News

Support Friends of Santa Cruz State Parks

by Emily on February 27, 2012

 

I have always loved the outdoors. And since my husband and I have moved to Santa Cruz (a little more than a year now), I am proud to say we have been to a few different state parks in the area:  Año Nuevo on a wonderful docent led tour, camping among the redwoods of Big Basin and Henry Cowell, and tidepooling at Natural Bridges just to name a few. In fact, some of our fondest memories of Santa Cruz have been made at these parks and beaches. So it makes me happy to say that Pacific Cookie Company has partnered with Friends of Santa Cruz State Parks to feature our newest item, “That’s My Park Pack,” in which we will be donating 20% of your gift box purchases to Friends of Santa Cruz State Parks to help keep our state parks and beaches open!

Need another reason to support Friends of Santa Cruz State Parks? Just ask my dog, Oliver, and he’ll tell you how much fun he has when we go out!

 

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Firefighters of Station No.1 visit Pacific Cookie Company

by Emily on September 22, 2011

On my commute to work every morning, there is a 50/50 chance that I see the firefighters of Downtown Santa Cruz Fire Station No. 1. Whether the garage doors are rolled up and they have a firetruck pulled out for maintenance with cup of coffee in hand, or the firetrucks are already out of the station for the morning, I always tend to drive past with this overwhelming urge to thank them in some way for protecting and supporting our community.

This feeling was, in part, the inspiration for one of our newest gift items: our “Cookies to the Rescue” Gift Box. (If you’ve yet to see our two new boxes, you can check them out by going to the homepage of our website which features both the “Cookies to the Rescue” Gift Box and “The Flight of the Butterflies Cookie Gift Box”).

Cookies to the Rescue Gift Box

Flight of the Butterflies Cookie Gift Box

Sitting at work one afternoon I decided – wouldn’t it be fun to showcase the release of the “Cookies to the Rescue” Gift Box with a little background on the Firefighters of Station No. 1? What a great way to connect the community – through cookies! Well, let me tell you. It wasn’t quite as easy as I thought to get a hold of these guys! Every afternoon for a week during my lunch break I tried to drop off a dozen cookies, but they were either out and about, or the doors were down. My thinking then was, well – I’ll drop them off in the morning since they always seem to be there during that time.

So before work one morning, I caught two of them working on the firetruck. After  introducing myself and asking if they would be interested in “sampling” a few Pacific Cookie Company cookies, I told them I would stop by again the next morning with a few other flavors – to which they were more then appreciative, and excited. But alas, they were already off for the morning when I got there the next day. Just as I was about to give up and head to work, the Station Chief pulled up – and was very supportive of my idea. So I dropped the second dozen of cookies off with him, and awaited a phone call for the “meet-and-greet” time/place.

When I received that call from Ryan, I was so excited that they would be coming to our wholesale location to try some cookies! Later that morning, they stopped by and introduced themselves and I got to chit-chat a bit with some of the guys. What a great group of people! There was this constant sense of lightheartedness and brotherhood amongst them that was simply contagious. And there nicknames were memorable as well. So you’re wondering, which cookies are their favorites? Snickerdoodle was the winner by far!

Left to Right: Ryan (aka T. Man), Robert the Governor, David, FF Landievar, "Tiny", Josh, Marc the Moneymaker

Grant (Deputy Fire Marshall) – Snickerdoodle

Firefighter Landievar – Snickerdoodle

David Graff – Ginger Spice

Ryan (I nicknamed him T-man, because he prefers to drink tea…a man after my own English heart) – couldn’t make up his mind, then decided he liked Mint Condition

“Tiny” (Barbecue Master) – Snickerdoodle

Josh – Snickerdoodle and Chocolate Chip

Robert, the Governor – Cahootz!

Marc the Moneymaker – Snickerdoodle and Mint Condition

With over 74,000 calls per year between three stations in Santa Cruz County, this group of men are part of the county’s busiest fire department. I was very impressed by the variety of activities each of these individuals partook in outside of their firefighting careers:  Hazmat Techs, Paramedics, Rescue Swimmers, and a Best Buddy Bike Club member. Oh, and I was also told that Marc the Moneymaker is such an avid Sharks hockey fan, that they have a “Sharks Dedication Day” for him every season *laughs* Now whether this is true or not – that’s hard to say. But one thing is certain, they all loved our cookies, and couldn’t wait until the NEXT time we invited them to taste a few more! :)

 

Thanks for the visit SCFD!  You are forever welcome at Pacific Cookie Company – stay safe, and we’ll see you ’round.

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Wharf to Wharf 2011

by Emily on July 29, 2011

Aleda, Vanessa, Cher and Katie outside retail store before the race

Look how many runners! 15,000+

This last Saturday, a few of our retail store employees took part in the 39th annual Wharf to Wharf and ran alongside more than 15,000 other runners. Dubbed “The Best Little Roadrace in California”, the Wharf to Wharf gathers crowds of locals and out-of-towners from across the state and around the world to both participate in and watch this fantastic event!

 

At the 10-Mile Marker

The proceeds of the race are then donated to local schools and clubs who volunteer their time in the setup and tear-down of the event. With race registration sold out within 2 weeks, this 6 mile race is a gathering of thousands of athletes, on-lookers, and approximately 40 live bands. This year, there were even a few wedding proposals that took place on the sidelines as the runners flew by!

 

With the hectic amount of crowds roaming around town and trying to find parking, our four ladies decided to meet up outside the retail store downtown and walk to the starting line. When they got there, they were lined up behind the thousands of other runners and started 10 minutes from the start line at the 10 minute mark!

The Starting Line

 

After the race started, it took about 10 minutes of tripping over the heels of the racers in front of them as they were “cattle herded” towards the starting line. But after a while,  the crowd of runners began to thin out and the pace picked up.

 

Finally the crowd of runners has thinned

I spoke with Cher who said this was something that she, Vanessa, and Aleda, have done for the past 2 years (this was Katie’s first year), and that it was something they would definitely continue to do in the future! “It was fun!” said Cher. “It was a six-mile party! And at some point along the way, a 7-year old boy stood up in the back of a truck in his front yard with two water hoses, one in each hand, and sprayed Vanessa as we ran past!”

 

Between a woman running with fairy wings, a group of “Tigger people” and the save our shores representatives dressed in jelly fish and sharks,  the Wharf to Wharf attracts more than just your everyday serious “Nike-sporting, UnderArmor-wearing” runners. In a few pictures captured by the Capitola-Soquel Patch online, I also saw a running torch, a BlueMan, and a man with a flag!

The Finish Line

 

After crossing the finish line, each runner was handed a goody bag filled with apple juice, and sports bar, chapstick, and the prized and found-nowhere-else Wharf to Wharf T-shirts.

 

Congratulations ladies for finishing up the race once again! Perhaps next year I’ll join you in the run. And if any of our fans are avid runners, keep an eye out for us next year.

 

Happy running!

(left to right: Cher, Vanessa, Katie, Aleda, Katie's boyfriend) After the race

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Coconuts: High Demand, Yet Short Supply

by Emily on July 18, 2011

It is always a treat to take a few bites out of a coconut macaroon, especially a fresh one from our retail store, and I think our customers would agree. Anna G. of San Francisco commented on Yelp that, “[The coconut macaroon] was everything I never knew I wanted from a macaroon, and so much more. Another Yelp review from Meghan R. of Santa Cruz stated, “It had this great chewy and crispy edge all around and the inside was cooked perfectly. Only thing that could have made it better would be a quick dip in some dark chocolate.” In fact, we do dip our macaroons in chocolate, and they have become our 2nd most popular cookie, according to the retail store’s manager, Cher.

Unfortunately, coconuts are a bit hard to come by these days. Cara, who handles our ingredients ordering, stated, “in talking with some coconut distributors, one mentioned that they used to place shipping container load orders and receive the product within 6 weeks to 2 months…and now their orders are out anywhere between 4 – 6 months.” The reason, you ask? Within the last year, the Philippines, one of the world’s largest coconut producers, experienced the worst drought they have had in 20 years (believed to be caused by the El Nino Effect) and then subsequently experienced increased rainfall and damaging floods. The effects of these extreme weather conditions on the flow of coconut production (especially with the understanding that “a coconut tree needs about 200 days of sunlight to have a normal production” of coconuts) has been devastating to this industry. You can read more about these growing conditions HERE.

With less coconut on the market, prices have increased about 20% in the last two months, making it more and more difficult to find a distributor with our preferred “size” of coconut shred at a reasonable price. What do I mean when I say “size” of coconut shred?  There are different shreds of coconut, ranging from short and medium (pictured left and right, respectively) to longer shreds.

Right: Short shred; Left: Medium shred

The shorter shred of coconut is less expensive and more available because it is less ideal of a shred. Regardless, we are able to use it in our Almond Joe and Cahootz without much difference in cookie density since coconut is an added ingredient in these two cookies. However, when used in our coconut macaroon, the cookie comes out too dense and our signature style is just not done justice. With the medium shred, we are able to achieve more of the desired effect, but the increased quality costs a bit more. As a result of these conditions, we did, for a short while, stop baking our coconut macaroon. Cher, our retail store manager, informed me that her customers were “extremely bummed” when we were not baking the macaroons. Even Cher herself stated, “I don’t want to see it go!” Although we have found a suitable replacement shred for the time being, it just goes to show how fragile the great things in life can be. Who would have thought that the weather circumstances in the Philippines would have affected our coconut macaroon production?

So if macaroons are your go-to treat, and if you are in the neighborhood and feel like stopping by on the days we dip our cookies, swing by on Tuesday, Friday, Saturday, or Sunday to cure that sweet tooth – cookies and chocolate all at once! Hope to see you then!

 

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Thumbnails of Pacific Cookie Company photos over the years