Several months ago, I learned of a place in Santa Cruz that uses the highest-quality ingredients to create its own handcrafted chocolates. Though I am a chocolate lover and my wife Lucky is a chocolate snob, we just couldn’t justify a trip down to Santa Cruz for the sole reason of checking out Donnelly Chocolates. Summer was over – so the Boardwalk wouldn’t be a reason. Fortunately, we wouldn’t have to wait until next summer: we found a reason in Natural Bridges State Beach.
From late October to early February, overwintering monarch butterflies swarm from all over western North America (west of the Rockies) to the preserve located in Natural Bridges State Beach looking for a warmer climate. Historically, up to a hundred thousand of these insects make the preserve their winter home.
It turns out that park also has some wonderful tide pools, too. If you plan your trip for a day when there is a negative low tide, you’re bound to see starfish, sea anemones, limpets and perhaps sea urchin. Seeing as how gas is not cheap these days, we planned a trip down to Santa Cruz on a day when we could check out all three: butterflies, tide pools and Donnelly Chocolates.
The preserve, located in the southern part of the park, has a wooden walkway that leads down to an observation deck on the canyon floor of the Monarch Grove. Along the way are laminated sheets that detail the lifecycle and migratory habits of the monarch butterfly. The level of activity of the butterflies depends on the weather. At less than 65°F, they cluster in the trees; considering that eucalyptus trees can reach a couple hundred feet, they actually look like a dense collection of leaves. In order to fully appreciate their numbers, binoculars are a must. However, this winter has yielded a relatively small number of monarchs. Looking up, I expected to see butterflies covering every inch of the grove. People who had been going for several years mentioned that this was a mere fraction of the swarms that usually show up.
The tide pools, however, did not disappoint. The low tide exposed a clandestine aquatic world. The middle zone of the intertidal region was filled with a bed of mussels. We had to be careful where we stepped for fear of harming the creatures. At the lower zones were little puddles that allow hermit crabs to swim and colorful starfish and sea anemones hanging on to the ledges of the sea shelf. The tide-pooling area is quite expansive, allowing the observant and patient onlooker a multitude of exploratory opportunities. A useful website that estimates the tide on a certain day of the month is www.dairiki.org/tides/monthly.php/san/.
Donnelly Chocolates is just a few miles from Natural Bridges in a little hole-in-the-wall shop that can be missed if you blink at the wrong time. Owner/chocolatier Richard Donnelly learned the trade in Paris and Brussels and even won the award for the finest artisanal chocolates at the Euro Chocolate Festival in Italy in 1998. And with good reason, as his truffles and infused ganache-filled chocolates are intense and bold. Flavors range from the aromatic spices – cardamom, saffron and rosemary – to the floral, which included rose and lavender. Of special note were the dark chocolate chipotle, which had a wonderful smoky spicy kick; saffron, with its uniquely aromatic flavor contrasted by white chocolate; and sea salt honey caramel (I’m just a sucker for caramel). Donnelly advertises that they use the freshest ingredients. In this case, there is no doubt in my mind that they do: each and every piece was distinctly flavored. I could recognize the flavor of raspberry in the piece with raspberry puree blended with dark ganache. Eating the Earl Grey truffle, though not my favorite, was like simultaneously eating chocolate and drinking Earl Grey Tea.
We could easily have gone broke considering that pieces range from $1 to $2.25 for each bite sized glimpse of heaven. At a little over $30 worth for less than 30 minutes of happiness, luckily we don’t live in Santa Cruz and reaching Donnelly Chocolates requires quite a bit of effort. Still, if you’re in the neighborhood to check out the butterflies (if not this year, hopefully next year will be a better gathering) and tide pools at Natural Bridges, you might as well stop in!
Donnelly Fine Chocolates
1509 Mission St.
Santa Cruz, Ca 95060
Orignially published: www.ucsf.edu/synapse/articles/2008/Jan/24/santacruz.html
No comments:
Post a Comment