Regular readers of this blog will know that Sienna, our glamorous and amazing Head of Research went to visit her family in the San Francisco Bay Area recently. Luckily for us, she did some pre-trip research on gluten-free options in the Bay Area and came up with a bakery, Mariposa.
Mariposa bills itself as a gluten-free artisan bakery. They bake everything in a dedicated gluten-free facility. Among other things, they make biscotti, brownies, coffeecake, bagels, and pizza crusts. Their products are available nationwide in specialty food stores and can also be purchased online at their website. Lucky for me, Sienna brought home some of their products.
We sampled their chocolate-chip cookies, brownies, and a sesame seed bagel.
Other than a little bit of a fruity flavor and being a little sweet, the chocolate chip cookie was almost indistinguishable from a real, genuinely homemade chocolate chip cookie. The chewy gooey kind. Wow.
Have I ever mentioned here that I love the Trader Joe’s gluten-free brownie mix brownies? They are the best. I’m not really sure if there is a better brownie, honestly. So Mariposa had some stiff competition to stand up to. Luckily for them, both Sienna and I thought their brownie was about as good. They have a no-nonsense brownie. No nuts, no funny business, just chocolatey goodness. I was left wishing for the top crust to be more… what’s the word for how the top of a brownie is kind of hard and crackly and chewy? Like that. It wasn’t that, but the flavor was awesome.
I guess you can’t win them all. We both found the gluten-free bagel from Mariposa disappointing. I think part of the problem may be that we are serious bagel snobs. We turn our noses up at Noah’s Bagels, and when we moved to Portland four years ago, were unable to find a bagel we liked. The Mariposa bagel was very cakey, and resembled a bagel in shape and flavor only, and even the flavor left us wanting more.
Two out of three isn’t bad. The products we sampled were good enough that if we lived in the Bay Area, we would definitely frequent the Mariposa. Among other things, they also have food-allergy information on their products, and also donate 2% of their profits to community and world organizations.
Times we have visited: 1 (So your experience may vary.)
Overall rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Price compared to “regular”: Around twice as expensive.
Mariposa Bakery
5427 Telegraph Ave, Unit D3
Oakland, California 94609
http://www.mariposabaking.com/
[…] little out of our way to visit the Mariposa Gluten Free Bakery. Those of you who read our review on Mariposa Bakery in Oakland, California in February will remember that we liked their brownies quite a bit. In February it was only Sienna […]