Ruby Snap

Where: Ruby Snap, 770 S 300 W, Salt Lake City

Who Went: Chelsey & Michelle, then Chelsey & Owen

Number of Visits: 2

What We Ordered: Trip 1: Zoey (Lemon Blueberry), Maris (Chocolate Caramel), Frida (Molé Chile de Arbol & Cinnamon), Ricki (Coconut Almond Chocolate), Vivianna (Mango Dark Chocolate Citrus), and Evia (Pear Marzipan Pine Nuts). Trip 2: Vivianna, Zoey, Nina (Coffee Toffee), Lilly (Lemon with Lemonheads), Virginia (Molasses Ginger), Betty (Oatmeal Apricot Cherry), Judy (Orange Cream Cheese), and Maria (Banana Crème Brûlée)


What It Cost: $12.50 for 6, plus you get a free cookie coupon for next time!


What We Thought:


It's so funny - I never thought I would go so crazy over some cookies. I mean, everyone likes cookies, but also everyone can make cookies and they're no big deal.

But then I went to Ruby Snap Bakery up in Salt Lake.

Wow.

Could I have been more wrong?

When you enter Ruby Snap, you are greeted with that wonderful aroma of freshly baking cookies - I seriously need to get a job there because smelling that 24/7 is my idea of heaven. The friendly staff welcome you and tell you about some of the incredible flavor options they have - things you would never think to combine in a cookie, and yet somehow, when you taste it, it's like they were meant to be in a cookie from the beginning of time. It's a little confusing at first since they have so many different flavors that are named with sexy little pin-up girl identities, but they have convenient little cheat sheets for you, and the staff offer to let you sample any flavor you like. And we're talking real samples here - like quarter-of-a-cookie-sized samples! Then they wrap your cookies up in the cutest box you've ever seen - I'm just so glad that they are all the way up in Salt Lake or else I'm pretty sure I would stop by there every single day.

Let's start with our favorite - the Zoey. You've never had cookies as thick and chewy as the ones at Ruby Snap. I have no idea how they do it! They manage to be amazingly soft while still cooked all the way through. Definitely my kind of cookie. As well-established in previous posts, I'm a lemon addict. Throw some blueberries in there, and you've won my heart. The Zoey cookie was the favorite for both me and Owen - it was like the best lemon blueberry muffin you've ever had hopped up on steroids, with a delicious glaze to complete it. It was seriously incredible. I could eat one of these every day.

Next, the Maris. This was a chocolate cookie with chocolate chips and a caramel center. I mean, really? How could you go wrong with that kind of flavor combination? You can't, and Ruby Snap does a fabulous job with it. I expected it to be delicious, and it definitely lived up to my expectations.

Then the Frida. I was a little nervous for this one since the description reads "Molé dough with a chile de arbol ganache center. Topped with cinnamon-toasted pepitas." I'm pretty sure the last time I had a cookie with chile in it was...um...never. But I decided to be adventurous, and boy, was it worth it. What a unique flavor explosion - and it came from a cookie! The chocolate was rich and sweet enough to balance the hint of spiciness, and it reminded me of delicious Mexican hot chocolate.

The Ricki - basically an Almond Joy candy bar translated into cookie form. I love Almond Joy, so naturally I thought this cookie was amazing. I was really impressed by the coconut flavored dough - I would have thought it would be easier to make the dough with the readily-available almond extract, but the hints of coconut in the dough really made the cookie incredible.

Next up was their flavor of the month, the Evia. The only thing that made me upset about this bakery was the fact that this amazing cookie is only available for one month out of the whole year! Of all the cookies we tried, this one surprised me the most - who would think that a vanilla bean dough with bits of pear, a marzipan center, and toasted pine nuts on top would make for such an incredible cookie? I only ordered it because the combination of flavors seemed so bizarre, and the final result completely blew my mind and my taste buds.

Finally, the Vivianna. This citrus dough cookie comes packed with chunks of dried mango and dark chocolate, a knock-out combination for any of you folks who may like fruit and chocolate together. This is their most popular cookie according to the staff at Ruby Snap, and it's clear why it is so desired. Both times when I ordered this cookie, I savored every bite, wishing that it would never end!

The next time I visited Ruby Snap, I didn't manage to get any pictures of the cookies since I grabbed them in preparation for a 12-hour road trip to Washington. They definitely made the trip way more endurable! Once again, the cookies were delicious, though this round wasn't quite as life-changing as the first batch we ordered. We really liked the Betty - a twist on your typical oatmeal cookie, and the Virginia and Judy were as soft and delicious as I had hoped. The Lilly was good, but kind of weird - the baked-in lemonheads definitely give you a unique texture for a cookie that we couldn't decide if we loved, and the Maria, their special for the month, was actually kind of disappointing. It basically tasted like a slice of banana bread with a little caramel disc on top. But I gotta say, one not-so-amazing cookie out of the twelve flavors we tried? Those are pretty good odds to me!

What You Should Do: Definitely add Ruby Snap to your list of places to try! In fact, put it at the top of your list. This place is amazing. They have wonderful staff, to-die-for-cookies, and are an all-around great place to visit. The cookies are baked fresh every day, and at the end of the day, they donate any leftover cookies to local food shelters. You know I'm a sucker for a company that supports the community. Their cookies are also available at the SLC Farmer's Market, and I hear that they will be carried soon in local Harmon's and Whole Foods grocery stores. There is definitely a conspiracy between Ruby Snap and Tillamook ice cream to give me diabetes, I tell you.

Read other reviews here:

Caputo's Deli: Introduction to Fine Chocolate Course

Where: Caputo's Deli, 314 W 300 S, Salt Lake City

Who Went: Owen & Chelsey

Number of Visits: 3 (1 course)

What We Ordered: Introduction to Fine Chocolate Course

What It Cost: n/a

What We Thought:

Chocolate? At Caputo's Deli? Seeing as these are two of my favorite things, there was no way I could turn down an invitation from Matt Caputo and Janet Thaeler of Newspaper Girl to participate in an Introduction to Chocolate Class for Utah food bloggers! Earlier this year, I took a little visit to the Amano Chocolate factory with my sister's philosophy class, so I felt like I knew a little bit about fine chocolate before going into the evening, but I was excited to learn more! Plus - free chocolate? I'm all about that!!

The primary goal of this introductory class was to help us learn the difference between "grocery store" chocolate and fine chocolate. During the course, we were given this infographic, which outlined some of the primary differences in how they are prepared, what they taste like, and why it's so much more expensive to get the good stuff! Matt Caputo, the course instructor, has been awarded by Salt Lake Magazine as Utah's Best Food & Wine Educator, and his passion for chocolate tasting that has grown in the past few years was clearly evident as we discussed the history and nature of the chocolate industry across the globe today.

Also, how cute is the little girl in the back of that picture above? 

It was pretty crazy to hold and smell a cacao pod, and to try to envision how the chocolate bars at the grocery store could ever come from it! Who would ever think it would be a good idea to eat something from this? Cacao beans are naturally very VERY bitter, so it takes a lot of processing and modifications to get to the chocolate our taste buds are normally used to. But in order to get the real, best, most true chocolate flavor, you have to seek out the best cacao beans, the criollo variety, which are very rare and have incredible depth of flavor. Most cheaper chocolate companies just buy the most common beans, forastero, and then over-roast the beans to get rid of the bitter taste and substitute in loads of vanilla, sugar and cocoa butter to make it taste like "chocolate" again. In fact, Matt told us that in a blind taste test across the US, when people were asked to smell and distinguish between vanilla and cacao, more people thought that the vanilla was the real chocolate! "Grocery store" chocolate, as he referred to it, will smell like marshmallows, whereas fine chocolate will have a more fruity aroma.

But if you are anything like I was during that class, you're probably thinking, "Dude! Let's get to the chocolate." So seriously, let's talk about the kinds we tasted!

We started off with the Patric 75% Madagascar chocolate. When I smelled this chocolate, there definitely was no hint of marshmallow aroma. This bar was made of a mix of criollo and trinitario (mid-quality) beans, and was surprisingly fruity and acidic. The best way I can think to describe it was that it had a very bright taste, and was SO different than chocolate you get at Macey's!

Then we tasted the Pralus Indonesia chocolate. This bar was made from exactly the same mix of cacao beans, but since they were grown in Indonesia instead of Madagascar, they had a very different flavor. Rather than a fruity taste, it had a deep earthy flavor. This was definitely one of my favorite bars we tried because it was so unique.

Next up was the Domori Arriba bar. This bar contained just cacao and sugar - no vanilla, cocoa butter, or any preservatives. Amazing. It is one of the world's leading "fruit forward" chocolate companies, as Matt described, and had undertones of hazelnut and citrus fruits. One thing that really set this chocolate apart was that the chocolate particles themselves are the smallest processed size in the world, so it had a very silky, melty texture. And when you were done eating the piece of chocolate, it left your mouth with that feeling you get after eating an underripe banana - incredible! We bought one of these to take home with us!

Next we had the Dos Rios bar from Amano Chocolate company, which is found right here in Orem, Utah. Bet you didn't know that you had one of the world's leading artisan chocolate companies right in your neighborhood, did you? These guys are pretty passionate about their chocolate making, and it shows in every chocolate bar they produce. This Dos Rios bar had hints of bergamot (flavor in Earl Grey tea), clove and lavender, and was deliciously fruity. I've tried nearly every variety of Amano chocolate, and really have been fascinated by them all. You'll never get bored with the complex flavors in each bar, and they really are a unique treat. And not a bad price either! I would definitely recommend supporting this local chocolate company and their incredible chocolate-making ventures.

Finally, we ended the course with the "world's best chocolate bar," the Amedei Chuao chocolate bar. Surprisingly, this one actually wasn't my favorite, but I think it is because it had a less distinct and sharp flavor compared to the other bars. The notes in this smooth and rich bar were more subtle, and it's a chocolate made from the world's best beans that you would never get tired of.

At the end of the course, we were treated with their new "Black-Out" cake, which contained layers of chocolate cake, Dos Rios Amano chocolate, pudding, and chocolate frosting. Wow. The above picture is of a half-slice, and it was plenty rich and filling enough for both me and Owen, so definitely get this one to share! The cake was very dense and moist, and had such a unique fruity chocolate taste - this one is not for the faint of heart. So I would definitely say go for it :)

We also got a little quarter sample of their kouign amann, a heavenly caramelized pastry that was filled with an Amadei Chuao chocolate ganache. If I wasn't already super satiated by the chocolate cake, I likely would have eaten at least six of these. Kouign amann is one of the most incredible pastries I've ever partaken of, and they produce it beautifully.

What You Should Do: Take the Intro to Fine Chocolate class yourself and find out what it's all about! When I had originally visited Amano Chocolates and brought back some bars to share with Owen, he didn't really appreciate the unique flavors and thought I was crazy for being so into it. Now, he's the one pressuring me to buy tons of different fine chocolates! Though I'll still probably eat the pretzel M&Ms I have in my cupboard, it's fun to learn about the world of artisan chocolate. If you're interested in signing up for your own introductory course, you can check out their list of classes here on their website. Owen and I seriously want to try one of their fine cheese courses next! And a huge thank you to Janet Thaeler of The Newspaper Girl and the Utah Hive for organizing this event with Caputo's Deli - it was a great opportunity to meet other Utah food bloggers and partake of some truly incredible chocolate!