Menchaca Chocolates is truly a chocolate lover's dream. A hidden gem located at the Mercado on…read moreupper state. From rich dark chocolate to creamy oat milk and white chocolate, Menchaca Chocolates crafts every bite with care. They also offer sampler boxes. On my visit, I picked up the chocolate covered spicy mangos. Who knew dark chocolate covered mangos would be so addictive. Highly recommend! The habanero sea salt is what gives it a little kick, but it's not too spicy where it burns your mouth. I also bought a chocolate bar covered in toffee. They offer chocolate and art workshops; where you can emerse your senses in cacao beans grinding, nibs roasting, fluid chocolate hardening, and create your own chocolate bar! The choices of chocolate are dark, oat milk and white chocolate. With over 40 toppings to choose from and customize your own chocolate bar. I'm looking forward to taking a class here soon!

I think my biggest issue here was just in the way the chocolate workshop is described as a "make…read moreyour own chocolate bar." I've done chocolate workshops where we literally got cacao beans from bods, roasted and dried them, them mixed with other ingredients to make chocolate, this is not that. This is really an arts and crafts project where you just happen to take home some chocolate at the end. That being said, the chocolate base is quite good, from the dark chocolate (which I normally don't like), through the milk chocolate, and the white chocolate. Each of the base is already made, then they give you a ton of toppings to customize your own bar. I will say I wish they would have suggested us to push in the topping a bit more into the mold, as much of the toppings came off when we ate them later. After this 10 min process of customizing your bar, the rest of the time is spent just decorating your box. They do have an extensive collection of art materials, it was just a bit of a let down that it felt like 90% crafts. Beyond that, the service could have been better. It was very stand off-ish. We ended up decorating our box for what felt like an hr cause no one came to tell us our chocolate was ready. And it just really felt like we had no idea what was going on throughout the process. Staff was nice, just not very informative.

Lane Farms is the perfect place to get your Christmas Tree, and poinsettias, and some sweet and…read moretasty treats. Cute farm atmosphere, with assorted donkeys, pigs and goats to talk to. And a very friendly staff to help you get prepared for Christmas. Thank you Becky and John for helping get this festive holiday started. Will definitely be back to also visit their produce shack.

Stopped by on a road trip in late September and the pumpkin patch they had was one of the best up…read morekept farms I've seen! Not to mention fresh produce, perfect pumpkins and the best corn maze next to cute animals. A MUST stop place in the fall!

Love this Chocolate store! The branch in State St. closed that is why it is good that there is one…read morein Goleta. This store in Goleta is big and clean and not that packed with customers when we visited the store earlier, Love their Rocky Road Chocolate, this comes in a slab and sliced into pieces. It is soooooo good with all the nuts and marshmallows. Good to pair with coffee or tea!

This See's Candies is a little tucked away but easy to access and plenty of parking. Upon entering,…read morei was greeted by two staff and one presented me with a free sample. So sweet! They asked if i needed any help and were so friendly. The store itself was clean and appeared organized and well-stocked. Such a great experience here!

The produce was overall nice but I had a negative experience with being charged incorrectly and…read morethen being spoken to condescendingly, as if I had made the error. Everyone makes mistakes but speaking down to someone is not what I want in a business.

I was fortunate enough to walk by Plow to Porch Organics during a tasting event during my vacation…read morein Santa Barbara. It was an unexpected treat! The owners and staff were amazing people. They invited us to come in and taste two salads from a cook book signing event. Both delicious salads were organic with apples, kale and other local produce. I am certain that this is the most healthy thing that I ate in this town. Their timing was just perfect too, we had just walked down to some local happy hours and were searching for something healthy to eat. Plow to Porch has a great store with a great variety of organic food for retail sale, but their main business is produce boxes. Farmers sell their very best peak season goods to the loyal customers who commit to a box subscription. Both parties win, customers get to experience a nice variety of local crops without the hassle of shopping. Farmers win because it reduces the day to day drama of selling the produce.

I've been an SGO subscriber for about 6 months and I love this organic produce service. I pick up…read moremy box on Wednesdays next to Lighthouse Coffee on the Mesa. I get the regular box with an add-on bag of mushrooms and every other week, a dozen eggs. There's kale almost weekly, which is the one veggie I don't really like, but it's still working for me. My neighbor, the vegan, loves kale and so every week, I redirect the kale to the vegan. In return, the vegan keeps gifting me wonderful things that she's growing, like passionfruit and celery. Yesterday, it was Santa Rosa plums! So, while I can't stand kale, it's still working for me to have it in the box!!! It's summer as I write and the SGO tomatoes have been spectacular. Tomatoes are my marooned-on-an-island food, and being from the south, I'm picky about my tomatoes. This week, there were 3 big yellow heirlooms in the box, which is perfect for my gerdy husband and his need for low-acid produce. In addition, there were about 25 medium to giant cherry tomatoes that were the sweetest, juiciest mouth-sized morsels ever. No salt needed. Hubby and I have been snacking on them straight outta the bowl for 2 days. Other notables in this week's organic box were beautiful broccoli, red leaf lettuce, onions, 3 gorgeous deep red peppers, 2 cukes, carrots, and a nice supply of sweet, juicy strawberries. I have to mention how wonderful it is to have unusual fresh mushrooms each week. I used to buy portobellos weekly, but now I'm using shitakes, maitakes, oysters, lion's mane, and other cool varieties in our soup. And come spring, I can't wait for a weekly stash of chanterelles to arrive again! It's also super easy to manage the SGO orders online. I've been out of town a few times since subscribing and it has been super easiy to login and stop my order for a week. And if you can't figure it out, it's easy to email Carolyn, who is incredibly responsivle and makes communication a breeze. Another thing I love about this service is that Carolyn writes a weekly blog about how things are going/growing at the Givens Farm. It was interesting, for example, to read about how the rains this year affected the strawberries and other produce. In the blog, she lists what each week's box will include, so you can be thinking ahead about what you're going to do with a spaghetti squash, leeks, fennel, or yams. Carolyn typically throws in a recipe with each blog for something in the box. I hope to be able to subscribe to SGO for a long time. Hubby and I are surely enjoying their combination of delicious organic produce and world-class service each week.

Top tier veggies and fruit delivered on time, with respect, each week. Who could complain!…read more A high quality organic subscription every household should consider. 5 stars

If you want fresh seafood, this is the place to be. Everything I had here was so amazing. The uni…read moreis to die for! It's so fresh tasting and melts in your mouth. The salmon poke bowl was the BOMB. By far the best poke bowl I've had in my life. If you're a fan of clam chowder, you'll love this place. The service was great, and everyone was very welcoming with a smile. Santa Barbara Fish Market is a 10/10. If you haven't tried it, you need to go now. Would definitely come back here again!

All the food that we select are so fresh Salmon Pochi that…read morethey give portion is huge Fish and chip it's bigger than my face Oyster have a milky taste in it and sweet Fish taco was amazing the garnish that I added on the top that you bring out the flavor Uni so fresh!

I love this store and everyone here especially Matt he's so knowledgeable about growingcomposting,…read morepet foods and going Green . Here is where I can find my favorite brand of dog and cat food Evangers 100% OrGaNic

I could go on and on about how great the store is, and how it is the jewel of Goleta, but suffice…read moreit to say that they have everything you need for your garden and pets and green living. Fine folks with good advice, and an eye and ear for the local arts and crafts. Don't miss it.