Although they aren’t as sexy as an oozing cream filled doughnut or as exciting as the latest wild Oreo flavor, I love me a good biscotti. As an avid coffee drinker how could I not get down with a cookie that’s usually baked twice to be extra hard and not only go along with but NEEDS a strong cup to reach its full potential? One year for Christmas I even replaced my usual batch of whimsy-and-butter laced goodies with three different types of biscotti. While I don’t tend to buy any particular type of biscotti and usually will just grab whatever the cafe I’m at has to go along with some espresso, I’ve found a great San Francisco based company putting a unique spin on the crunchy cookie. Marlo’s Bakeshop are a woman-owned bakery specializing in soft-baked biscotti that are free of preservatives and artificial flavors, with some inventive concoctions to boot.

Marlo’s Original Biscotti is pretty damn interesting, and it isn’t your standard crunchy almond affair. It has chocolate covered raisins, walnuts, and semi sweet chocolate chips with a little dusting of cinnamon on top. It’s a very earthy and different flavor combination for a biscotti, accented by the unique soft baked texture that falls somewhere in between a regular biscotti and your average soft baked butter cookie. It’s still crunchy but gives much easier when biting in, and doesn’t require any soaking to be enjoyed.

While I like raisins quite a bit, and especially in oatmeal raisin cookies, I’m not a huge fan of them in biscotti. This cookie, however, goes exceedingly well with a warm cup of tea, since it isn’t as sweet as many other biscotti. Unfortunately it doesn’t pop as hard against the dark bitter notes of coffee, and the overall earthiness makes it a little less than ideal when not being brightened by a bite with sugary raisins.

Rating: 7/10

An even more interesting take on the biscotti, and one that I really love, is Marlo’s Brown Sugar Coffee Cake. Much like the name implies, this cookie combines two of coffee’s best friends into one awesome and relatively healthy treat. Toasted pecans and dark chocolate chips mingle in the soft biscotti base topped with a sparkling cinnamon brown sugar crumble.

This one is a touch sweeter than the original, and the pecans add a great nutty and fatty depth that the walnut’s didn’t quite deliver. I’m a big fan of coffee cake and this biscotti is now one of the best I’ve had. It still goes really well with tea, but its lovely combination of cinnamon, sugar, and chocolate make it a very worthy companion to a strong cup of coffee too. At only 120 calories, 6 grams of fat, and 6 grams of sugar this is a great option for an afternoon pick me up that won’t leave you feeling weighed down.
Rating: 9/10

These cookies were sent to me for review but can be found at Whole Foods, Mollie Stones, and a number of different high end grocery stores and cafe’s across the United States.