Category: A Perfect Day in Santa Cruz

Shop Local: Last Minute Gift Ideas

We’re a small business, and we love supporting our fellow downtown small businesses, too! Pacific Cookie Company goods are delicious, but they’re even better when paired with goodies from our friends downtown. If you’re wanting to buy a gift basket for your loved ones, you can buy a baker’s dozen… but why not add some socks or cooking utensils, too?

Here are some of our local recommendations to pair with your favorite cookies – it’s the ultimate self-care basket!

Ginger Spice & Botanic and Luxe’s Mayan Copal Incense Pack

Botanic and Luxe’s incense smells of woodsy pine; bring in Christmas by lighting it while eating Ginger Spice by the fire.

Lemon Drop & flower bar’s Madeleines et Macarons

With a scent you COULD eat and a cookie you CAN eat, these sweet flowers are perfect for the kitchen, with the smell of roses complementing the taste of our Lemon Drops.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip & fybr’s Hot + Cold Therapy Pack

Peanut butter and chocolate chips soften when warm; as the cold creeps in, heat this therapy pack and Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip cookies in the oven for a tasty, luxurious night in.

Cahootz & Go Ask Alice’s Rose Coconut Body Butter

Cahootz’s coconut adds a sweet element to the cookie, and it also pairs nicely with Go Ask Alice’s Rose Coconut Body Butter – soothe your skin and your palate.

Snickerdoodle and IT’SUGAR’s Marshmallow Mania Big Cereal Box

Go hard with sugar by pairing a dozen cinnamon-sugar Snickerdoodles with a giant marshmallow-only cereal box. We dare you to finish… eventually, at least.

Chocolate Chip with Walnuts and OM Gallery’s Winona Whale Bowl

Did you know that walnut trees grow well by seaside areas? This whale bowl is appropriate for serving cookies in.

Mint Condition & Paper Vision’s Stationery

Mint Condition is sophisticated, and the most sophisticated have stationery. Paper Vision’s options are endless, and perfect to write holiday wishes on.

Peanut Butter & Sock Shop’s Me When My Song Comes On Socks

Peanut Butter is fun and a little kooky, so pair it with an equally silly pair of socks from the Sock Shop.

Chocolate Chip & Toque Blanche’s Raine & Humble Oven Mitt, Honey Bee

Choose a cute oven mitt when pulling your classic Chocolate Chip cookies straight out of the oven. Support and save the bees, after all!

Almond Joe & Birichino’s 2019 Lilo Pinot Noir

Almonds and Pinot Noir pair nicely together, and Lilo Pinot Noir’s mild tannins and low acidity go well with Almond Joe’s sweet, toasted almonds.

Oatmeal Raisin & Santa Cruz Coffee Roasting Co.’s Steve’s Smooth French

Brown sugar in Steve’s Smooth French bring out the top notes of cinnamon in our Oatmeal Raisin cookies, while currants elevate the sweet fruitiness of raisins.

Dr. Midnight & Penny Ice Creamery’s Chocolate Sorbet

Chocolate on chocolate? How can you say no? Penny’s has become a Santa Cruz icon, with locations around the county, but Cedar Street in downtown was where it all began.

We hope you enjoy these pairings! Do you have any gift suggestions? Are you putting together a local gift basket? Share with us in the comments!

Cookies and Coffee Pairings

At Pacific Cookie Company, we pride ourselves on our Nellie’s Special: two cookies and a coffee to wash them down. The special is extremely popular – after all, what pairs better than Santa Cruz Coffee Roasting Co.’s coffee with a Chocolate Chip during a late-night stop? Plus, there’s no better feeling than supporting local small businesses during the holidays.

While we don’t serve every coffee from Santa Cruz Coffee Roasting with our cookies, we can recommend the best brews to try when you walk down the street. Here are our favorite pairings.

Chocolate Chip: Santa Cruz Full City

We serve Santa Cruz Full City at the store, because it’s a classic from Santa Cruz Roasting Co. (and it’s “Santa Cruz” Full City – we have to represent the town). A medium roast, the coffee’s vanilla mingles with the slight bitterness, perfect to pair with the cookie’s semisweet chocolate chips.

Chocolate Chip with Walnuts: 40th Anniversary Blend

What goes better with our walnut-filled cookie than a medium-roast coffee that has walnut flavoring? On top of this, the buttery brown sugar in the Chocolate Chip cookie matches the brown sugar tasting note mingling with the walnut in the 40th Anniversary Blend.

Almond Joe: Colombian Supremo

Almond Joe has almonds (of course), but it also has semisweet chocolate. Colombian Supremo’s medium-body roast has a fragrant, floral taste with notes of roasted almonds and caramel. It’s a sweet pairing balanced by the nuttiness.

Cahootz: Bean of the Earth

Our Cahootz cookie is, arguably, our sweetest cookie, thanks to its macadamia nuts, white chocolate, and hint of coconut. Rather than tamper it down with a dark roast, we recommend celebrating the taste with Bean of the Earth, which has notes of apricot and vanilla.

Dr. Midnight: Kenya AA

It might not seem like it at first taste, but part of Dr. Midnight’s delicious darkness includes grape juice, so pair it with a fruity, wine-like coffee. Our recommendation: Kenya AA, which has a crisp taste of bright, wine-like acidity.

Lemon Drop: Indian Monsooned Malabar AA

Our Lemon Drop has a strong, lemon taste, which we’re extremely proud of. Pair it with the Indian Monsooned Malabar AA, which is extremely light to keep a cedar-like note. For those not in-the-know (like myself), cedar notes taste sweet, like vanilla, so it’ll pair with the light, sugary dusting throughout the Lemon Drop.

Mint Condition: Chocolate Moka Java

Mint can be hard to complement outside of chocolate… so pair it with chocolate! Santa Cruz Coffee Roasting Co.’s flavored coffee, Chocolate Moka Java – which is smooth and sweet, with chocolate flavoring – doesn’t fight with the mint in the cookie, but melds with the dark chocolate.

Oatmeal Raisin: Steve’s Smooth French

Oatmeal raisin has a hint of cinnamon on top of its raisins, so pair it with currants and brown sugar. And by that, I mean pair it with Steve’s Smooth French, with tasting notes that pull out the raisins and warm spices without overwhelming your palate.

Peanut Butter: Mexican

This light French, medium-body roast pairs with the strong taste of peanut butter. It has a nutty, buttery flavor that mingles with the sweet and savory taste of our peanut butter, while milk chocolate and brown sugar add extra oomph.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip: Santa Cruz Organic Espresso

Espresso is strong, which is perfect when paired with semisweet chocolate chips. The Organic blend is rich and sweet, rather than bitter, lessening the peanut butter in a yummy way. You might even want to dip the cookie in the coffee, but that’s just us.

Snickerdoodle: Try the Nutcracker as we enter the holidays!

Our Snickerdoodle basically needs a coffee with cinnamon tasting notes. Enter: this coffee, full of cinnamon with a hint of hazelnut, which complement the sweet notes of our Snickerdoodles.

Ginger Spice: BluesBreaker

Our Ginger Spice is filled with ginger. Like, baked with crystallized ginger and ground ginger, then sprinkled with ginger sugar. It’s a Christmas miracle! It’s also supported by nutmeg, so underscore that tasting note with BluesBreaker, featuring hints of chocolate and nutmeg in a full body, dark roast.

What is your favorite cookie and coffee pairing? Will you be trying any of these? Tell us below!

Happy International Picnic Day!

Happy International Picnic Day!

These are a few of our must have items in our picnic basket.

Cookies (of course!), comfortable blanket, playing cards, sunglasses (Santa Cruz Summer is here!)  and some good reads!

Take your lunch outside today and experience the absolutely beautiful weather we’ve been having and the breath-taking views our Santa Cruz beaches offer!

international picnic day

Local favorites

Shelly’s day is the fifth in our series A Perfect Day in Santa Cruz.

I wake-up to a steaming cup of Santa Cruz Coffee Roasting Company’s Steve’s Smooth French coffee, lovingly prepared by my husband, Larry (Mr. Cookie). He’s just returned from his daily elliptical work out at 24 hour Fitness with his gym-rat buddies, Cliff, Greg, Ceil & Virginia. This morning I dip our newest iteration of our Ginger Spice cookie in my coffee. I think we are very close to perfecting this recipe. We’re looking forward to the customer response from the downtown store.

After breakfast, I wander down to my raised-bed veggie garden. Thank goodness the sun is finally shining! Larry and I had fun choosing our tomato plants this year from Cynthia Sandberg’s famous Love Apple Farm in Ben Lomond. My family really enjoyed the “Black Cherry” tomatoes last year. We also selected a golden beefsteak, “Chuck’s Yellow”, an “Early Girl” variety and “Casey’s Pure Yellow,” a new variety that is a large yellow with a pink blush. My three fabulous grandchildren love to spend time in our garden. Lily (4), Ivan (2 ¾ ) and our newbee, Mila (1), will love eating sweet snap peas off the vines and helping to water the beets, 3 types of squash, cucumbers, green beans, swiss chard and herbs.

As midday approaches, it’s time to meet my friends for lunch at The Walnut Avenue Café. The servers are so nice and efficient. My favorite is the Ahi Tuna Salad with balsamic dressing. The owner, John Climber does such a great job with the menu and the consistency of the food. After lunch, I stroll through Pacific Garden Mall and check out Stripe, such a fun store with a vintage flare. I also stop in The Sock Shop, Old School Shoes, Shoe Fetish (I think you can see that I like shoes!). There are also so many places that carry great things for kids. The Baby Shoppe on Pacific Avenue is great and Lolly Tree Toys on Cathcart Street is full of well made toys for children and the owner is so helpful picking out age appropriate gifts for birthdays.

After a lovely afternoon downtown, I pick up Ivan at pre-school and drive to the Santa Cruz Wharf to see and listen to the sea lions. He likes to go into Stagnaro’s Restaurant and look at the fish tank and then to Made in Santa Cruz to play with the wheels on the skateboards. I guess I have to wait until he’s 3 to buy him his first board. Ivan loves the Santa Cruz Natural History Museum so we head over to the Seabright neighborhood. The tide pool exhibit is especially fun. We take a walk to Seabright Beach and sit on the bench overlooking the cove. It is a memorial to my late father, Charlie Miller who was the unofficial mayor of Seabright. We then wander up Cypress Avenue to see if my granddaughters, Lily and Mila are home.

The end of my day is usually spent strolling the polished wood floors at Shopper’s Corner grocery store. The original owners, Bud Beauregard and Vinny Williams helped to start us into the wholesale cookie business and Jim Beauregard (Bud’s son) has continued to be super supportive. The store is always spotless and amazingly well stocked with every epicurean necessity and a cookie available at the butcher counter for the kids.

I’m so fortunate to live in this special community and share it with my close family and friends. So here’s to Santa Cruz and 30 wonderful years spent enjoying some of my favorite local spots.