Meggie Mobley, owner of Bijoux Handcrafted Chocolates, originally thought she wanted to open a bakery because she always liked baking as a child.
However, her experience at Veruca Chocolates—as well as her education at The French Pastry School, both located in Chicago—led her down a different path.
Meggie attended Mizzou originally for a computer science degree, but soon switched over to hospitality management.
After college, she entered a 24-week pastry program at The French Pastry School in Chicago, which included a variety of modules focused on different skills such as bread baking, cake decorating, chocolate sculpting and more.
Students are required to stage (intern) at a bakery during their coursework, so for six months, Meggie worked at Veruca Chocolates, which is known for its hand-painted chocolates.
“I walked in and was like, ‘I’ve never seen this before!’” Meggie says.
“I hadn’t even done the module for chocolate at school yet, but the more I was at Veruca, the more I thought, ‘This is kind of interesting,’” Meggie says. “It’s such a cool combination of being very artistic and creative but also being very science-forward. Making chocolate does have a very heavy chemistry component.”
After completing the chocolate module in school, Meggie discovered Rick Jordan Chocolatier in Chesterfield, which has since permanently closed. He was the only chocolatier making hand-painted chocolates.
Meggie worked with Rick Jordan for about two years, where she continued to hone her craft. Meggie wasn't even thinking about owing her own business when Rick decided to close the shop and retire. Meggie was at a crossroads because she was only beginning her career in chocolate.
“This is really where I want to be, and it’s [hand-painted chocolates] not offered in St. Louis," says Meggie. So she decided to start offering small batch hand-painted chocolates on her own.
Meggie kickstarted her business in a 150-square-foot room in the basement of her home that she shared with her now-husband and began selling her chocolates at the Lake St. Louis Farmers and Artists Market.
“It has been very fruitful. I go back to the Lake St. Louis Farmers Market every year,” Meggie says. “It kind of exploded way faster than I ever thought it would.”
As she continued to grow her brand at the farmers market and various pop-up events, Meggie realized she was ready to open a brick-and-mortar store. She discovered a space in Des Peres—a chic 750-square-foot storefront—and opened in July 2020.
The bonbons take about two days from start to finish.
The process for the bonbons is as follows: polish the mold; paint the mold; fill the mold with chocolate; make the shell; fill it with filling, which crystallizes overnight; cap them off and pop them out. Seems simple enough, right?
“I wish I could tell you there was more thought to it. It’s very trial-and-error,” Meggie says of her craft. “It depends on what I think looks good and what I have on hand.”
“Chocolate is extremely temperamental with the exact temperature and the exact crystal structure. And I have to know for each recipe how much water is in every single ingredient. … It’s very specific, which appeals to my very analytical mind but there is also a very artistic and creative side, which appeals to me.”
The chocolate surface will reflect any sort of imperfections, such as water stains or smudges, from the mold. The molds are smooth and clean, which is what gives the bonbons the shiny surface. Meggie then paints the bonbons at a specific temperature to ensure there’s enough of a certain type of fat crystal in the cocoa butter colorant.
The fillings need to be cold enough that they won’t melt the chocolate but warm enough that they are pipe-able and will level themselves evenly inside the bonbons.
“At any point, something can go wrong,” she says. “At the very end, I can pop them out and see that there was a smudge that I didn’t notice when I was polishing.”
Meggie uses Valrhona Chocolate, a French chocolate manufacturer founded in 1922. She likes this brand because of its high fat content and its offerings of single-origin chocolates.
Meggie equates the single-origin chocolates to that of single-origin red wine as opposed to red blends. Single-origin chocolate has a unique, signature taste.
“There aren’t a lot of notes or specificity of the flavor profile [in chocolate blends].”
Essentially, Meggie is a sommelier—but for chocolate!
Meggie sources her chocolate from cocoa beans grown in the Caribbean. However, for her raspberry bonbons, she uses a single-origin chocolate from Madagascar because that bean has red fruit notes.
“Would it taste bad with the other chocolate? No, of course not. It’s still raspberry and chocolate, which is delicious, but it’s just a little bit extra that it’s made with a bean that already pairs well."
When asked what making handcrafted chocolates means to her, Meggie says: “There’s something about the level of pride of looking at something that turns out really well and knowing that I made every part of that. I created the recipe, sourced the ingredients, painted it, came up with the design, and it looks really nice.”
Bijoux Handcrafted Chocolates is located at 13014 Manchester Road, in Des Peres. BijouxChocolates.com