The gang at the Core 77 workshop have been hard at work on their ‘Ultimate Designer Holiday Gift Guide‘. Hot, cool, classic, alternative, hipster, nerdy, iconic and random–the list is an explosion of holiday goodness with a pepper sauce chaser and some rainbow sprinkles on top. Woo! They chose 77 design gifts all under $77, pretty nifty and some great gems here. I won’t ruin the surprise, go check it out!

When I first took my father to a sushi dinner, my brother and I convinced him that the wasabi was guacamole. Suffice to say, he was surprised at the flavor he encountered when he took a generous glob of the green to the dome. Despite this isolated instance of trickery with my land-lubber dad, Wasabi is a crucial part of my sushi experience, and I have a great appreciation for the authentic — not the faux mix of horseradish, mustard, and food coloring you find in most sushi restaurants — but the mountain grown goodness that you’ll find in Real Wasabi products . Real Wasabi is certified organic, and brings a ‘fiery taste, smooth finish’ flavor to a host of products. I recommend going with the Wasabi Lover’s Gift Box ($45) if you want to experiment with goodies like wasabi ranch and wasabi balsamic vinaigrette salad dressings, and wasabi teriyaki and wasabi peanut sauces. The gift boxes also come with authentic wasabi powder– add water and you’ll have paste for sushi. Another tidbit I learned from using Real Wasabi products is that wasabi has powerful antibacterial and other health-positive properties– perfect for wintery, holiday season immune boosting.

From gourmet olive oil to extra yummy cookies, candy and snacks, there’s something in here for everyone on your list. We are pleased to present: From The Vaults, the Food and Drink edition.

• Peace Oil: “It’s extra virgin, great on salads and a lubricant for relationships in the Middle East.” Peace Oil, is olive oil produced in Northern Israel by a staff of Arabs, Jews… Continue Reading
• Java Juice: Today we scored some ‘black gold’ from the folks at Venice, CA based Java Juice– hats off to them for dreaming up a great coffee concept.. Continue Reading

• Kettle Chips: Peoples Choice: I love when brands put their fate in the hands of their customers. That’s exactly what Kettle Chips is doing with its Peoples Choice: Passport to Flavor campaign… Continue Reading

• Yama Beef, Inc: Yama Beef Inc, in Mabank, TX, will deliver to your door (via mail of course) genuine Japanese quality Wagyu / Kobe beef… Continue Reading

• Jones Soda Carbonated Candy: One of our favorite premium soda brands Jones Soda recently launched a line of Carbonated Candy. They call them Flavor Boosters… Continue Reading

• Crummy Brothers Cookies: Organic in every element down to the package, Crummy Brothers Cookies are to my experienced cookie buds and quality conscious eye the standard bearer for… Continue Reading

• Simple Coffee: Attention all coffee lovers! I just came across this fantastic grassroots start-up coffee company called Simple Coffee… Continue Reading

We’re having a great day at the JoshSpear.com offices– we received a package from South Africa, covered in 10 Rand postage stamps, with airmail stamps front and back. The contents of the mysterious package were some samples from Mickey and his bitches at Los Cojones Del Perro, a South African clothing label that has some serious balls. The first thing I noticed about these t-shirts was the insane comfort level they offer– beautifully tattered collar lines included. The next thing I saw was the ‘in your face’ messages and graphics on the t’s. You have to see them to believe them– take my word for it, you will feel humored, surprised, and traumatized all at once. I then read the press kit, and learned the no holds barred theory behind the label, as well as the company’s commitment to the unemployment problem in South Africa (specifically involving those who haven’t had the opportunity to receive job training, or have sought refuge in South Africa from other African countries and are faced with a language barrier). After each garment is printed, it is sent to the ladies at Umojo@Afridite (who live in townships in South Africa) for unique customization– they bring the clothes to life with custom bead work and stitching, and earn some much needed cash in the process. Los Cojones Del Perro is available in South Africa, and is looking to break into the U.S. market soon.

My ex-girlfriend’s mom and little sister were very into geocaching– almost obsessively so. I have to admit, it never really interested me because I’ve never needed a reason to go exploring in the outdoors. But Spreadshirt, a company that specializes in custom screen printing for t-shirts, has made geocaching a little more interesting with The Hunt. The Hunt is a collaboration between Spreadshirt and some dropspotters/geocachers in which they hid limited edition t-shirts in different spots throughout numerous countries around the world. For example, one’s is up a tree in London, one’s buried in Belgium, and one’s in a grocery store in Canada. When you encounter a cache, you swap out your own t-shirt for the one in the cache, and keep the flow going– an interesting idea for those treasure hunter/fashion design combo types out there.

Not enough room in your tiny one bedroom studio apartment (7 story walkup of course) for a Christmas tree? Sucks for you. Love the smell of a fresh pine tree but can’t deal with the disposal, or your significant other is somehow allergic to pine-dander? Ouch. Want to give a funny gift to your Christmas-celebrating friends early this year? We do! Atypyk just introduced “Do Not Prick”, the 160 CM Christmas Tree Poster, available for $22 today. No more clean up, no more mess, just stack presents against the wall and voila!

Although Zyb launched a few months ago, I still wanted to point you all toward this free online service that saves you major time and money. Zyb is a free, that’s right, free online phone data backup service that allows you to store, manage, share, and access mobile data online. It follows the open-standard remote synchronization platform– that means it can be accessed across the globe wherever you can get internet access; it’s simple, secure, and supports over 300 phones across all networks. In the growth and expansion department, the folks at Zyb are planning to enhance and integrate the sharing feature further to provide more social network interaction in the coming months. It also looks as though Zyb has recently been the recipient of some venture capital, so look for it to expand and jump onto the mainstream radar in the near future– 2.8 million contacts have already been uploaded.

We’re big fans of these one-of-a-kind multiple-use holiday cards crafted from real wood veneer by Thing Farm. The front of the card has a removable ornament, and while we only know Christmas day as the best day to travel besides Easter, we still think this is pretty nifty. Like snowflakes, no two cards are alike– and they’re only $6.00. Don’t get caught giving Hallmark cards this year! Via Grassroots Modern

By now everyone is probably familiar with the borderline genius products from DNA 11, the memorable tag-line is one of our favorties: From life comes art. It’s truly an inspiring product, a rare occurrence where art and science meet gracefully. To the point, they just made giving DNA 11 products a whole lot easier this holiday season with these slick looking Gift Box’s. You choose whether you want it to include the DNA or fingerprint collection kit, and depending what size you choose the recipient gets all the information necessary to place their order online.