Gorge Local - In Business: Hood River business owner takes sustainable, community-first approach to chocolate

“I took a look around at the Gorge and noticed that there’s nobody doing chocolate,” she said. “And there’s so many wineries, so it just seemed like a hole I could fill.”

There was only one small issue: Wright didn’t know how to make chocolate.

She didn’t let that stop her. She decided to learn, and taught herself. It was difficult — and expensive — but she began to develop a love for making chocolate. Before long, she was experimenting with new and exciting flavors.

That was four years ago. Now, Wright owns Columbia Gorge Confections in Hood River and sells dozens and dozens of original chocolate bars with all sorts of flavor combinations, from “The Oregon Coast,” a dark chocolate bar made with Oregon cranberries and hazelnuts, to “Salt ‘N Pepa,” a white chocolate bar with black salt and pink peppercorns.

One of the things Wright does best is collaborating with different businesses throughout the Gorge to create their own unique bars of chocolate. For example, Pearl’s Place in Hood River has a white chocolate peach cobbler bar, made with Gorge peaches and granola.

“I love working with other local businesses,” Wright said. “What it does is it lets me be creative with other local business owners and then explore new flavors and packaging. I just, I absolutely love it.”

While the Pearl’s Place bar uses Gorge peaches, it’s far from the only chocolate utilizing local ingredients. In fact, using local ingredients and using things from local business owners is extremely important to Wright, she said.

“I’m all about local,” Wright said. “Supporting local, buying local, having local stuff in my shop.”

Wright also makes a point to highlight local artists and creators, both in her storefront and online.

“During Christmas time, I had 26 different artists featured between here in the store and online,” she said. “And they were all female-owned businesses.”

Wright is a big advocate of girl power, as a female business owner, she said. She likes being able to collaborate with other women and lift each other up.

“There’s a lot of female powerhouses here in the Gorge,” she said. “So why not, you know, keep supporting each other and working together?”

Though chocolate is where Wright started, it’s not at all the only thing she does. In fact, she also makes other desserts and cakes. Recently, she’s been doing a lot of wedding cakes, which has been really exciting, she said.

When Wright first started, she worked out of the White Buffalo Wine Bar and Bistro, she said, operating on the days they weren’t there. While she was there, Columbia Gorge Hotel contracted her to make desserts for them. They weren’t straight to the public, however, they were through the hotel. Soon after though, the hotel asked that she make them wedding cakes.

“They asked me to start doing wedding cakes for them because they book a ton of wedding cakes and bakers in Portland are pretty limited,” she said. “And they charge $250 to come out here and deliver — just the delivery fee, not the cake.”

After she started making wedding cakes for Columbia Gorge Hotel, the word kind of got out, she said. She started booking cakes at venues all over the Gorge.

“It really exploded last year, really, really exploded,” Wright said. “And I love it.”

Though there’s so much more on her plate now than when she started, Wright is always eager to learn more and to grow. When she started, Wright was a one-woman operation, she said. It’s only been in the last year that she’s been able to employ people.

Now that there’s more people on board, she has more ideas she’s excited to execute, she said. She’s begun expanding “grab-and-go” desserts, so that people will be able to come pick up a cake in store without necessarily having to custom order something beforehand.

“I get phone calls every day saying ‘Do you have any cakes on hand?’” she said. “So after, you know, the 30th phone call, you decide to get some on hand.”

It’s important to Wright that she meets community needs, because of how important the community is to her, she said.

“I really try to give back and support the community in any way I possibly can, because that’s really important,” she said. “I try really hard not to overuse single-use plastic, not to have LED lighting, just be mindful about energy usage. And the cleaners we use are really important to me. It’s important not to be wasteful.”

Besides just ecological impact, Wright also tries to support the community through other endeavors. She sells Pride-themed and Black Lives Matter chocolate bars year-round, and the proceeds go to The Next Door.

“I think it’s so important, especially in a small community like this one,” she said. “There’s no reason not to support each other and lift each other up.”

Columbia Gorge Confections is located at 112 Seventh St., in Hood River. Their hours are 10 a.m. through 6 p.m., Monday through Saturday. You can also view or order their creations at columbiagorgeconfections.com.