The Care Package That Keeps

A care package has to do something a gift handed across a table never does: wait. It waits in a sorting facility, in the back of a truck, on a porch in the afternoon sun, in a college mailroom over a long weekend. Food that needs cold, or goes stale in days, loses to the wait. The foods that win are the ones that need no refrigeration: fish sealed in a tin, roasted nuts in a sealed bag, sealed sugar candy, and chocolate sent in the right season. Each takes the trip differently, and the packing order follows from the differences.

What makes a food mail well

The United States Postal Service defines perishable matter as "anything that can deteriorate in the mail and thereby lose value, create a health hazard, or cause an obnoxious odor, nuisance, or disturbance, under ordinary mailing conditions," and says mailable perishable matter may be sent at the mailer's own risk when it is packaged as required and can be delivered within appropriate and reasonable time limits to prevent deterioration. A good care package is built to stay outside that definition. Heat, moisture, crushing and time all work against food in the mail. These four foods handle them well, with heat the main limit for the chocolate.

The tin: sardines

The USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service lists fish among the low-acid canned foods, which will keep two to five years if the cans are in good condition and stored in a cool, clean, dry place. The agency's storage advice is to avoid temperature extremes, and it calls temperatures below 85°F best. Dents are worth guarding against with a tin in transit, so tins travel best packed flat together with padding around them, not loose against a jar.

Two tins show the range. Ati Manel's sardines come in olive oil with lemon (shop Ati Manel sardines in olive oil and lemon). José Gourmet packs its sardines in butter that the producer identifies as coming from the Azores (shop José Gourmet sardines in Azores butter), and the José Gourmet Azores butter sardine guide covers how to serve them. For a recipient new to tins, a card pointing to the guide to serving sardines straight from the tin turns the gift into a dinner, and the complete tinned fish guide goes further.

The nuts

Almonds are shelf-stable, and storage still decides how long they last. The Almond Board of California recommends storing every form of almond cool and dry, below 50°F and under 65 percent relative humidity, and says almonds kept that way can have more than two years of shelf life. The Board cites a U.S. Army study finding that roasted, raw, blanched and sliced almonds can reach three years in vacuum-sealed, tri-laminated foil pouches, and says packaging matters because it can act, when needed, as a barrier to moisture, oxygen and odors. For a care package, that means nuts travel in their sealed bag and stay sealed until the recipient opens them.

Varah Gourmet's za'atar almonds (shop Varah Gourmet za'atar almonds) are roasted almonds seasoned with Middle Eastern za'atar spice, and the bar nuts guide covers how to serve them.

The candy

Candy asks the least of the box: keep the bag sealed and dry, and let the date on it set the limit. Bubs, the Swedish maker, states that 100 percent of its range is vegan. The tutti frutti sour diamonds (shop Bubs tutti frutti sour diamonds) are one option from the range. The Bubs Godis producer guide tells the maker's story, and the Swedish candy guide covers the wider tradition.

The chocolate, and the one rule

Heat is the main limit for chocolate, and the reason is physical. The cocoa butter in a well-tempered bar sits in a crystal arrangement called Form V, which gives chocolate its proper texture, gloss, snap and melting profile. Researchers writing in Nature Communications cite a melting temperature of 33.9°C, about 93°F, for Form V, and describe bloom, a grayish white film on the surface of chocolate, as attributed to the uncontrolled change from Form V to Form VI. A bar does not need to melt through to lose its gloss. The guide to why chocolate turns white explains that fat bloom can form at almost any temperature, more slowly as it gets colder, and notes that bloomed chocolate is safe to eat and fine to melt into baking.

That gives the one rule of the care package: send chocolate when the weather along the route is cool, and leave it out when it is not. When the route is cool, a plain dark bar such as Amano's Dos Rios 70 percent from the Dominican Republic (shop Amano Dos Rios) can go in the box. The Amano chocolate producer guide introduces the maker, and the complete craft chocolate guide covers the rest of the category. In summer, a second tin or a second bag of nuts takes the chocolate's place.

The keeping table

Read down the third column. Heat turns up in three of the four rows, and for the chocolate it is the only threat listed.

Packing the box

Pack in layers from heavy to light. Tins go on the bottom, flat and together, so they cannot move into anything softer. Nuts and candy bags fill the middle and keep the tins from shifting. Chocolate goes on top in the center, farthest from the box walls, and away from anything scented. Fill every gap with paper so nothing slides, because a box that rattles is a box where the tins are denting something.

A short note on what each item is and how to open it earns its space. The Ambrosian Pantry gift guide has more ideas for rounding out a box, and for a hand delivery, a wood crate with a lid (shop the Rustic Farmhouse Wood Crate) makes the container part of the gift.

Short answers to the rest

Can a care package go to a dorm or an office mailroom? Yes, if the mailroom accepts packages. Tins, sealed nuts and sealed candy need no refrigeration, and chocolate goes in by the cool-weather rule above. What about sending it overseas? Customs rules for food differ by country, so check the destination's rules before sealing the box. What happens to the tins once opened? The guide to how long tinned fish lasts after opening has the answer. Does the shop ship? Yes. Products ship nationwide from theambrosianpantry.com, and the shop is at 263 Josephine Street in Cherry Creek, Denver, where visitors can ask staff questions.

Sources & Further Reading

• USPS Publication 52, Chapter 5: Perishable Matter
• USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service: Shelf-Stable Food Safety
• Almond Board of California: Almond Storage Tips
• Chen, Ghazani, Stobbs and Marangoni, Tempering of cocoa butter and chocolate using minor lipidic components, Nature Communications, 2021
• Bubs: We Are Bubs
• The Pantry Dispatch: Why Chocolate Turns White, and How to Store It