Meet Zara Hernandez | Owner and Baker Thick Treats Miami

We had the good fortune of connecting with Zara Hernandez and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Zara, what makes you happy? Why?
Just seeing someone enjoying something that I baked, makes my soul happy. I’m pretty sure I inherited the love for feeding others from my grandma who will always offer you food by the moment you would step foot in her home. For her, the biggest way to show someone that you care for them was by baking or cooking for them. If you think about it, we put time, creativity, and love into what we create in the kitchen. For that reason, when I see someone smile after they take the first bite from one of my cookies or treats, makes me do a happy dance for sure. Thick Treats for me is the way to share that happines with my Miami neighbors.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
Thick Treats is a celebration of your childhood favorite desserts like cookies and s’mores bar with a dash of love for the 90’s nostalgia. I wanted to make Thick a synonym of party and sweetness, hence why there’s a lot of confetti and pink boards on the pictures. I am a true believer that you can brighten up someone’s day with a cookie, a warm handmade, delicious, and chewy-gooey cookie,

When I started to bake, never imagined that I would make it into a business at all. For most of my life, I worked in media and entertainment between Miami and Puerto Rico, but I have always loved baked goods. I remember being a kid and going to a bakery in Puerto Rico and just thinking: I would love to work in a place that smells this delicious. Funny how life surprises you. In the beginning, when I was starting to bake and experiment with cookie recipes, it was a disaster. Everything was either burnt or raw. I knew that if wanted to at least gift any cookies or cakes I needed to make it right. I took a lot of online classes, I would take any master class that I would fit in my calendar, and I just made myself bake a new recipe every Sunday for an entire year. Fast-forward to March 2021 and I am away more confident baker than I was back in 2018, but my new challenge is marketing and business administration.

Of course, there is an incredible amount of resources online, but nothing compares to talking to someone who had already gone through the experience of starting a business. This is the part where making and building relations is important. I have been blessed enough to have people around me that know the right people for me to get in contact with and ask them about the right steps to take when you are starting.

From this, the constant advice that I keep hearing is: trust the process, be consistent and focus on bringing an amazing customer experience. When you are starting is very easy to get distracted and sometimes frustrated because you are not on the thousand order per week or you are just trying to compare your business with another business. I am living proof that when you show how much you love what you do and that you put your heart into every step of the process, people will always say yes to sit down with you and share their knowledge and advice.

Thick Treats is here to satisfy those sweet cravings and bring sweetness into our customer’s lives. The Thick Philosophy is simple: good food needs to bring you back to your happy place, needs to be made with good ingredients, and needs to be meant to share.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
We will start our morning by walking over to B Bistro and grabbing an espresso and a pain au chocolat. From there we go for a walk around Wynwood murals and make sure to stop for lunch at KYU. Shop around the local and cute shops and of course stop for drinks and to vibe with the music at Wynwood Marketplace.

The next day will be spent by the pool drinking Froze and trying to get the perfect IG new profile picture at The Standar. After that a little tour of Espanola Way to enjoy that Spanish-inspired design.

Of course, we have to go to Calle Ocho and dance some salsa and enjoy the most amazing mojitos too. La Trova is going to be our spot for our Calle Ocho day tour. Also bringing a box of “croquetas and pastelitos” for later.

Since we will be needing cute outfits, we need to stop at Brickell City Centre and because at the end of this we will be starving, we are crossing the street to the iconic River Oyster Bar.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
When people say “it takes a village”, they are not wrong. If we could go back in time, let’s say December 2018 when I baked my very first batch of cookies (they went straight from the oven to the trash, yes! they were that bad) I would have never even dreamed about quitting my 9-5 corporate job to open my full-time online-based cookie shop.

To make that huge jump happen, I needed key people in my life. Starting with an amazing rockstar group of friends for being the brave ones to try my first weak tries on baking. They put their diets and tastebuds on the line for me and this business. To my very first corporate order which was placed by the company that I left to pursue my dreams.

However, my biggest fan/cheerleader/salesman of the year,/official tester of new recipes/fiance is Dominic Mahboubi, He is the one who encouraged me to take a chance and bet on myself. He always visualizes what is the best thing that can happen, and he leads with that. He has taught me not only to trust more in myself but also to know that as long as I am passionate and true about what I do, success will follow. Not only he has fully supported me since I took Thick Treats full time in March this year, but he also gives me the fuel to continue and not get discouraged. For that and much more, I am eternally grateful for him.

Website: thick-treats-miami.myshopify.com

Instagram: @ThickTreatsMiami

Other: TikTok: @ThickTreatsMia