Why would a girl who’s crazy about New York choose to return to San Francisco?
I thought I had seen every tourist spot in the City by the Bay after three months of living there. But when my sister Tanya who lives in the Bay Area discovered, thanks to Groupon, a cupcake walking tour in San Francisco’s Cow Hollow area and a chocolate walking tour in downtown ran by Great Food Tours, I got all hyped up.
The mere mention of cupcake and chocolate made me giddy, much like my preschooler nephew.
Six cupcake stops
The cupcake tour started at the Presidio Theatre on Chestnut Street at the Marina/Cow Hollow area. I’ve never been here because it’s between Ghirardelli Square and the Museum of Fine Arts, a place I have never explored as a tourist.
It has now become my favorite spot because of the quaint array of stores, bookshops, bakeries, restaurants with lots of outdoor dining and, of course, the colorful Victorian homes.
During our walking tour, I would curiously peek at the Victorian homes with their open doors or garages. One garage even looked like a library—the homeowner reading a book amid shelves full of more books and magazines.
Our tour group was an amusing mix: cupcake fanatics; a family on vacation with two little kids; my sister and I; and a guy who was just curious about all this fuss over cupcakes.
We had six cupcake pit stops within two hours.
First was Kara’s Cupcakes, which is quite popular for its food truck called KaraVan that goes around the Bay Area’s business districts. True to its neighborhood bakery character, Kara’s bakes only small batches of cupcakes daily.
This was one of the two cupcake stores that we went back to for more orders. The server recognized us and said, with a wide grin on his face, “Does that mean we have the best cupcakes?” We replied with an emphatic yes.
Next stop was SusieCakes, which reminded me of an old-fashioned bakeshop that I grew up with, like Becky’s Kitchen on Vito Cruz, Manila, where I looked forward to buying my favorite crinkles after school.
We had to go back for Susie’s seasonal item, Chocolate Salted Caramel Cupcake.
It was always a toss-up between Red Velvet or Salted Caramel, my favorite cupcake flavors for the season. Good thing my sister was in this tour; we could choose two cupcake flavors and eat half of each flavor.
Caffe Dolci had a unique concept: It serves cupcake gelatos. A cupcake with gelato sandwiched in the middle plus another gelato scoop as the cupcake icing to top things off.
At this point, I was already giving up; I didn’t know how I could still eat three more cupcakes. I could even hear the two little kids in our tour group shouting to their mom, “I can’t take this anymore!”
The adults burst out laughing. And all the while I thought six cupcake stores was a walk in the park.
Cupcake history
We were brought to a San Francisco favorite, La Boulange Bakery, which now supplies the baked goods for Starbucks in the United States.
Our guide told us that cupcakes started as cakes baked in small cups. But I read somewhere that cupcake ingredients were measured by the cup, thus its name.
In any case, our guide made us try small French cakes like madeleines, canele, chocolate fondant and raspberry financier—the most popular pastries before the cupcake craze.
Another stop was Cocoa Bella, a chocolate store that made cupcake-shaped chocolates. I could only manage to wrap the chocolate cupcake at this point and just took pictures of the store’s lovely chocolate art.
The last stop was American Cupcake. It had the most adorable cupcake décor—gummy worms, candy colors with witty names like Worms in Dirt and Cherry on Top.
The store describes itself “Willy Wonka meets Space Odyssey.” It looked like a playground for adults as in bachelorette parties.
Eight chocolate store
The chocolate tour was in downtown San Francisco. We had eight chocolate stores to visit that lasted for two hours.
This happened on a separate day from the cupcake tour, of course, because I don’t think I could handle that much sugar in one day, chocoholic that I am.
I thought I knew downtown San Francisco well enough but didn’t realize until the chocolate tour that I’ve been snubbing a lot of stores along Market Street.
The meeting place was Fog City News on Market Street. It was a very uncanny place for a chocolate shop. Located in the middle of the financial district, it seemed like a store where you go in and out just to buy newspapers or mints.
Turned out that Fog City News has a good collection of chocolates from all over the world. I loved the packaging of the chocolate bars.
But the revelation was that it sells hard-to-find Kinder Surprise eggs that my 4-year-old nephew Diego has been obsessing about. So my sister bought her hoard of “bribes and rewards” good for the next few months. Just for this, the chocolate tour was all worth it.
Our tour guide taught us how to taste chocolate. First he asked us to smell the chocolate bar, then snap it in two, before putting a piece into our mouth. He pointed out, in the true chocoholic spirit, “Don’t chew, just let it melt in your mouth.”
It felt like eating chocolate the artisanal way, much like wine-tasting in Napa and Sonoma.
Since we were a pretty large group of about 20 chocolate aficionados, we had a long queue at the small See’s Candies store, also on Market Street. A man who seemed to be a See’s regular was bewildered when he got to the store, saying it seemed everyone woke up craving for See’s chocolates.
An elderly woman even expressed her disapproval at the sight of our group lining up, shouting that chocolates can ruin our teeth like what happened to hers. We did not heed her warning, of course.
Ghirardelli
Another stop was at a popular spot on Market Street, Ghirardelli. It has the quintessential chocolate pasalubong. Ghirardelli chocolates are popular in Manila.
Upon entering its Market Street store, the staff gives you a bite-sized sample of its latest flavors. There are lots of flavors to choose from that I always end up with a bag of assorted ones.
But this time, all its sea salt variations became my ultimate favorite.
The next chocolate stop was a place I had always passed by, thinking it was a specialty tea shop. Spicely Organic Spices has the most unique flavors of tea and spice-infused chocolate for tasting. In the past I had enjoyed being here so much that I later discovered a photo of myself in the shop with chocolate all over my front teeth.
This time I was just too excited to taste all its chocolate flavors. Imagine all kinds of tea and spices infused in chocolate—from cinnamon, Earl Gray, jasmine, hibiscus, raspberry rooibos, sage, saffron, to lavender.
I loved the chai chocolate best.
Minamoto Kitchoan, a Japanese confectionery, was a revelation. At first the store seemed intimidating, looking like a souvenir shop of a five-star hotel. But I loved the chocolate pie that we sampled. It was like chocolate mochi.
This was our favorite discovery of the tour; we went back to buy more of those succulent chocolate pies.
Teuscher Chocolates, a Swiss confectioner, is known for its alcohol-based chocolates. It has vodka, champagne and Baileys truffles.
When our guide asked who among us did not want alcohol in their chocolates for tasting, nobody raised a hand.
Chocolatier Blue, a Bay Area chocolate company, first opened in Berkeley. I couldn’t stop staring at its products because they were works of art, like painting and glazing done over chocolates. It even has very unusual flavors like maple glaze bacon, sangria, root beer float and chili, all beautifully decorated and Instagram-worthy.
Our last stop, Cocoa Bella, was at a different location, inside Westfield Mall. Its chocolates come from independent artisan chocolatiers from around the world. Their makers combine art and chocolate with designs in full, vivid colors.
It was fun to see San Francisco in a different light. The locals we met in the walking tours got curious, some of them stopping us to ask what was going on and smiling upon learning what we were up to.
Even my sister’s friends who live in the area were surprised when they saw her posts on Facebook.
I can’t wait to go back to SF for an ice cream tour or perhaps even a dog food tour, or whatever comes next.