Big Week Here.

It’s a big week here.

The Portland Craft Chocolate Festival is this weekend, and I was thinking this morning about just how many new things we’re going to get to share over the next few days.

Trying something new is pretty deeply embedded in my DNA — and in Ranger’s.

We’re always tinkering with something. Trying a new product, playing with an ingredient, figuring out how to make a process a little better, or asking what would happen if we did something differently.

Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t. But we’re almost always trying something.

This week, a lot of those things happen to be coming together at once.

Friday night kicks things off with our VIP event, and I’m particularly excited about this one.

Over the years, we’ve made some very small-batch, Ranger-inspired ice creams here at the factory. They were fun, delicious, and mostly something you had to be here at just the right time to try.

This time is different.

We’ve been working with the team at New Seasons Market on a new ice cream featuring our Gianduja as both the flavor and an inclusion. Soon, instead of having to wander into the Ranger factory at the right moment, you’ll be able to find it in the frozen aisle at every New Seasons Market.

That’s pretty cool.

Their team has been amazing to work with, and they’ll be here Friday night scooping it and giving everyone at the kickoff a first taste.

Then comes Saturday.

The first C4 Chocolate Chip Cookie Competition. This started as one of those ideas that sounded fun — and then people really got into it. We have Youth, Home Bakers, and Pro Bakers coming together, and I honestly don’t know exactly what Saturday is going to look like yet.

I’m looking forward to finding out.

At the same time, our neighbors at Smith Teamaker are releasing a new bonbon collaboration we’ve been working on together. Another experiment, another collaboration, another new thing to put out into the world.

And then Sunday, I get to do something a little closer to where all of this started for me: chocolate.

I’m hosting two small Bean to Bar cacao and chocolate tastings. And, naturally, I’ve been tinkering with that too.

I’m putting together a tasting that lets people actually try chocolate in different forms as it’s being made — starting with the “bean” and working our way toward the finished bar.

There’s something pretty remarkable about that transformation, and even after all these years, I still love talking about it.

So, yeah. Big week here.

A lot of new things. A lot of people coming through our doors. And probably a few things that won’t go exactly according to plan.

That’s part of the fun.

I’ll try to bring you along for some of it.

— George
Founder, Ranger Chocolate Co.