Lucky are they who look forward to Mondays – or their next gig -- with joy in their hearts! Meet the folks whose talents and passions are happily matched to the jobs they have.
KENDALL & JONATHAN MATHEWS
Tucked away in an otherwise nondescript office park in the heart of Westminster, Colorado, M2 Confections is a chocolate lover’s paradise, brought to life by the dynamic husband-and-wife duo, Kendall and Jonathan Mathews.
With over 30 years of combined experience in the culinary arts, Kendall and Jonathan have transformed their passion for chocolate into an award-winning small batch confectionery enterprise that’s creating a big buzz.
The chocolatier duo lovingly create bonbons, caramels, truffles, and other sweet treats all by hand. The beauty and exquisite flavors of their candies are testament to their meticulous artistry.
It all began with the French Toast Candy Bar, Kendall and Jonathan’s very first innovation, a combination of caramelized white chocolate and handmade maple candy, with a hint of cinnamon. These days, their in-shop and online specialties include Classic Chocolate Fudge, Dark Chocolate Sea Salt Caramel BonBons, BYO S’mores Kits, Cherry cordials, Peanut Butter and Jelly Cups, Classic and Chai Hot Cocoa Kits, and Dia De Los Muertos Marshmallow Skulls, among many other mouthwatering treats.
M2 Confections is best known perhaps for their seasonal chocolate truffle and bonbon pieces that are individually designed and hand-painted by Kendall. Each is an elegant edible creation as stunning as any Faberge bauble, and available in various size assortments and gift sets. The 2024 truffle fall flavors include Peach Whiskey, London Fog, Mexican Chocolate, Banana Bread, Orange Bay Leaf, Manhattan, and Burnt Passionfruit, to name just a few.
Their Westminster shop also offers a changing deli selection of artisanal sandwiches, snack, and homemade ice cream treats. Chocolate tasting classes are also given there occasionally.
The Mathews’ sweets business is hugely popular with thousands of followers on Instagram and Etsy and it routinely generates rave reviews on Yelp, Google, and Etsy. With parents who make bonbons and ice cream for a living, their 4-year-old daughter is likely one of the happiest kids on the planet!
Q&A
Where did you two first meet?
We met in culinary school, actually! We both attended in 2009; I (Jonathan) was a culinary arts major, and she (Kendall) was a pastry arts major. We didn’t have much occasion to spend that much time together, but our mutual group of friends ended up pushing us together. We definitely had a shared love of good food and enjoyed each other’s company…although we were sometimes a bit distracted!
Once you decided to start M2 Confections, did you have a mentor help you navigate the process of building a business and getting it off the ground?
You know, not really. We ended up building our business very slowly over the course of the last 9 years, and a lot of what we did was trial and error. It did help that it was a side project for years, so it was a bit easier to take risks and try out things!
The sweet fantasy of many kids is to have their own candy store! What does your daughter think about her mom and dad being professional chocolatiers?
Haha, I don’t know that she has understood yet what the full extent is of what we do! Although she’s definitely understanding that we’re around candy a lot, so she gets to try a lot of delicious things at least! I do think that the longer she’s around the store, the more she becomes familiar with our business.
Looking ahead a few years, how are you envisioning your business to grow?
It depends really. We have a lot of different potential pathways to grow our business, either focusing on a more savory direction or placing ourselves in more wholesale-type environment. We would love to be able to do more tastings, more community outreach, maybe even trying to build a second outlet! We’ll see what the future holds.
Where do you source your chocolate ingredients from? Do you use different types of chocolate?
We use the company Valrhona for our products; they are the premier commercial brand of chocolate for most professional kitchens. We use mostly the varietals that are also organic and fair trade. We will occasionally experiment with other brands as well, mostly trying to feature direct or fair-trade pieces. We use three different types of white chocolate, two types of dark chocolate and milk chocolate from them as well; we try our best to source the best flavor chocolates for each piece.
How do you go about creating a new confection or flavor combination?
For the most part, we think about what we would like to eat, and how to put it into chocolate! One of the things we’re most known for is our way of making unique chocolates approachable, and I think we do a good job with it! Once we’ve determined a flavor and direction, we’ll test it and confirm it tastes how we’d like it to. Once it is what we want it to be, we’ll test the shelf life of the piece to confirm it has a life of at least 3-4 weeks out of the fridge.
Naturally, you know that high-quality dark chocolate contains phenylethylamine, the chemical created by the brain when you experience falling in love. What’s it like to be in the business of crafting beautiful treats that make people so happy?
It’s a lot of fun, honestly. It’s incredibly awesome to have people come into the store with so many compliments for how all our products look. But the most gratifying thing about it is when a customer returns to the store because they loved every piece that they ate! To be the purveyor of happiness in the form of food is the greatest thing we can do with our careers, and I love it!
Photos: M2confections.com
:-) Please share this post with every candy and chocolate lover you know. Thanks!
Thise truffles look amazing. Plus some of the other creations on their site!
Somebody once said, "Candy is the answer. Who cares what the question is?"
Love, love, love this place. Truffles are some of the best I’ve ever eaten. Kendall is great at making recommendations. Stopping by their shop literally makes me feel like a kid in a candy store, I want to try everything! Looking forward to trying their toffee.