Marion Chocolate Factory Continues to Refine Quality Local Chocolate in New Location

Production assistant Kathie Schlotterback places dried, dipped Oreos on a tray to be packaged at the Marion Chocolate Factory in Marion on July 26, 2024. (Savannah Blake/The Gazette)

In 2021, when Ben Davis considered his next step after 20 years in the National Guard, he hoped to achieve two goals: a sense of connection to community and an outlet for creativity.

Since purchasing Marion Chocolate Factory, the Uptown Marion confectionery mainstay has delivered both.

Today, after moving into a newly renovated 130-year-old building, the business that has had several owners over the past decades has the chance to offer a new confectionery experience.

Behind the retail space, a new kitchen is developing improved recipes that deliver high-quality artisanal chocolate with fewer ingredients and preservatives.

If you are going to

What: Marion Chocolate Shop

Or: 1060 Seventh Avenue, Marion

Hours: 11am to 5pm Tuesday to Friday; 11am to 4pm Saturday

Phone: (319) 377-7597

Website: themarionchocolateshop.com

Details: Find six different types of confectionery and dozens of varieties including chocolate, fudge, chocolate truffles and other novelties, all made on site.

A “cleaner” confectionery

Chocolate-dipped Oreos are pushed onto a conveyor belt to air dry at the Marion Chocolate Factory in Marion, Iowa, on Friday, July 26, 2024. (Savannah Blake/The Gazette)

Chocolate-dipped Oreos are pushed onto a conveyor belt to air-dry at the Marion Chocolate Factory. (Savannah Blake/The Gazette)

“A lot of (the previous owner’s) processes hadn’t changed since the company was founded in the ’80s,” Davis said.

Hoping to eliminate preservatives and stabilizers with indecipherable names, he took a few basic chocolate courses. Over the past year, products have been using fewer ingredients and more locally sourced ingredients, such as dairy from Dan and Debbie’s Creamery in Ely.

Today, their caramel has gone from 13 ingredients to six, two of which are sugars and two of which are dairy.

“The label is much smaller,” Davis said.

Many say the taste has become “fresher” and “more authentic,” he said, without sacrificing other practicalities like shelf life. By exploring milk fat ratios, chocolate and sugar percentages, he has learned to master the production process, down to its crystal structure.

Nutty bars go through the chocolate waterfall at the Marion Chocolate Factory in Marion, Iowa, on Friday, July 26, 2024. (Savannah Blake/The Gazette)

Nutty bars go through the chocolate waterfall at the Marion Chocolate Factory in Marion on July 26, 2024. (Savannah Blake/The Gazette)

“There’s a lot of science that goes into it. Shelf life is controlled by the risk of mold,” he said. “When you don’t use a lot of ingredients, you can really control the formula.”

Quality and quantity

Marion Chocolaterie can produce up to approximately 2,000 pieces of creams, caramels, toffees, fudge, truffles or other novelties per day, enough to meet demand during the holiday season.

She alone consumes 3,000 pounds of dark chocolate every year.

“We’re not big, but we can produce a lot of things,” Davis said.

Packaged chocolate-covered nut bars and other sweet treats are for sale at the Marion Chocolate Factory in Marion, Iowa, on Friday, July 26, 2024. (Savannah Blake/The Gazette)

Packaged chocolate-covered nut bars and other sweet treats for sale at the Marion Chocolate Shop in Marion. (Savannah Blake/The Gazette)

But quantity doesn’t have to come at the expense of quality. Like most specialty shops, the business model that allows local businesses to survive in today’s connected world relies on evoking an experience.

“You can go to Walgreens and buy a king-sized candy bar for the price of one of our caramels,” he said. “But with our product, you’ll enjoy it more, you’ll remember it after you’re done, and it’s a great gift.”

And within each product category, creativity is limitless.

Which makes GOOD Is chocolate good?

“It’s a bit like a gourmet meal,” the chocolatier explains. “You want it to taste good in your mouth so that when you bite into it, it’s smooth and clean.”

Truffles are displayed for sale at the Marion Chocolate Shop in Marion, Iowa, on Friday, July 26, 2024. (Savannah Blake/The Gazette)

Truffles are displayed for sale at Marion Chocolate Shop. (Savannah Blake/The Gazette)

This is dictated by the right formula, particularly the right ratio of butter and chocolate in each hand-crafted piece.

A quality chocolate has a good balance of aromatic notes and has a point of view on its aromatic profile. Marion Chocolaterie tends to prefer versatile vanilla notes, rather than fruity or bitter notes.

Just like wine or coffee, chocolate and the cocoa it comes from need to be paired with a flavor card. With most cocoa beans grown in Ivory Coast, West Africa, or Central America, how they are grown, blended, and roasted can impact the final product.

After purchasing the shop, Davis switched the primary chocolate used to coat the artisanal pieces from a Cargill product to Callebaut, a Belgian import with a significantly different profile.

Owner Ben Davis uses a tool to pattern chocolate-dipped nut bars before air-drying them on the conveyor belt at the Marion Chocolate Factory in Marion, Iowa, on Friday, July 26, 2024. (Savannah Blake/The Gazette)

Owner Ben Davis uses a tool to pattern chocolate-dipped nut bars before air-drying them on the conveyor belt at the Marion Chocolate Factory on July 26, 2024. (Savannah Blake/The Gazette)

It can be convenient to use artificial flavors, but he finds that real ingredients like fruit puree offer a freshness, vibrancy and bright flavor that are worth the effort. The shelf life of fresh fruit puree can be a challenge, though, so Davis tends to make these morsels in small batches or for special events.

Production

After making the base of each truffle, each piece goes through a conveyor belt similar to the one you might remember from the famous “I Love Lucy” scene.

A vat of chocolate chips is melted until liquid and poured into a curtain of chocolate streaming down a moving belt. The chocolate is heated, then cooled slightly to reach the right temperature: the more milk the chocolate contains, the lower the temperature. Milk chocolate is heated to 88 degrees, dark chocolate to 90 degrees.

Cocoa butter, like the element carbon found in everything from pencil lead to diamonds, has 6 crystal structures. The goal is to bring this chocolate to the beta 5 crystal structure, the most stable form of cocoa butter crystallization, achieved by controlled fusion.

Production assistant Kathie Schlotterback prepares Nutty Bars to be dipped in chocolate at the Marion Chocolate Factory in Marion, Iowa, on Friday, July 26, 2024. (Savannah Blake/The Gazette)

Production assistant Kathie Schlotterback prepares Nutty Bars to be dipped in chocolate at the Marion Chocolate Factory in Marion on July 26, 2024. (Savannah Blake/The Gazette)

“It’s hot enough to melt the unstable, spongy crystals, but it allows us to start firming up these beta-5 crystals,” Davis said.

Each piece passes under the waterfall before a shaker removes excess chocolate. After the shaker, workers can add a decorative drizzle or create a pattern before the candy travels down the line on the $80,000 piece of equipment.

Seven minutes later, the chocolate arrives at the end of the production line, where Davis and his employees check to make sure the chocolate has set. Chocolate solidifying before packaging can be fickle: Slight changes in humidity or temperature due to factors such as increased foot traffic on the shop floor can cause a pause in production.

After packaging, it is stored in ideal conditions: 68 degrees and 50% humidity.

The creative process

After 20 years in the National Guard, Davis may be tempted to stick to a dichotomy of “good” and “not good” when creating new chocolates or truffles. Eating while serving your country doesn’t require much discernment of the palate, after all.

Chocolate-dipped nut bars sit on a tray before being packaged at the Marion Chocolate Factory in Marion, Iowa, on Friday, July 26, 2024. (Savannah Blake/The Gazette)

Chocolate-dipped nut bars are placed on a tray before being packaged at the Marion Chocolate Shop in Marion. (Savannah Blake/The Gazette)

But with trusted employees who have been in retail for many years, a staff survey helps them express themselves with more nuance. Some lucky customers also participate in the process by offering them samples of new products.

“It’s fun to understand flavor profiles and how salt can balance things out, or whether you need to add sugar to a recipe,” Davis said. “I tailor it to my tastes and, hopefully, to our customers’ tastes.”

Comments: Reporter Elijah Decious can be reached at (319) 398-8340 or elijah.decious@thegazette.com.

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