Soaring’s Cranberry Bars – Ziplining’s Special Treat
We are lucky enough here at Soaring Tree Top Adventures to get a lot of folks who visit our zipline year after year. They return for the thrill of the zipline course, the great family bonding experience, the picturesque scenery, the cool mountain air… and the food!
Soaring takes pride in serving a great 4-course gourmet lunch amidst the wonderful mountain views of our riverside platform, but one other edible item gets quite a bit of attention – so much so that it is not unusual for our returning guests to debark from the train and immediately ask a staff member, “Do you still have those cranberry bars?”
Since the homemade bars first made their appearance in 2007 this snack has proven to be a big hit.
“When we were trying to figure out something to serve as a snack we had a long list of things that it had to be,” says Jamie Meltz, Soaring’s Head Chef. “First, like everything else here, it had to be homemade – nothing prepackaged – it had to be something that was easy to serve during a break on a zipline course, it couldn’t be chocolate or anything else that would melt, of course it had to be delicious, and it had to feel like something that your grandma would make.”
A suggestion from a staff member describing bars that his grandmother would make led to many, many test batches before the first round of these goodies was served to the zipline guests at Soaring.
The bars immediately were a huge hit.
Many things have changed at Soaring over the years – going from the first zipline in the US to the largest zipline course in the world, featuring an ever-evolving menu for the gourmet lunch, going through multiple versions of the website, even changing the Soaring logo – but through it all, the cranberry bars have always been there, using a recipe that has not changed a single ingredient.
Meltz has done the math and in her 15 years with Soaring she estimates that she has made over 100,000 cranberry bars for guests and staff to enjoy. Each batch is homemade in the restaurant-quality kitchen, which is located on the Soaring property, using fresh ingredients. Speaking of ingredients, a common question that Jamie and her staff gets is how all of these great ingredients get here if there are no roads to the property.
The answer is that all supplies – from these fresh food ingredients to cleaning supplies to the very materials used in the construction of the zipline course – come up on the rails, mostly using the electric railcars of the Tall Timber Electric Fleet. “You really have to plan ahead,” says Meltz, “there are no roads so if you forget something you can’t just run to the store!”
You also can’t buy these bars at a store. Luckily, as those who have gone ziplining at Soaring already know, the recipe is available at the end of the day. They are printed on special “seed paper,” a neat, eco-friendly option which lets you plant the recipe card and sprout Baby’s Breath flowers.
But Meltz stresses that there is one ingredient which is crucial to the home version of the cranberry bars: “The caramel is the glue that holds it all together – and you have to make sure that it is caramel topping not caramel syrup or it all falls apart.”
So enjoy the delicious cranberry bars at home – or better yet, enjoy them as a special treat when you visit Soaring and experience the world’s largest zipline course!
Watch the process here: https://www.instagram.com/reel/CfpitwYAZ33/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link