A Recipe With a Long Trail
A Family Recipe, an Oakdale Rodeo Community and a Trail That Led to Texas
Howdy, y’all. We’re Samantha and Daniel McGinnis—Sam and Dan—the husband-and-wife team behind Cowboy Toffee Company.
We officially started Cowboy Toffee on November 1, 2011, in Oakdale, California. But our story—and our original recipe—began many years earlier.
A CHRISTMAS TRADITION SINCE 1983
Sam remembers it this way:
“My connection to Oakdale began in 1976, when my family first moved there. I attended Valley Home School, and although we moved to different parts of California over the years, we always seemed to find our way back home to Oakdale.
“In 1983, during my freshman year at Oakdale High School, I learned how to make English toffee in home economics shortly before Christmas break. I decided to make it as a gift for family and friends.
“It was a hit.”
That first batch became an annual Christmas tradition that continued for nearly three decades. The original combination of semisweet chocolate and chunky roasted almonds eventually became The Mustang—named in honor of the Oakdale High Mustangs.
FROM A FAMILY RECIPE TO A BUSINESS
Food had long been part of our life together. We managed a restaurant and kitchen for four years, planned menus, handled busy services and catered special occasions for friends.
Between us, we had the instincts of a chef, a talent for building layers of flavor and a family tradition that had been growing since 1983. Toffee gave us the perfect place to bring those strengths together.
On November 1, 2011, the Christmas candy our friends and family had loved for years officially became Cowboy Toffee Company.
WHY “COWBOY” TOFFEE?
Cowboy Toffee was born in Oakdale—the Cowboy Capital of the World—but the name means much more to us than where the company began.
Our youngest son, Judah, competed in tie-down and team roping through the California High School Rodeo Association. Through Judah, we became involved with cattle brandings, ranching families and the people who keep the cowboy and rodeo traditions alive.
Judah had the honor of learning from Oakdale’s own Jerold Camarillo, a legendary team roper with a remarkable rodeo career. Jerold inspired The Legend, our dark-chocolate and walnut toffee.
Along the way, we were fortunate to cross trails with Camp Jerold, the Oakdale Cowboy Museum, the High School Rodeo Association and many remarkable ranching and rodeo families. Cowboy Toffee eventually followed that trail to the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas.
Our flavor names grew naturally from those experiences. The Mustang, The Legend, Chuckwagon, Trigger and Ghost Town are not simply Western-sounding names. Each one carries a small piece of the people, places and culture that helped shape Cowboy Toffee.
For us, “cowboy” means hard work, loyalty, hospitality, freedom and enough gumption to keep moving when the trail changes.
PULLING UP STAKES FOR TEXAS
In June 2018, we pulled up our stakes and moved Cowboy Toffee Company from Oakdale to Ranger, Texas.
We brought the original recipe, our flavor traditions and our Oakdale rodeo roots with us. In Ranger, we found another community filled with kind, hardworking people, and we are proud to call it home.
Cowboy Toffee was born in California and is handcrafted in Texas today. Both places are an important part of our story.
THE WORK CONTINUES IN RANGER
Today, you will still find the two of us cooking, pouring, finishing and packing Cowboy Toffee in Ranger.
We make it in small batches, pair each flavor with Guittard chocolate and carefully selected toppings, and continue experimenting with new seasonal and limited-edition combinations.
The holiday season may mean hundreds of batches, but we still approach each one like the Christmas gifts Sam made in 1983—with care, creativity and the hope that someone will be delighted to receive it.
Entrepreneurship has given us more adventure, hard work and possibility than we ever imagined. We found our passion, built a life around it and continue blazing our own trail together.
Thank you kindly for traveling it with us.
Samantha & Dan
Cowboy Toffee Company
