When you are serving coffee to a crowd, how do you handle serving? The easy part is filling up a carafe with coffee – but carrying all those cups can be a pain. One option is to carry them one at a time. Another is to grab multiple mugs by their handles and simply hope that you don’t trip on the way to the table. You could carry them on a large tray but that can be a risky endeavor unless you have table waiting experience (I’ve seen it go wrong and it is a big mess). One potential solution is to get a set of Link Mugs for serving a crowd. The large, earthenware mugs link together and can be carried easily and steadily in a single line. Each mug has a cross on one side a recess on the other that allows them to be linked together for easy carrying and easy serving. The mugs are sold in a set of three, and they just might make a great gift for friends who love to entertain as much as they love coffee.

You might have thought that squirrels got their seemingly endless energy for chasing each other, gathering nuts and taunting other animals naturally, but it turns out that squirrels might like coffee just as much as we do. Or at least they have a thing for coffee mugs. Archie McPhee sells a Squirrel Coffee Cup that is perfectly sized for our rodent friends. The porcelain cup measure 1-1/4″ x 1-1/4″ and is just the right size for a squirrel to pick up and sip from – as illustrated by this squirrel in A Squirrel’s Life, who certainly seems pleased with his.

Scifi and coffee have long gone hand and hand. I suspect that it has something to do with the fact that a cup of coffee – or a whole pot – helped to keep many gamers going when they wanted to stay up all night playing space-themed games and movie fans up for all-night space movie marathons. This Ray Gun Mug allows you to combine the two once and for all. The mug is shaped exactly like that ray gun you pictured as you romped through “outer space” as a kid, blasting space monsters and rocks alike to cosmic smithereens. You can hold it by the grip of the gun as you drink. The mug wholes 12-oz, which should give you plenty of fuel to complete any daily tasks, even if they are on the mundane side when compared to actual space exploration.

I can tell you with confidence that most of the coffee-drinkers in your life will not be disappointed with a holiday gift that includes a gift card to their favorite coffee shop – chain or otherwise – or a pound of some really good quality coffee beans. There are some ladies that you might want to get something a little more personal for, while keeping it coffee-related, you could easily opt for something along the lines of this very cute Take-Out Coffee Necklace. The pendant is completely handmade, from the lid down to the cardboard-like patterning on the tiny sleeve. The only thing it is missing is a tiny logo to brand it. It is made out of polymer, which is lightweight and perfect for everyday wear.

I think that this is a great little stocking stuffer and definitely something that will get lots of admiring oohs and aahs from other coffee-drinkers. It’s not going to replace anything from Tiffany, of course, but then most of us are going to the coffee shop more often than out to a formal dinner anyway.

I like to keep a record of the coffees I’ve had – especially if they’re coffees that I’ve enjoyed. I keep these records both in a notebook and online (here at Brewed Daily!) in many cases. There are very few coffee-specific notebooks out there that make keeping coffee-tasting records easy, however. Coffee tasting is a lot like tasting wine. You want to know what region the beans are grown in, how they are cured and how long they are roasted. You look for specific flavor notes in the coffee, too. It’s nice to have a reference to keep track of all the points, and this Coffee Tasting Notebook Set happens to be a good tool to help you keep things organized.

The set includes a notebook and a pen that is colored with coffee grounds. The notebook, which is made of recycled paper, is includes spots for giving your most recent coffee tastings star ratings, identify flavor notes (thanks to a flavor wheel that will help you put words to some of the more elusive tastes), and the brewing method. Maybe the casual coffee drinker isn’t going to get the best use of this set… but a serious drinker will definitely put in the effort and make good use of it!