Located in the north of the island of Tenerife, in that place of long green slopes that only slow their descent to plunge into the sea, the Villa de La Orotava is one of those towns that, casually, exudes magnetism, beauty and attraction in equal parts.
Its sidewalks are home to colorful colonial houses, stately mansions with their typical exposed wooden structures and generously sized gardens where you can wander without looking at the clock. Its streets, full of charm and also slopes, meander through the town so that, when passing through them, the visitor will not be left with any corner to discover.
Browsing through them aimlessly is fine, but if on your journey you find a sign that marks the Casa de los Balcones, don’t hesitate to follow it. Its facade impresses, yes; but it is only opening your mouth to what is housed inside: a patio with tall wooden columns crowned by a gallery of hypnotic filigrees. Visiting it is also getting to know what life was like for the family that once inhabited it and discovering what the canary openwork and the rosette are. A little piece of the history of the archipelago condensed between four walls.
To show off, La Orotava could even do it as a skyline. Although rather, it would be necessary to speak of urban-rural profile. No kilometric apartment towers. Quite the contrary: a blanket of nature, dotted with white and colored houses, which arouse in those who see the image the need to take one of the exits that lead to it from the TF-5.
And it is that, La Orotava always had almost everything to be the place we would move to fleeing from our routine and for a couple of years, in 2021, you can already say that it has everything. The responsible? Laura Suárez and Isidro Vera, founders and owners of Habatonka Factoría Dulce, a pastry shop that aspires to become the first dessert restaurant in the Canary Islands.
Between the two of them they had years of experience in the world of pastry in restaurants and they realized “the need on the island for quality pastry,” Laura explains to La Vanguardia. Of that, and of claiming that the dessert is at the same level as the rest of the kitchen.
“The guiding thread of a meal cannot be focused only on the chef and the kitchen, but, just as it begins, you have to finish. We say that you have to give dessert a leading role, which, today, is not given in many places, ”she reflects.
No sooner said than done. With this in mind, they weathered the pandemic storm, which broke out just as they planned to launch Habatonka Factoría Dulce. Previously, they had already been negotiating rent for a couple of years with the owner of an 18th century house that they wanted to convert into their headquarters.
“We were very clear that we wanted it to be in the historic center of La Orotava, which is where we are from. We were looking for an old Canarian house, but of all the houses that were rented to us, none had a central patio and this one had a patio, but the owner did not want to rent it to us”, recalls Laura.
In the end, they succeeded and today it is possible to enjoy their creations in a quiet patio with wooden balustrades, mustard-colored walls and plants dotted here and there; or in its cozy interior. One of those places where you know when you arrive, but not when you will be able to leave.
That’s fine, if we take into account that we will need all the time we have to try the delicacies in a showcase with very careful aesthetics and flavors and whose proposal changes almost completely every month and a half or two. “So as not to bore the customer.”
The inspiration is found in all the recipes that they have been compiling throughout their years of experience. “We have been rescuing some recipes and we have been adapting them to the present. For this reason, we still have a great recipe book in mind to be able to continue creating”, says Laura.
Do your proposals have anything in common? Of course, the presence in its ingredients of local product from the archipelago. “The fact that we use avant-garde techniques and, above all, French technique, does not mean that we do not use the product from here. We have several desserts in which we use ingredients such as Canarian potatoes or fruits that are all grown here”, he explains.
And, occasionally, the tonka bean. “It is a kind of very small bean, very similar to almonds, which has very peculiar flavors: caramelized, hazelnut and vanilla touches”. As much as they like it, they even used it to name the pastry shop.
Despite adding only two years of life, Habatonka Sweet Factory can already say that it has flagships among its desserts. One of those that do not move from their showcase. This is the case of Lúcuma, the one they presented to the Madrid Fusión Revelation Pastry Chef championship. A delight based on potato and almond cake, creamy lucuma and mango, lemon and mamey interior. Or Kefir, a curry sponge that is mixed with hazelnut cream, red berries and a kefir lime mousse.
And, of course, its smoked cheesecake which, presenting as credentials its creaminess, its characteristic flavor and the combination of textures that the crumbled biscuit and red fruit coulis allow, can boast of seducing Tenerife residents and visitors alike.
It has been with them since they opened and they do not plan to remove it from their display case, although, yes, they will dare to remake it with other flavors.
“It was born in 2019, when Isidro started working with me, and after many tests, we achieved the perfect recipe”, explains Laura, who does not hesitate to reveal some of her tricks.
“What we do is we leave it quite fluid in the center so it’s not so cloying. The secret, in our case, is in the cheese we use: a smoked semi-cured cheese that comes from the island of La Palma, and I think that’s the key. A main ingredient of the tart is that we never remove the crust from the cheese: we let it ripen quite a bit and we crush the crust too”, she reveals.
