We began this journey in a tiny shop downtown Gig Harbor in the spring of 1994. Opened under the name American Pretzel Company, we were a largely seasonal tourist business, whose customer base ebbed and flowed like the tide through the marina, peaking in the summer months and virtually disappearing in the winter. We operated as a bakery/soft pretzel/ice cream/espresso shop, offering all manner of goodies to the strolling visitors in the harbor.

During our three years in that location, we continually added new dimensions to our products, focusing more and more on unique baked goods, treats, and our own family-recipe Pumpkin Walnut Bread, which rapidly became our most requested item.

After losing that location due to the sale of the building, we reopened on the Key Peninsula with a new brand and new focus; A Taste of Eden opened its doors in October of 1998 as a full-scale bakery, and right away we jumped full-on into local farmer’s markets, including Gig Harbor, University Place, and downtown Tacoma. Our popular Pumpkin bread became the launching point for our now-famous Sweet Breads, which encompassed more than 120 unique flavors. These breads, along with fresh cinnamon rolls, scones, flaky pastries, cookies, biscotti, artisan breads and more we sold weekly at markets throughout the northwest, as well as at upwards of 200 coffee shops and over three dozen small groceries.

Over the years, we have continually evolved to meet the needs of our customers. Through the farmer’s markets we have made connection with many of the local growers in the state, which allowed us to begin creating fantastic jams, jellies and fruit butters, as well as fancy infused herbal vinegars and oils. We further diversified in 2004 with the creation of our hand-glazed caramel corn line, which was re-branded under the name Popcorn Junction, featuring historic trains and trivia on each decadent bag.

We left the greater Peninsula region in 2006, needing more space than was affordably available and attempting to avoid the nightmare that was the construction of the second Tacoma Narrows bridge. We settled in the quiet community of Chehalis, where we operated both a small retail store and a 6000-square-foot kitchen facility, allowing us to expand even more our selection of products.

Today, as we celebrate 25+ years of success, we are in the midst of yet another phase of our evolution. Several years ago, through some of the amazing contacts we have been blessed to make over time, we were able to begin purchasing true, smooth Balsamic vinegar from Modena, Italy, that has been aged for 18 to 20 years. This amazing condiment is unlike virtually anything on the supermarket shelf, and has enabled us to create a fantastic line of fruit and spice infused Balsamics, which are perfect for dressing, marinating, and flavoring nearly any dish. This is not simply flavored vinegar – it is smooth, sweet, and bursting with flavor, with ZERO added sugars or preservatives, allowing us to craft ingredients that fit nearly any lifestyle or dietary restriction with a quality unheard of in the US.

From top to bottom, we designed our Olive Branch product line to be completely clean label, featuring only ingredients from the best producers around the world; every ingredient we use is either certified organic, fair-trade, or from a source (like our Balsamic) that has been producing the same quality product for over 1000 years. In fact, we currently use no products from China or Mexico, simply to preserve the purity and quality of our ingredients.

We pair this beautiful Balsamic with the finest cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil you can find. Fresh-pressed at the centuries-old groves on the shores of the Andalulcia region of southern Spain, this pure first-press olive oil literally melts in your mouth like butter, smooth and subtle, with the inherent quality of absorbing nearly any flavor we pair with it. Therefore, we slow roast organic herbs, spices, or fresh citrus with this oil to create dozens of flavors of infused extra virgin olive oils for cooking, dipping, marinating and more.

Along the way, we have been always listening to our customers. In addition to our neighbors here in the northwest wanting to buy from local companies, we are also very aware of the purity of our food and many of us have specific dietary restrictions, allergies, or simply things we try to avoid in what we eat. To that end, we structured our entire Olive Branch catalog to be:

* Gluten-Free * Soy-Free * Salt-Free * MSG-Free * Preservative-Free * Canola-Free *

* All-Natural * GMO-Free * Dairy-Free * Vegan * No Refined Sweeteners *

This product line has truly opened doors like nothing else, and we have rapidly built a huge customer base across Washington, Oregon and Idaho and even into other parts of the country. We now sell these beautiful “lifestyle” foods at over a dozen farmer’s markets, many fine art festivals such as the Sequim Lavender Festival and Issaquah Salmon Days, as well as daily through our website. While we no longer operate a full service bakery, we are now producing a line of bread mixes that feature some of our all-time best selling flavors of our absolutely decadent sweet breads. These mixes are incredibly easy to use, not requiring anything more than a bowl and a spoon to mix them with and a loaf pan or muffin tin to bake them in.