On a November morning in Holualoa, the air above our coffee trees carries something you do not forget. It is the smell of ripe cherries warming in the sun, earthy and faintly sweet, mixing with the green coolness that rolls down from the upper slopes of Hualalai. Harvest season at Buddha's Cup is a sensory experience, and it is also a reminder of what it means to grow something with intention. Every cherry that makes it into one of our bags was touched by that air, nourished by volcanic soil, and tended by people who understand that the land gives back exactly what you put into it.
We think about that every time we pack a gift shipment.
Corporate holiday gifting is at a crossroads in 2026. Procurement teams are being asked to demonstrate sustainability credentials. HR departments are fielding feedback from employees who found last year's branded water bottle in a donation pile by February. Clients remember which companies sent something thoughtful and which ones sent something forgettable. The generic gift era is not just fading, it is actively losing ground to something better: gifts with a story, a source, and a soul.
Hawaii is not just a geographic category on a sourcing spreadsheet. It is a set of values made physical. Land stewardship. Community investment. Craft over convenience. Aloha as a way of doing business, not a phrase on a postcard. When a company sends a gift sourced from a working Hawaiian farm, that gift carries all of those values with it. Recipients feel the difference, even if they cannot name it immediately.
Buddha's Cup sits at the intersection of everything that makes Hawaii-sourced corporate gifting meaningful. We are a working farm in Holualoa on the Big Island, and we grow, process, and ship our own products. Our award-winning Kona coffee starts as a cherry on a tree we tend. Our mamaki tea grows on our land. Our rum cakes and specialty treats are made with the care of people who know that what goes into the gift box matters as much as the bow on top.
In this article, we walk you through why sustainable gifting has become the standard in 2026, why Hawaii is the right sourcing region for companies that want to give meaningfully, and how Buddha's Cup can help you build a gift program that your recipients will talk about long after the holiday season closes. We cover our specific product categories, guide you through the ordering process, offer practical logistics advice, and share ideas for pairing physical gifts with shared experiences. By the time you finish reading, you will have everything you need to make gifting decisions that feel as good to give as they are to receive.
Why Corporate Holiday Gifting Has Shifted Toward Sustainability in 2026
The shift did not happen overnight. It has been building for years, shaped by employee expectations, procurement policies, and a broader cultural reckoning about what companies stand for. In 2026, the question is no longer whether sustainability belongs in a corporate gifting program. The question is how to execute it well. Understanding what drove this shift helps corporate buyers make smarter decisions, and it helps recipients understand why the gifts landing in their hands this season are genuinely different from what arrived five years ago.
The Numbers Behind the Shift
The corporate gifting market is enormous and growing. Global corporate gifting reached $919.9 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach $1.31 trillion by 2030. That scale reflects how seriously organizations take the act of giving, and it also means the market is crowded with options that range from transformative to completely forgettable.
What separates the memorable from the mediocre in 2026 is becoming clearer. Sixty-eight percent of gift recipients prefer gifts made from eco-friendly materials. That is not a marginal preference, it is a majority signal that sustainability has moved from a nice-to-have into an expectation. The preference is especially strong among millennial and Gen Z employees, who now make up the largest share of the workforce and who bring their personal values directly into how they interpret a company's gift-giving choices.
Personalization is the other dominant signal. Fifty-two percent of employees prefer to have some choice in their gifts. The old model of ordering five hundred of the same item and shipping them without customization satisfies neither the sustainability criterion nor the personalization one. The winning combination in 2026 is a gift that is both values-aligned and recipient-aware.
Meanwhile, the commodity gift era is visibly closing. Thirty-eight percent of employees rank generic office products, the branded notebooks, the desk accessories, the pens they already have three of, among their least wanted gifts. Recipients have gotten better at recognizing when a gift reflects genuine thought and when it reflects a purchasing decision made purely on price and ease. The gap between those two experiences is widening, and it is showing up in how employees talk about their employers and how clients remember their vendors.
For companies that want to give well, these numbers point toward a clear direction. Eco-friendly, personalized, story-driven gifts are not a trend. They are the new standard for professional gifting that actually achieves its goal: making the recipient feel seen, valued, and genuinely appreciated.
What Recipients Actually Want in 2026
The data points toward four defining trends in corporate holiday gifting for 2026: recipient choice, sustainability, digital and global delivery capability, and values-led gifting. Each of these trends reflects a deeper shift in how employees and clients read a corporate gift.
When a recipient opens a gift, they are not just evaluating the product inside. They are reading the sender. A mass-produced item assembled from components manufactured across multiple countries and shipped without any connection to its origin communicates one thing. A small-batch product grown on an identifiable farm by people with names and practices you can speak to communicates something completely different. The gift becomes evidence of the company's values, and in 2026, that evidence matters.
Personalized gestures, even small ones, communicate care in ways that generic gifts cannot replicate. When a gift arrives with a note that speaks to the recipient's known preferences, or when it comes with context about where it was made and who made it, it creates a moment of genuine connection. That connection enhances employee engagement and strengthens client loyalty in ways that a forgettable branded item never could.
The experiential dimension of gifting is also growing. Recipients increasingly appreciate gifts that tell a story, products that arrive with provenance, context, and meaning baked in. A bag of coffee sourced from a named farm in Holualoa, Hawaii, is a different experience than a bag of coffee with a generic brand label. The former gives the recipient something to talk about. The latter gives them caffeine.
The storytelling element is exactly what Hawaii-sourced gifts deliver naturally, and it is why companies that invest in origin-driven gifting consistently report stronger recipient responses than companies that default to commodity options.
The ROI Case for Getting This Right
Gifting is not just a cultural gesture. It is a business investment, and it has measurable returns. Corporate holiday gifts that align with a company's stated brand values strengthen both client retention and employee loyalty. Clients who receive a thoughtful, values-aligned gift from a vendor are more likely to renew contracts and more likely to recommend that vendor to peers. Employees who receive a gift that feels personal and intentional report higher engagement and stronger identification with their employer's culture.
Sustainability has become a key criterion in how many organizations evaluate the gifts they send. Procurement teams with green purchasing policies cannot approve gifts sourced from anonymous overseas factories, regardless of price. Sustainability is no longer a seasonal theme that marketing layers on top of the December gift program. It is a year-round operational criterion that the gift program must satisfy.
Early planning is another measurable ROI driver. Companies that begin their gift sourcing in September or October avoid rush fees, reduce the risk of product substitution when popular items sell out, and give themselves time to personalize at scale. We will talk more about timelines in the logistics section, but the planning principle is worth establishing here: the companies that get the best gifts are the ones that start early.
When you source from an identifiable farm with a documented sustainability story, you satisfy both the values-alignment criterion and the personalization criterion that dominate 2026 gifting trends. A gift from Buddha's Cup comes with a farm address, a harvest season, a staff with faces, and a story that holds up to scrutiny. For procurement teams completing sustainability audits, that traceability is genuinely useful. For recipients opening a package, it is genuinely moving.
What Makes Hawaii the Ideal Source for Sustainable Corporate Gifts
Not all origin stories are created equal. Hawaii's agricultural history, its physical environment, and its cultural relationship with the land combine to make it one of the most compelling sourcing regions in the world for companies that want gifts with genuine sustainability credentials. This is not marketing language. It is geography and culture, and it has practical implications for every company that sends gifts in December.
Hawaii's Agricultural Heritage and Why It Matters to Buyers
Hawaii is the only U.S. state that commercially grows coffee. That distinction matters more than it might initially seem. It means that every bag of Kona coffee you purchase from a Hawaii farm is an American-grown product, subject to U.S. agricultural standards, traceable to a specific island and elevation, and supporting domestic small farm families rather than international commodity chains.
The Kona coffee designation is one of the most geographically protected and quality-regulated coffee designations in the world. The growing conditions on the Big Island's slopes are specific and not replicable: volcanic soil rich in minerals, elevation between one thousand and three thousand feet, morning sunshine and afternoon cloud cover that provides natural irrigation and temperature regulation. The coffee grown in this environment has a character that is inseparable from its place of origin. You cannot grow Kona coffee somewhere else and call it Kona. The name is tied to the land.
Hawaiian agriculture has historically operated at small-farm scale. Most Kona coffee farms are family operations, often covering just a few acres. When a company purchases from one of these farms, the economic contribution goes directly to island families and communities, not to a corporate agricultural conglomerate. For buyers who care about where their purchasing dollars land, that distinction is significant.
Hawaii's sustainability story is also not a marketing overlay. Island ecosystems are finite and fragile. Farmers on the Big Island understand, often viscerally, that responsible land stewardship is not an optional value, it is a survival requirement. The ocean is nearby. The aquifer is shared. The soil is volcanic and irreplaceable if damaged. These realities shape how Hawaiian farmers approach their land in ways that are qualitatively different from mainland industrial agriculture. Travelers and consumers are increasingly recognizing this, and they show a genuine willingness to pay more for products that carry Hawaii's responsible land ethic with them.
The Sustainability Credentials That Hawaii-Sourced Gifts Carry Naturally
Products grown and processed in Hawaii carry inherent traceability. As a buyer, you can know the farm. You can know the elevation. You can know the harvest season. You can, in some cases, visit the farm yourself and see exactly where your gift came from. That level of traceability is rare in corporate gifting, and it is exactly what values-led procurement teams are looking for in 2026.
The supply chain from a Hawaii farm to a finished gift product is short. When Buddha's Cup roasts coffee grown on our Holualoa farm and packs it into a gift box, the number of hands and miles between the tree and the recipient is a fraction of what it would be for a typical corporate gift assembled from components sourced across multiple countries. A shorter supply chain does not eliminate environmental impact, but it makes that impact more visible, more manageable, and more honest.
Many Hawaiian farm products, including coffee, mamaki tea, local honey, and macadamia nuts, are grown without heavy synthetic inputs. This is not always the result of a formal organic certification program. It is often the result of farmers who understand their land well enough to know that chemical shortcuts create long-term costs they cannot afford on an island with limited natural resources. The result is products that are cleaner and more responsibly grown than their mainstream competitors, even without a certification label.
For corporate procurement teams: gifting from a U.S.-based, island-grown source simplifies compliance, reduces the complexity of international shipping for domestic recipients, and creates a clean record for sustainability reporting. If your company publishes an ESG report or tracks the environmental footprint of its procurement decisions, Hawaii-sourced gifts are among the most defensible options available.
Aloha as a Corporate Value, What It Communicates to Recipients
Aloha is not a tourism cliché. It is a Hawaiian cultural principle of mutual respect, presence, and genuine care for the people around you. When a business sends a gift sourced from Hawaii, it borrows some of that meaning, and recipients sense it even if they do not consciously analyze it.
A Hawaii-sourced gift says that the sender thought carefully. It says they chose authenticity over convenience. It says they valued the recipient enough to source something that required real consideration rather than clicking through the first bulk-gift website that appeared in a search result. That signal reaches recipients regardless of whether they have ever visited Hawaii or know anything about Kona coffee. Quality and intention translate across all contexts.
For recipients who have visited Hawaii or who dream of visiting, a gift sourced from the islands carries emotional resonance that no mainland gift can manufacture. It reconnects them to a place they love or invites them to imagine a place they want to know. It is personal in a way that a branded tumbler simply is not.
For recipients who are unfamiliar with Hawaii, the gift opens a conversation. A card that explains the farm's story, the coffee's origin, or mamaki tea's traditional uses becomes a shared experience between the recipient and the giver. It is an education wrapped in generosity, and it is exactly the kind of layered, story-driven gifting that 2026 trends reward.
Buddha's Cup: A Farm-to-Gift Story Rooted in Sustainable Practice
We want to tell you about our farm, not to sell you something, but because we genuinely believe that knowing where your gift comes from changes how it lands. When you understand that the coffee in that bag was grown on a slope in Holualoa overlooking the Pacific, roasted by people who have been doing this for years, and packed with care by a team that takes pride in every box that leaves the farm, the gift becomes something more than a product. It becomes a connection.
Who We Are and How We Grow
Buddha's Cup is a working farm in Holualoa, a small village on the slopes of Hualalai on the Big Island of Hawaii. Holualoa sits at an elevation that gives our coffee trees exactly the conditions Kona coffee needs: warm mornings, cloud-covered afternoons, rich volcanic soil, and the kind of quiet that lets you hear the trees grow. We are not a large operation. We are a farm with intention, and that shows in everything we produce.
We grow Kona coffee and mamaki tea on our own land. We are not sourcing products from other farms and rebranding them. We are planting, tending, harvesting, processing, and roasting what we grow. When our coffee arrives at your door, the journey from tree to bag happened here, under our care. That traceability is not a marketing claim, it is simply the reality of how we operate.
Our farming approach prioritizes land health. We pay attention to what goes into the soil and what that means for the cup. The volcanic soil of the Big Island is extraordinary, but it rewards attentive farming and punishes carelessness. We have built our practices around working with the land's natural tendencies rather than against them.
The farm is also a place of welcome. Visitors come to walk the rows of coffee trees, smell the mamaki plants that grow in the dappled light between the coffee, watch the roasting process, and understand how a cup of coffee begins as a small red cherry on a tree that someone planted and watered with care. We are not a factory that happens to have a pretty label. We are a farm that ships, and the difference between those two things is everything.
Mamaki Tea: The Plant Most People Have Never Heard Of (and Why That Changes Now)
Mamaki, known botanically as Pipturus albidus, is a plant native to the Hawaiian Islands. It has been used for centuries in traditional Hawaiian healing practice, and it is one of the most distinctive agricultural products that Hawaii has to offer to the wider world. If you have not heard of mamaki tea, you are in good company. Most people outside Hawaii have not encountered it yet. That is part of what makes it such a remarkable gift.
Mamaki grows wild on Hawaiian hillsides, and we cultivate it here on the farm with the same care we give our coffee. It is not imported. It is not sourced from a mainland distributor who sourced it from somewhere else. It grows in the same Hawaiian air and volcanic soil that shapes everything else we produce.
The health interest angle is worth noting for corporate buyers who care about giving recipients something nourishing. The daily health benefits of Hawaiian tea have deep roots in traditional knowledge, and mamaki specifically is known for its antioxidant content and its naturally caffeine-free character. For employees or clients who avoid coffee or who limit their caffeine intake, mamaki tea is a thoughtful alternative that does not feel like a lesser option. It is its own distinctive experience.
The flavor profile of mamaki is earthy, slightly floral, and mild, which makes it approachable even for recipients who are new to herbal teas. It is not challenging or acquired-taste territory. It is genuinely pleasant, and the story that comes with it, that this plant was used by Native Hawaiians for generations and grows on a farm in Holualoa today, makes the first cup feel like an introduction to something real. If you would like to explore the broader world of Hawaiian teas, we can guide you through our full range of blends and options.
For corporate buyers building gift sets that need to reach a diverse recipient list, the coffee-and-tea combination is a natural solution. No recipient is left without something they can enjoy, regardless of dietary preferences or caffeine sensitivity. Everyone in your team gets something from Hawaii. Everyone gets something real.
How Our Farm Practices Align with Sustainable Gifting Standards
We do not approach sustainability as a checklist. We approach it as the logic of small-farm island agriculture. Water stewardship matters on an island where the aquifer is finite. Soil health matters when you are farming volcanic land that cannot be easily replenished if depleted. Minimal-waste processing matters when you are running an operation where every resource has a cost and a consequence.
These are not programs we run on top of our farming. They are built into how we farm. When corporate buyers ask us to speak to our sustainability practices, we can answer specific questions because we have specific practices, not because we have a sustainability page that our marketing team wrote.
Our packaging reflects the same values. We want gifts to arrive beautifully and leave a minimal footprint. That means making thoughtful choices about materials, presentation, and the balance between protection during shipping and waste after unboxing.
For buyers completing green procurement checklists or sustainability audits, we welcome the conversation. We are a living, working farm, not a contract manufacturer with a Hawaiian label. If you want to know where your gifts come from, we can tell you in considerable detail, and we consider that transparency one of the most important things we offer. Our farm experience programs, including tours and tastings, exist in part because we believe that an open farm is a credible farm. You are welcome to come see for yourself.
The Core Gift Categories: What We Grow, Make, and Ship
When a corporate buyer asks us what to send, we listen first. The right gift depends on the recipient, the company's values, the size of the order, and the story the sender wants to tell. What follows is an honest guide to our core product categories, written to help you make decisions that will resonate with the people who receive your gifts this holiday season.
Kona Coffee: The Flagship Gift
Kona coffee is universally recognized as a premium product. When a recipient opens a package and sees Kona coffee from a named farm, they know immediately that someone thought carefully about what to send. That recognition translates directly into the gift's perceived value, and it sets the tone for how the recipient reads everything else about the gesture.
As a corporate gift, coffee works for practical reasons. It is consumable, so there is no clutter guilt. It is used daily, so the recipient thinks of the sender every morning for weeks. It is distinctive, because real estate Kona coffee is simply not available at the grocery store down the street. And it scales: whether you are sending twenty gifts or two thousand, our award-winning Kona coffee can be packed and shipped at the volume you need.
We offer our coffee in multiple roasts: light, medium, and dark. This is useful for corporate buyers who want to offer options or who know their recipient list well enough to make roast-specific selections. If you are uncertain, our medium roast is the most broadly appealing: balanced, smooth, with notes of milk chocolate and mild fruit acidity that satisfy specialty coffee newcomers and experienced palates alike.
From a sustainability standpoint, our Kona coffee is grown on our farm in Holualoa, not blended from imported beans, and roasted in small batches that minimize waste and maximize freshness. The Kona designation is legally protected in Hawaii, which means buyers can verify the origin of what they purchase in a way that is simply impossible with most other coffee gifts. If you want to send a gift with a provable story, Kona coffee from an identified farm delivers that in a way few other products can match.
For corporate ordering, our coffee is available in gift bags, tins, and bundled formats. We offer a gift card option for recipients who prefer to choose their own roast or product, which satisfies the recipient-choice trend without sacrificing the Hawaii-sourced story. For buyers who want to send something truly special to key clients or top performers, our Kona coffee collector options represent the pinnacle of what we offer.
Mamaki Tea and Hawaiian Tea Blends: The Unexpected Delight
Mamaki tea is rare outside Hawaii. That rarity is a gift attribute in itself. When a recipient receives something they cannot easily find at a local store or order from a mainstream retailer, the perceived value of the gift rises significantly. It signals that the sender went somewhere specific for something specific, and that specificity communicates care.
Beyond its rarity, mamaki tea carries real health credentials that resonate with today's wellness-conscious recipients. It is naturally caffeine-free and rich in antioxidants, which makes it a genuinely thoughtful option for employees and clients who avoid coffee, limit caffeine for health reasons, or simply prefer a calmer end-of-day beverage. Including mamaki in a gift set means that everyone on your recipient list gets something they can actually use and enjoy.
Our Hawaiian tea blends extend the mamaki experience with flavors that honor the islands' botanical heritage. These blends incorporate ingredients grown or sourced with the same care we apply to our coffee, and they carry the same farm-to-gift story that makes our products distinctive in the corporate gifting market. We encourage buyers to explore our bundle gift options that pair coffee and tea, giving each recipient both the caffeine experience of Kona coffee and the calming ritual of Hawaiian herbal tea.
For recipients who receive a Hawaiian tea blend and want to understand what they are drinking, we can point them toward resources that explain the flavor profiles, traditional uses, and health context of the plants in their cup. This educational dimension adds another layer to the gifting experience: the recipient does not just receive a product, they receive an invitation to learn something new about a place and a culture.
If you are building a subscription-based gift program, our monthly tea subscription is a genuinely compelling option. It extends the gift from a single December moment into a year-long connection between the recipient and our farm. Every month, something new from Hawaii arrives at their door. That ongoing reminder of the sender's thoughtfulness is a gifting experience that no one-time box can replicate.
For teams or departments that want a curated introduction to our Hawaiian teas, our Big Island gift pack brings together a selection of our best tea offerings in a single presentation that reflects the diversity and richness of what the islands grow.
Hawaiian Rum Cakes: A Taste of Paradise in Every Slice
Not every recipient is a coffee or tea drinker. For those team members, clients, or partners who prefer a sweeter way to experience Hawaii, our Hawaiian rum cake is a gift that lands with real impact. These are not generic baked goods with a tropical label. They are made with Hawaiian ingredients and the kind of craft attention that makes the difference between something forgettable and something people ask for by name the following year.
Rum cake is a universally beloved treat, the kind of gift that disappears from the break room in hours rather than lingering until someone finally throws it away out of obligation. It is indulgent without being inaccessible, and it carries the warmth of Hawaii in every bite. For corporate buyers who want to send something that sparks genuine delight rather than polite gratitude, rum cake is a consistently strong performer.
From a gifting logistics standpoint, rum cakes ship well, have a reasonable shelf life, and present beautifully in gift packaging. They work as standalone gifts for individuals and as crowd-pleasing additions to team gift sets. For buyers assembling curated boxes for key clients, pairing a rum cake with Kona coffee creates a gift that covers both the morning ritual and the afternoon indulgence, a complete Hawaiian experience in a single box.
Kona coffee, as it happens, is not only excellent in the cup. It makes an extraordinary ingredient in desserts and baked goods, bringing depth and complexity to flavors that standard coffee cannot achieve. If you are curious about how Kona coffee transforms desserts, we have explored that in detail and would love to share the possibilities.
Specialty Treats, Snacks, and Locally Inspired Products
Our gift range extends beyond coffee, tea, and rum cake into a broader world of Hawaiian specialty treats and signature snacks that round out a gift set with flavors and textures that feel distinctly Hawaiian. These products give corporate buyers flexibility: not every gift needs to be coffee-centered, and not every recipient has the same preferences.
Macadamia nuts deserve special mention here. Hawaii's macadamia nut tradition runs deep, and when these nuts are incorporated into tropical blends, they create flavor combinations that are both familiar and surprising. For recipients who love snacking, macadamia-based treats are a crowd-pleasing choice that carries a genuinely Hawaiian identity.
Local honey is another product that elevates both the gifting experience and the sustainability story. Hawaiian honey, particularly when paired with herbal teas, creates a tasting experience that is deeply rooted in the islands' botanical diversity. The combination of local honey and Hawaiian herbal teas is one that tea enthusiasts genuinely treasure, and it makes for an elegant and cohesive gift set that speaks to quality, place, and care.
Hawaiian matcha is a newer addition to our specialty offerings, and it reflects Hawaii's expanding role in the world of premium teas. Hawaiian matcha carries the same geographic specificity and quality commitment that defines Kona coffee, and it appeals to recipients who are part of the growing matcha culture. For corporate buyers who want their gift set to feel current and sophisticated, Hawaiian matcha is a compelling inclusion.
How to Build a Corporate Gift Order from Buddha's Cup
Ordering corporate gifts should not be complicated. We have worked with companies ranging from small startups sending gifts to a team of twenty to larger organizations building programs for hundreds of recipients, and we have learned what makes the process smooth and what causes unnecessary stress. Here is our practical guide to getting your order right the first time.
Start with Your Recipient Profile
Before you choose products, think about who is receiving them. A tech company sending gifts to remote employees across the continental United States has different needs than a law firm sending gifts to longtime clients in Hawaii. Consider the following questions as you begin.
- What percentage of your recipients drink coffee? What percentage prefer tea or non-caffeinated options?
- Are there dietary restrictions or allergies you need to account for, such as nut allergies that would rule out macadamia products?
- Are you sending to individuals or to offices and teams? Shareable treats work differently than individual gift sets.
- What is the relationship between the sender and the recipient: employee appreciation, client gratitude, partner acknowledgment? The relationship shapes the appropriate gift level.
- Do any of your recipients have a connection to Hawaii that would make an origin story especially resonant?
Answering these questions before you select products saves time and ensures that your gift program is genuinely inclusive. A gift set that works for coffee drinkers and non-coffee drinkers alike, that respects common dietary restrictions, and that scales to your recipient list without leaving anyone with something they cannot use is a gift set that earns the appreciation you are hoping to generate.
Choose Your Gift Format
We offer several formats to suit different corporate gifting needs. Single-product gifts, such as a bag of Kona coffee or a gift pack of Hawaiian teas, are clean and elegant for recipients who you know well enough to match to a specific product. Bundle gifts that combine coffee and tea cover a broader range of preferences in a single package and communicate a more complete Hawaii story.
Our bundle gift options are especially popular with corporate buyers because they eliminate the need to choose between a coffee-focused gift and a tea-focused one. The bundle gives every recipient both, and it frames the gift as a curated Hawaiian experience rather than a single product purchase.
Gift cards are available for buyers who want to extend recipient choice while maintaining the Hawaii-sourced story. A gift card for coffee and tea from Buddha's Cup allows the recipient to browse our offerings and select the product that appeals most to them, satisfying the personalization preference that more than half of employees report wanting without requiring the sender to anticipate every individual taste.
For premium gifting, our specialty and collector-level options are designed for the recipients who matter most. These are the clients you have worked with for years, the employees who went above and beyond this year, the partners whose relationship you want to honor with