lead time of only 3 to 4 days. Our labels can be customized with companies’ logos and photos, messages or other holiday greetings. This is a fun service we provide our customers because it is a way to personalize gifts and offer something that the receiver will really enjoy. The best part is the labels are very affordable; individual bottles start at $14, sets start at $26. 
