In October I hosted a self-guided Los Gatos Coffee & Chocolate Walk. Originally the walk was supposed to be in May but due to SIP I postponed the event until the fall. Since it still wasn’t safe to gather I changed the event to be a self guided walk. I sold walk boxes on Eventbrite, which included walk maps that were mailed ahead of time. The boxes included items from different Los Gatos businesses such as Los Gatos Roasting Co., Icing on the Cake, Fleur de Cocoa, She She Shoes, and Dolce Spazio Dessert Cafe. They could then be enjoyed at home along with gift certificates to redeem when visiting the businesses.
In the beginning of December I decided to offer holiday gift boxes with some of the items from the Los Gatos Coffee & Chocolate Walk along with items from different Silicon Valley and San Francisco businesses. The holiday gift box was called The Best of Bay Area Box. I had fun being a personal shopper for friends, while supporting local businesses. I offered 3 different box options that were only on sale for a week. I was happy that I sold out of all of the boxes and had to add a few more to sell, since they were so popular.
One of the items that was included in all of the boxes was a 1/4 pound bag of Black Velvet coffee from Los Gatos Coffee Roasting Company. The Los Gatos Coffee Roasting Co. is an independent craft roaster pioneering in the specialty coffee industry located in downtown Los Gatos.
For those who don’t drink coffee I also offered a tea option which was a Black English Breakfast Tea from Tea on the Avenue. They have a tea bar in downtown Los Gatos that sources high quality tea from around the world with a preference for small, multi-generational farms.
To go with the coffee and tea I offered Premium Shortbread cookies from Satura Cakes. This bakery is located in downtown Los Altos. Their shortbread cookies are baked with European Butter and Tahitian Vanilla. The cookies match beautifully with a cup of coffee. Satura Cakes is a bakery that brings together French-style pastries with Japanese attention to detail, refinement and flavor. They are most well-known for their cream puffs, strawberry shortcake, meticulously decorated layer cakes, and shortbread cookies.
Since some friends had recommended a gluten-free option for one of the boxes, I did some research on gluten-free bakeries in the Bay Area and I found one in downtown Los Altos called Sweet Diplomacy. They are a California Fusion Gluten-Free Patisserie. This patisserie offers American cupcakes and European pastries made with California-grown Asian mochi rice flour or almond flour. When I stopped into the bakery to check it out they were super friendly. They recommended their Vanilla Meringue Kisses for the gift box. These were a perfect item since they come in such a cute container. The mini Meringue Kisses are flavored with Nielsen-Massy Madagascar Bourbon vanilla extract. You can pop them in your mouth with a cup of coffee, tea, or hot chocolate for some extra sweetness. When I went to pick up the Meringue Kisses I also tried their most famous gluten-free cupcake, the Paris Cupcake. It was delicious and could be a perfect item to include in a future event in downtown Los Altos!
To go along with the coffee and cookies I also offered some Bay Area chocolate. I included Mariette Premium Chocolates for my Valentines I Love WG Walk in downtown Willow Glen in 2019 and they were happy to participate again for my holiday boxes. I have always loved their dark chocolate sea salt caramels which paired nicely with the items in the box, especially the shortbread cookies and coffee.
The other Bay Area chocolate that was offered in Best of the Bay Area Box was one of my favorites, Dandelion Chocolate from San Francisco. I used to always bring a bar of chocolate home when I would visit their store in the Ferry Building on my solo San Francisco days. In June we did a chocolate tasting on Zoom with Dandelion Chocolate and we received five bars of 70% chocolate. They were amazing! I decided to purchase more bars to do a personal chocolate tasting for my birthday. One of the bars I purchased was their Wampu, Honduras 70% chocolate bar. This chocolate bar has notes of classic dark chocolate, macadamia nut, and honeycomb. It is a perfectly balanced bar that we really enjoy.
Since the Best of the Bay Area Box sold so well I am thinking about doing another gift box for Valentines, a favorite holiday of mine especially for treats. I am planning on using some local small businesses that I have with worked with on past events. Stay tuned!
