Marley Confections
Growing up in a household where sweets were off-limits, Margaret (Marley) Van Sicklen, owner of Marley Confections in Montecito, developed somewhat of a sweet tooth. “All my allowance went to candy,” she recalled. Chocolate was her favorite. One bite of Swiss chocolate was all it took for 10-year-old Van Sicklen to fall in love with the sweet, velvety substance. “It was just so delicious that I could not believe it,” she mused. This moment ignited a lifelong fascination with and love of chocolate – but not just any chocolate, good high-quality chocolate.
Throughout her life, she researched the art of pastry and chocolate making, often challenging herself to some of the recipes. It was just a hobby for a while, until six years ago when she decided to study the craft formally. She attended the Ecole Chocolat Professional School of Chocolate Arts, and participated in various training courses at Melissa Coppel Chocolate School in Las Vegas.
Three years ago, Van Sicklen launched Marley Confections, a specialty chocolate shop. With the invaluable assistance of her partner, Sven Nebelung, they began selling their delectable treats online and to local establishments such as Pierre Lafond and the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden. Last year, she said the cafe and gift shop Field + Fort sold over 1,000 boxes of chocolate. “It really took us to that next level,” Van Sicklen reflected. “We needed to open our retail store to even grow further.”
This week, Van Sicklen and Nebelung soft-opened the shop in Montecito’s Upper Village at 1482 E. Valley Rd., Suite 52. The space is just 215 square feet and 48 inches wide. “It was a hallway,” she told me as we maneuvered through the narrow space. Van Sicklen said she had her eye on it for a while and had been on the waiting list for a space in the Upper Village for two and a half years. Finally, she got it. “I almost fell off my chair when they called me,” she recalled.
While it is tight – you can stretch your arms and touch both walls – the closet-like space was what Van Sicklen envisioned. A chocolate shop she frequently visited while living in New York inspired the idea of a small shop. That NY destination could hold just two people at a time, while hers can hold about four. “If they all stand in a line,” she laughed.
Before becoming a chocolatier, Van Sicken was a creative director in advertising. “No matter what she’s done, she’s always been a very creative and entrepreneurial person,” said Nebelung, singing her praises. Her creative side truly shined when, in 2000, Van Sicklen created the bestselling Origami Page-A-Day Calendar. “I’ve always come up with wacky ideas,” she shared. “And I always think, well, sure; I’ll figure out a way and make it work.”
As with many creatives, learning how to perfect her craft was no easy feat – to sum it up, she burnt lots of caramel. “I just wouldn’t give up,” she recalled. “I knew I could learn it.” She often enlisted the advice of a Swedish chocolate maker from Stockholm who told her that a large part of learning the craft was making mistakes – it was just a part of the process. Small things out of her control, such as room temperature or humidity, could mess up the chocolate. “So I just kept practicing.”
It’s that same mindset that pushed her to create Marley Confections. When Van Sicklen looked into starting a business, she worked with Women’s Economic Ventures (WEV), a business management consultancy in Santa Barbara. “They’ve been really great and very supportive,” she said. “And what a wonderful resource for anybody that wants to start a business.”
Using European specialty equipment, Van Sicklen creates confections in her professional at-home chocolate kitchen. While expensive, this equipment, like the nut grinder, ensures the highest quality result. “You do need the equipment if you want to start producing in certain qualities and quantities,” shared Nebelung.
The chocolates are bite-sized, and each box has a legend explaining the flavors. I was most excited about the pistachio – you can’t go wrong with pistachio. Biting into the green circular chocolate, you get a finely ground filling with whole pistachio in the middle. It’s slightly sweet without being overpowering. Only when you taste high-quality chocolate like this do you realize how bad the other stuff is.
A considerable part of what makes their chocolates so tasty is their inclusion of local ingredients, like Santa Barbara pistachios, oranges from the farmers market, and whiskey from Cutler’s Artisan Whiskey in Santa Barbara. “Anything local, we use… we got such great stuff here, it would be silly not to,” shared Van Sicklen.
Before opening the shop, she hosted chocolate tastings at Field + Fort. It’s not often that she gets to see people enjoy her creations, so it’s at these tastings that she can see her hard work pay off. She looks forward to doing this in her new shop. “I just love seeing people eat them,” she says. “It’s just so rewarding.”