Winner at the Santa Cruz Chocolate Festival

by Aaron Davidson


Wow, how time flies. Last month we sponsored a table at the Santa Cruz Chocolate Festival and we met a lot of wonderful people and gave out a lot of chocolate. We had a drawing for an 18-piece box of our Sea Salt Caramels Collection and the winner of the box was Brianna Murtha. Congratulations!!!

For those of you in the Santa Cruz area, you can now buy our chocolates in the following locations:
Shopper's Corner - 622 Soquel Ave, Santa Cruz
Aptos Natural - 7506 Soquel Drive, Aptos

We hope you enjoyed our chocolates as much as we enjoyed meeting you. We'll see you next year if not sooner--hopefully sooner.

Sea Salt Caramels... yum!

by Scott Lund

Lula’s and I are thrilled to announce that we are launching a line of sea-salt caramels. We debuted them at Pebble Beach Food & Wine to much enthusiasm. With a total of nine different flavors, there is sure to be a crowd-pleaser for any palate.

Our flavors include:
Lime Fresco – Strong but not too tart, this course, lime-colored salt is sprinkled playfully across the surface of the caramel to evenly distribute the flavor.

Chili Verde – Don’t underestimate this fine-grained, dark-roasted chili salt. This caramel’s salt is clustered on the end of the caramel to give you a blast of flavor and a zesty kick you’ll remember.

Vintage Merlot – The result of a lovely pairing of vintage wine and chocolate is a caramel topped with salt that has a distinctly grape tint and is poured in a long band along the surface of the caramel. Forget the glass and experience a new dinner party favorite.

Matcha (Green Tea) – Flavor harvested in the tea fields of Japan, this salt is fine-powdered, with a tea-green hue. It’s clustered in the center of the caramel for easy identification. Enjoy your own private tea ceremony.

Cyprus Flake – This subtle, white salt has a pyramidal shape, and its crystals are large and course. It’s sprinkled boldly across the surface of the caramel, transporting us to the sweet air of it's Mediterranean roots.

Hiwa Kai – Large, course, and distinctly charcoal-hued, this beautiful Hawaiian salt is sprinkled breezily across the length of the caramel.

Alaea – This course grained red salt is a traditional Hawaiian sea salt. Enriched with reddish Hawaiian clay (‘Alae), this bold salt provides an Aloha experience with every bite as it hulas the length of the chocolate.

Fleur De Sel – Acknowledged by many chefs as the best finishing salt in the world. With its mild flavor and crisp texture, this French salt graces the center of caramels in a soft cluster.

Himalayan – This pure, hand-mined salt found deep inside the pristine Himalayan Mountains. It’s marked by the soft pink, course salt scattered lightly over the caramels.

All our caramels are enrobed in dark chocolate and accented with a sprinkle of these remarkable salts. The salts are all available from gourmet sea salt company SaltWorks of Woodinville, Washington. Though, if you are looking to try the delicious salts, they are also available locally at Clementine's Kitchen, so feel free to check out the delicious flavors there!

We look forward to hearing your feedback and suggestions on this exciting new line.

Pebble Beach Food & Wine

by Chad Freeman

Hey there! Chad here. Scott asked me to do a little report and recap on our time at the first ever Pebble Beach Food & Wine, and gosh is there a lot to tell. For those of you that weren’t able to make it to the event, it was pretty impressive, and you should make a point to visit next year. The whole team did an incredible job putting things together, and it is sure to become another must-attend event on the Peninsula.

We began the weekend with an invitation to provide a tasty treat for the VIPs at the after party on the first evening. The opening festivities were showcased by the amazing Inn at Spanish Bay. Several of the other sponsors (Patron, Tommy Bahama Rum, & Lexus) helped to make the entire party something to remember – and not just because of the breeze in the air.

We were featured right at the bottom of the stairs as guests arrived. Vases were filled with chocolate to create a decadent feeling of luxury, and with the assortment of chocolates provided, we made sure that no one went away unsatisfied. Gail Simmons of Food & Wine Magazine and Bravo’s Top Chef even stopped by for a taste. The hit of the night (the whole event really) was the tasting of our new sea salt caramel collection. More will be written about all the amazing flavors, but for now let’s just leave it that they are all beyond incredible.

Next up was working the Lexus Grand Tasting on Saturday and Sunday. That kept us busy. We were featured in the 30,000+ sq ft. tent that was constructed on Pebble Beach’s Equestrian Center. There were over 200 wineries and 20 celebrity chefs, and no wonder – there were 2,000+ people scheduled to attend.

Being placed up on the VIP stage in the back tent was a mixed bag of gift/concern. On one hand we were able to really target-market our product, but at the same time we weren’t able to get the exposure we might have had elsewhere. Either way, it seemed like we made a splash created lots of talk and enjoyment.

Also adding a nice compliment to the Grand Tasting: we supplied the valets with 4-piece boxes so that any Lexus driver would get a bonus – not a bad perk for arriving in luxury.

Thanks to all the folks at Pebble Beach Food & Wine for including us in this unbelievable event, and to the staff at Pebble Beach for all their help. We look forward to participating again next year and seeing where things lead.