Marini’s Boardwalk

I have been going to Santa Cruz Boardwalk for many years. I started taking my kids 2 years ago. I have bought salt water taffy from Marini’s through out the years. Two weekends ago I bought 2 one pound boxes of salt water taffy from the location near the entrance to the arcade from one of the rudest, didn’t care about his job workers I have ever had did business with. I just opened one of the boxes and its half full of what appears to be half eaten soft almost liquid pieces. The wrappers appear to be not fully twisted. I opened the second box, same. Half full of what appears to be half eaten then rolled back up pieces. This place has really gone down hill.

When did they take over Boardwalk?
For the longest time, I would go to Marini’s at the north end of the boardwalk, the original location that has been there for 99 years. But during my last visit, I noticed there is another Marini store by the Big Dipper, and a Marini booth in between. Is this now a monopoly on boardwalk? What’s next, build a hotel and pay $ 2000 for landing on the space each time?
I don’t eat sweets like I used to, so i no longer crave for Marini’s each time I come to Santa Cruz. I used to buy the chocolate bacon but that was more for the novelty of concept; taste is just okay. My kids cannot walk by without buying something though. It’s a rite of passage, I suppose.

The one reason I came here? Salt water taffy! I haven’t been to Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk since I was in high school, so this was definitely a blast from the past. I actually didn’t even think of getting salt water taffy until the roommate’s bro got a bag. They had an assortment of 14 flavors salt water taffy.
Molasses
Butter toffee
Peppermint
Licorice
Cinnamon
Banana
Strawberry
Wild cherry
Red raspberry
Watermelon
Piña colada
Chocolate
Vanilla
Peanut butter
We ended up getting a bag of all the assorted flavors. My favs were the fruit flavors. I liked banana, strawberry, wild cherry, red raspberry & watermelon. All had a great fruity flavor that went well with the hint of salt. I normally don’t like mixing sweet and salty elements, but somehow it works in salt water taffy.
Marini’s also sells a bunch of other candies like gummies, chocolates and such. They also have candy and caramel apples! Yum! But for the boardwalk, there’s nothing like a good bag of salt water taffy.

On my recent visit, I HAD to get a caramel apple and cinnamon candy apple. It had been over 5 years and it’s something we have always done. NEVER again! $ 5.95 for a caramel apple and $ 5.85 for the cinnamon candy apple — I willingly paid the ridiculous amount. The apples were of extremely POOR quality i.e., black holes, black cut marks, mushy, etc. The caramel apple with peanuts (yuck!) was a bit more doable than the cinnamon candy apple. We’ve been eating those for over 40 years and I don’t care that a «higher-​up» employee states that the recipe is the same, IT IS NOT! The young lady at the location told me the truth that the recipe has been changed and is not the sweet heat of cinnamon but, the burning heat from a pepper of sorts and there have been complaints other than mine. Furthermore, I was offered a FULL refund by the «higher-​up» employee and received my check today. It was for over $ 2 less than what was paid for the apples we could NOT eat. What a disappointment Marini’s has turned into. I will NEVER waste my hard-​earned money there again, especially after being lied to by a «higher-​up» AND having that «higher-​up» not keep her promise of full reimbursement!

While I normally love Marini’s on the Wharf, I just got a latte from the one at the Boardwalk and could not be more upset. Not only was the server rude and obviously completely uninterested in doing his job, but he made the worst latte I’ve ever had. Also trying to over charge me by a dollar. The menu clearly stated the drink at $ 4.25, so I had no issue pointing that out. For $ 4.25 I received a cold half filled latte. When I pointed out that he did not fill the cup up, the server simply shrugged his shoulders. I will NEVER order from this location again!

*Caramel Corn*
Best caramel corn on the west coast! Was seriously not expecting to be blown away by this treat due to most of the crappy food located on the boardwalk, but Marini’s delivers! If you pay to park at the boardwalk, you get a coupon book, located in this book is a coupon for a few bucks off of a large bag of caramel corn. We needed a snack during Movie on the boardwalk night so I got us a bag. I opened it up and COULD NOT STOP EATING! omg its so addicting!!! The salty and the sweet combine the perfect treat is created. A large is actually quite small for the price but let me tell you, it is totally worth it. I cannot come to the boardwalk and not get a bag!

I’ve gotten chocolate covered bacon from here twice. The first, a year ago, was so good! But this last time, the chocolate didn’t taste as good. I think they’re using cheaper chocolate and the difference is noticeable. The bacon is just as good though! For the price, $ 7 for ¼ pound, I would expect a higher quality chocolate.
We had been dreaming of the chocolate bacon ever since we bought it the first time, so we made sure to stop by to pick some up when we went to visit Santa Cruz, but after this last purchase, we won’t be coming here again. it’s not worth it for price unless they use a better tasting chocolate. It tasted like kinda stale, cheap knockoff Hershey’s kisses chocolate. I think next time we’ll make our own!
There’s plent of locations that sell the chocolate covered bacon on the boardwalk, so skip the line if that’s all you’re after. There’s also a location downtown.

No samples??? I asked to sample a piece if candy before I bought and was told no. If I was able to try a piece, I would have found that the candy was not sour and stale. Instead I spent $ 7.00 on stale candy. Absolutely ridiculous!!!

Pricing is ridiculous… who would spend $ 28 on a pound of candy? But the taffy is so so so good. I was ok with spending $ 7 on ¼ pound and that was it. The taffy size has definitely gotten smaller. It used to be a huge chunk in the wrapper, not its almost just a speck. Ha.

Good lord! Who would have thought breakfast & dessert would taste so good together?
Here you will find the most delicious and delightful chocolate covered bacon at the very outrageous price of $ 28.00lb! Who is crazy enough to pay that price? The answer would be me! Lol! It sounds gross but tastes oh so gooooooooood! It’s definitely a must try for any chocolate lover!
This place is a must stop when in the area for all our sugary goodness. We load up on the chocolate covered bacon, chocolate covered marshmellows, pink popcorn, taffy and carmel apples and feed our faces like fat kids do when they eat cake! People watchers love us!
This place is not cheap by any means but your taste buds will thank you dearly.
Splurge! You only live once!!!

Marini’s Boardwalk is where it all started for the company in 1915. Although I wasn’t there to witness the ribbon-​cutting ceremony, I can say that as a lad I played nickel-​slot, wood-​rail pinballs in Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk’s Casino arcade, all the while inhaling the irresistibly sweet aroma of candy apples, lollipops and cotton candy being manufactured next door.
Thursday was a busy day at the shop as the crew churned out flavor after flavor of taffy, and English toffee was being coated by hand with chocolate and chopped nuts. Admittedly, I never thought they made their own chocolate candies, but it appears they make most of what they sell. My favorite product has always been the taffy, maybe owing to the feeling of involvement derived over the years by observing hours of hypnotic stretching and pulling tons of product by the timeless machine on the other side of their bay window.
You can tell by watching that Marini’s employees enjoy what they do, and take their work seriously, but are happy to answer questions and explain the candymaking process to inquisitive potential customers. This is, to me, the company’s showplace outlet where relationships and loyalties are created and enhanced. The boardwalk simply wouldn’t be the same without this strategically situated candy emporium.