Zac and Zac’s Sweet Shop

Location: Zac’s Sweet Shop, Los Angeles, CA (www.zacssweetshop.com)

Person: Zac 

Desserts: Chocolate covered chocolate chip cookie, Cake batter truffle, Cookie dough truffle

The way I see it, there are two kinds of people in the world: there are the nibblers like myself and then there are the one-biters. Very few desserts are able to satisfy both of these groups, but the sweets from Zac’s Sweet Shop do just that.

The first thing that struck me about Zac when we met at Wallis Annenberg Hall at the University of Southern California was his utter enthusiasm about all things sugary. He told me about the reasoning behind his bite-sized desserts describing how it allows people to indulge and try multiple things.

Zac formed his business when he was thirteen years old in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. It all started at a holiday party when he was asked to bring the dessert. After browsing the supermarket aisles and not finding anything interesting, he opted to make it himself. He decided on chocolate-covered strawberries and pretzels, and soon after, his sweet shop was born. 

In the beginning, Zac’s Sweet Shop was very much a friends-and-family business. Zac catered parties and partnered with his high school for bake sales. However, he is now en route to launch it nationwide through an online platform that will go live in October. 

I took a look at the sweets that he brought with him: a chocolate chip cookie, a cookie dough truffle, and a cake batter truffle. Adhering to my belief that cookies trump all other desserts, I reached for the chocolate chip cookie first. 

This cookie—along with the truffles and most other sweets that Zac makes—was partially dipped in chocolate and topped with Zac’s signature chocolate drizzle. I took a bite into the cookie and realized that the best aspect about the chocolate dip is that it coats your mouth and prepares it, almost as a textural precursor to the actual cookie. The white and milk chocolate chips on the outside perform a similar role, giving you a slight hint of what’s to come. Once I finally reached the core of the cookie, it was evident that I had stumbled upon a gem in the dessert world. The cookie was thick and chewy with no hint of dryness. It had an incredible gooeyness that surprised me, given that the cookie was served at room temperature and not warm.

As I commented on how much I appreciated the gooey nature of the cookie, Zac noted that the hard thing about an e-commerce store is that you can’t serve sweets warm. Therefore, it is important that the gooeyness is an integral part of the cookie, rather than a property that is temperature-dependent.

Next, I tried the truffles. I bit into the smooth white chocolate of the cake batter truffle and felt it coat my mouth. As I reached the cake portion of the truffle, this sensation was promptly followed by the feeling of something thick filling my mouth and slowly dissolving. The texture and the flavor combined were extremely memorable and a definite step up from the classic cake, cupcake, or cake pop. 

The cookie dough truffle was whipped and lighter than the cake batter one. The cookie dough on the inside was gloriously tied together with the chocolate coating on the outside by the mini chocolate chips that both layers used. This, in fact, created a beautiful gradient of flavor and texture, starting with the brittle nature of the chocolate coating, transforming into the soft sandiness of the cookie dough, and perfectly interrupted by chocolate chips throughout.

This truffle was especially reminiscent of childhood moments of stolen spoonfuls of raw cookie dough. In fact, a big part of Zac’s business is making nostalgic flavors edible and modern. He takes flavors that he and his customers grew up with—for example, brownie batter—-and reinvents them.

The creative nature of these sweets is a reflection of the baker himself.  Zac is studying both communications and music industry at USC. He is passionate about portrait photography and swam for 14 years. What’s so amazing about Zac is his obvious passion for making people feel good through photography, music, and sweets. Zac claims (and I agree) that dessert will never go away. Through Zac’s Sweet Shop, he aims to make people happy through food and through sweets and from what I’ve seen, he is definitely doing so successfully.

Here’s to the power of dessert and the world domination of Zac’s Sweet Shop,

Anokhi