The best gifts for men in their 20s and 30s

The machine that makes bean-based espresso sensible at home. It heats fast, the steam wand is genuinely usable, and the footprint is small enough for a normal kitchen. The cost that catches people out is the grinder: at roughly 30 to 50 cents a cup in beans against $1.10 in capsules it pays back a Nespresso within about two years, but only if you budget another $120 or so for something to grind with.

Sony cancels marginally more noise and lasts 40 hours to Bose’s 24. Bose builds the better headband, the gentler clamp and the more balanced sound, and over a long flight or a working day that is the difference people actually feel. For an older recipient, or anyone in glasses, comfort is the round that decides it.

Genuinely excellent and genuinely hard to justify on performance. The full lifetime warranty is broader than Lodge’s limited one, moisture retention over a long braise is better in comparative testing, and the range of colours and sizes is unmatched. But published testing puts Lodge level with it on heat retention at a fifth of the price, so what you are buying above $70 is warranty, finish and permanence.

A category where presentation is most of the purchase and one specification decides quality: whether the stopper actually seals. Most sets under about $80 do not, and the contents evaporate over months. Look for lead-free crystal, a ground-glass stopper, and two heavy-bottomed glasses — two being the right number for an anniversary and the wrong number for a dinner party.

Undercuts Theragun consistently — around £219 against £299 at the mid range — and it is the quieter, lighter tool, which is what actually determines whether one of these gets used more than twice. Theragun answers with a two-year warranty against Hyperice’s one, and with a triangular handle that genuinely reaches a mid-back unaided. On balance the cheaper, quieter one wins.