116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Marion Chocolate Shop continues to refine quality, local chocolate in new location
Here’s what sets quality chocolate apart
Jul. 31, 2024 5:15 am, Updated: Jul. 31, 2024 8:56 am
In 2021, when Ben Davis considered his next move after 20 years in the Army National Guard, there were two things he was hoping to achieve: a sense of connection to the community, and an outlet for creativity.
Since purchasing the Marion Chocolate Shop, the confectionery mainstay in Uptown Marion has delivered both.
Now, after moving into a freshly renovated 130-year-old building, the business that has passed through several owners over the last several decades has a chance to offer a new experience in sweets.
Behind the retail space, a new kitchen is crafting improved recipes that offer high quality, handcrafted chocolate with fewer ingredients and preservatives.
If you go
What: Marion Chocolate Shop
Where: 1060 Seventh Ave., Marion
Hours: 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday; 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday
Phone: (319) 377-7597
Website: themarionchocolateshop.com
Details: Find six different types of confections and dozens of varieties among chocolate, fudge, chocolate truffles and other novelties, all made in-house
A “cleaner” confection
“A lot of (the former owner’s) processes hadn’t changed since the business was formed in the ‘80s,” Davis said.
With hopes to cut out the preservatives and stabilizers you can’t pronounce, he took a few foundational courses in chocolate. Over the last year, products have fewer ingredients and more locally sourced ones, like dairy from Dan and Debbie’s Creamery in Ely.
Today, their caramel has been reduced from 13 ingredients to six — two of which are sugars, and two of which are dairy.
“The label is a lot smaller,” Davis said.
Many say the taste has gotten “fresher” and “more real,” he said, without the sacrifice of other practicalities like shelf life. As he started to explore the ratios of milk fat solids, chocolate percentages and sugars, he learned how to command the production process, down to its crystalline structure.
“There’s a lot of science that goes into it. The shelf life is controlled by … how much chance there is of mold,” he said. “When you’re not using a lot of ingredients, you can really control the formula.”
Quality and quantity
The Marion Chocolate Shop can craft up to about 2,000 pieces of creams, caramels, toffee, fudge, truffles or other novelties in a day — enough to meet demand during the busy holiday season.
It goes through 3,000 pounds of dark chocolate alone every year.
“We’re not big, but we can crank out quite a bit,” Davis said.
Packaged chocolate dipped Nutty Bars and other sweet treats sit out for sale at the Marion Chocolate Shop in Marion, Iowa on Friday, July 26, 2024. (Savannah Blake/The Gazette)
Chocolate dipped Oreos sit out on a tray at the Marion Chocolate Shop in Marion, Iowa on Friday, July 26, 2024. (Savannah Blake/The Gazette)
Packaged truffles sit on display for sale at the Marion Chocolate Shop in Marion, Iowa on Friday, July 26, 2024. (Savannah Blake/The Gazette)
But quantity doesn’t come at the expense of quality. Like most specialty shops, the business model that makes a local businesses feasible in today’s globally connected world relies on evoking an experience.
“You can go to Walgreens and get a king-size candy bar for the price of one of our caramels,” he said. “But with our product, you’re going to enjoy it more, you’re going to remember it when you’re done, and it’s a really great gift.”
And within each product category, the sky’s the limit for creativity.
What makes good chocolate good?
“It’s kind of like fine dining,” the chocolatier explained. “You want it to have the right mouth feel so when you bite into it, it’s smooth and clean.”
That is dictated by the right formula, particularly the proper ratio of butter and chocolate in each handcrafted piece.
Quality chocolate has a proper balance of flavor notes, and owns a point of view with its flavor profile. The Marion Chocolate Shop tends to prefer versatile notes of vanilla, rather than fruity or bitter notes.
Similar to wine or coffee, there is a map of flavors to work with in chocolate and the cocoa it’s sourced from. With most cocoa beans grown around the Ivory Coast of West Africa or in Central America, the way they are grown, blended and roasted can all impact the final product.
After purchasing the shop, Davis changed the primary chocolate used to coat handcrafted pieces from a Cargill product to Callebaut, a Belgian import with a substantially different profile.
It can be convenient to use artificial flavors, but he finds real ingredients like fruit puree deliver a freshness, buoyancy and bright flavor that pays off. Shelf life with fresh fruit puree can be a challenge, though, so Davis tends to make those pieces in small batches or for special events.
Production
After crafting the base of each truffle, each piece is run through a conveyor belt similar to the one you may remember from the famous “I Love Lucy” scene.
A vat of chocolate morsels are melted to liquid and piped into a streaming curtain of chocolate over a moving belt. The chocolate is heated up, then cooled slightly to get to the right temperature — the more milk in the chocolate, the cooler the temperature. Milk chocolate is heated to 88 degrees, dark chocolate to 90 degrees.
Cocoa butter, like the carbon element that can be found in anything from pencil led to diamonds, has 6 crystalline structures. The goal is to get this chocolate to the form-5 beta crystal structure — the most stable form of cocoa butter crystallization, formed through controlled melting.
“It’s hot enough to melt the unstable, squishy crystals, but lets us start firming those beta-5 crystals,” Davis said.
Each piece runs underneath the waterfall before a shaker removes excess chocolate. After the shaker, staffers can add a drizzle of decoration or craft a pattern before the candy moves down the line on the $80,000 piece of equipment.
Seven minutes later, it arrives at the end of the line, where Davis and his employees check that the chocolate has set properly. The solidification of chocolate before packing can be fickle — minor fluctuations in humidity or temperature by factors like increased foot traffic in the shop can mean a pause in production.
After packing, it’s stored in ideal conditions: 68 degrees and 50% humidity.
The creative process
After 20 years in the Army National Guard, it can be tempting for Davis to stick to a binary of “good” or “not good” in the creative process for new chocolates or truffles. Eating while serving your country does not require much discretion in the palate, after all.
But with trusted employees who have been with the retail business for many years, a poll of the staff helps him articulate with greater nuance. Some lucky customers get in on the process with samples of new products, too.
“It’s been fun understanding flavor profiles and how salt can balance things out, or how you need more sugar with a recipe,” Davis said. “I get it to how I like it, and hopefully, how our customers like it.”
Comments: Features reporter Elijah Decious can be reached at (319) 398-8340 or elijah.decious@thegazette.com.
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