Found Treasure: Martinelli’s Company Store

Aug. 1, 2025—This is one of those Both-Things-Can-Be-True Treasures.

In the case of Martinelli’s Company Store, it happens be a both lifelong crush and a warehouse-ish space in the thick of industrial Watsonville. 

Wait. Make that more than two things. 

It’s also a wildly famous sparkling beverage headquarters spliced with a semi-secret hideout. 

It’s a mini Watsonville museum, a specific type of merchandise hub and the best place on the planet to get the freshest and most affordable Martinelli’s apple juice. 

And I had no clue it was there.

My love affair with Martinelli’s apple juice—in the glass jar shaped like the fruit—began when it was the foundation for sack lunches prepared by my mama. 

The longer saga started a century++ sooner, when Stefano and Luigi Martinelli established S. Martinelli in 1868 after landing in Pajaro Valley during the Gold Rush era.

What follows, at least when sped up, reads like a screenplay, complete with a hot Hollywood moment.

Their signature hard cider—foreshadow alert—took gold at the 1890 state fair, inspiring a brand trademark that survives today; the family pulled off a Prohibition pivot to NA juice just as the 18th Amendment kicked in; the sparkling cider became Champagne’s stunt double at studios like Paramount; the “Golden Apple” glass bottle and “Drink you apple a day” marketing magic arrived in 1933 and persist today.

That history plays a big part of the Company Store experience for those interested—complete with vintage machinery, interpretive panels, old-school labels and classic giant Golden Apple bottles—as does some sharp merchandise (crispy hoodies, snapback hats and old-school magnets) and prepared goods (honeys, vinegars and jams among them). 

But we came for the juice. 

The long polished bar at 345 Harvest Dr, Watsonville could likely field 25 sippers at once. It also pours around that many ciders—far more than I knew they flowed—including apple-grape and apple-cranberry, classic and unfiltered, pear cider and peach cider, many sparkling but also quite a few bubble-free.

The trick there is policy limits tastes to three, which could be seen as stingy, smart or negotiable if you’re as sweet as the juice. 

Or all three things can be true.

After talking the team into some bonus trials, I can testify that the apple-pomegranate merits a small monument, and the apple-mango is surprisingly seductive and a close number two on my scorecard.

The pear cider and apple-cherry “blush” also caught a ride home in my hand-picked six-pack of 750ml bottles, in a complimentary synthetic fabric bag.

Of note there: The six-pack only runs $24 (tax included), which represents a sturdy discount off the best price attainable anywhere else, sorry not sorry Costco. Same for the flats of apple-shaped juices. 

But all that doesn’t make the place any easier to find. 

When Edible Monterey Bay ad reps spontaneously sprinkled word amid a team meeting that Martinelli’s has a tasting room, I lost consciousness briefly.

I immediately knew I owed it a visit, like I owe my mama far more retroactive gratitude for keeping younger me juiced.

Its obscure location—and the laps we did around Watsonville’s warehouse district before we found it—made arrival that much more rewarding.

I was surprised to hear Company Store Manager David Paz tell me the store is coming up on its 10th year there.

He was unsurprised to hear it wasn’t simple to geolocate, describing that elusiveness as his biggest challenge.

“I couldn’t second that enough,” he says, while adding the easiest way to complement smartphone GPS is to know it’s across from Annieglass Studio (at 310 Harvest Drive).

Part of the dismay detectable in his voice likely emanates from the joy he observes when people make it to the bar.

“My favorite part of the job is when we see people in here and hear how happy people are to taste our blends,” he says. “What we advise…is not being shy, asking questions, and being open to something you haven’t seen.”

He cites the angel kiss peach cider as a prime example.

“Many hesitate because it’s something they haven’t experience,” he says, “then they realize it’s suble, dry, not what they were expecting, and it’s ‘Oh my god that’s good.”

In 1885, Martinelli’s production reached 10,000 gallons a year.

By 2017, the institution that’s still run by the same family—as the Company Store highlights with photos and historic timelines—could produce the same volume in under two hours.

In the 1800s, the game with adult ciders. Today, the all-caps VAST majority of commerce is NA offerings.

But that belies the most recent addition to the portfolio: Hard ciders, in four flavors, back for the first time in more than 100 years.

Early indications are they’re selling well, but only at four locations in the city of Watsonville, which the hub of operations even as multiple thousand-square feet facilities have been added—and their products appear in 41 countries across five continents, with labels in languages including French, Spanish, Korean, Chinese and Japanese.

Those places include D’La Colmena Market (129 W. Lake Ave.), Grocery Outlet (1000 Main St.), Nob Hill Foods (1912 Main St.) and Lulu’s Liquors (1102 Freedom Blvd.).

Which means: To get it, you’ve gotta seek it out, which sounds familiar.

But the juice is worth the squeeze.

Martinelli’s Company Store, 345 Harvest Dr. Watsonville | Open 9am-5pm weekdays, 10am-2pm Saturday, closed Sunday | martinellis.com