Admittedly, I am a chocoholic. I love all types of Chocolate; Milk, Dark or White Chocolate. I have a preference to Dark Chocolate, but all types will give me a "fix". With Chocolate on the mind, I stopped at the newest addition to the Saturday West Santa Cruz Farmer's Market, Snake & Butterfly Chocolates.
Snake & Butterfly don't offer your usual array of Milk Chocolates. They simply offer Dark Chocolate Truffles and Raw Chocolates. Their "Raw Bars" are not diluted with milk and refined sugar, instead they add Agave Syrup (a liquid sweetener) which leaves the chocolate with a under-cooked brownie texture. These bricks of "Raw" chocolate can be from any region or with the addition of dried cherries.
The other chocolates are both flavored or plain bars, and have the consistency of the usual commercial chocolates. The "plain" chocolates are labeled by their region while the flavored chocolates are from all corners of the world, including Thai Chili and Cherries and Chili. All of their chocolates are Organic and the booths welcome visitors to taste the differences in the chocolate regions. Like coffee, the basic flavor of the chocolates change from location to location.
Their prices aren't the cheapest, but they are decent considering the other Organic Chocolate companies routinely charge $3.59 for a 3 oz bar or more, while Snake & Butterfly charge $5.00 for 2.5 oz bars. Yes, they are more expensive but you can happily shell out the extra for a local company (located in Campbell). You can order online from their website (www.snakeandbutterfly.com) or visit them at a Farmer's Market either in West Santa Cruz or Campbell. All in all, the chocolate is great and the people are friendly, I'll pay the extra money any day.