Eating the World's Longest Box of Chocolates

Chocolate. Milk chocolate. White chocolate. Dark chocolate. I’m a sucker for chocolate. So when my friend from high school Alexandra Clark opened up her very own chocolate shop right here in Detroit, I was all about it. In fact, when I had a six hour layover in Detroit on my way to Washington, D.C. for the Blog It Home Top Bloggers Tour in 2014, I had my friend pick me up at the airport and my first taste of America was a bon bon from Alex’s shop, Bon Bon Bon.

And Wednesday, Bon Bon Bon set the world record for the World’s Longest Box of Chocolates, clocking in at 313 feet long. (Detroit’s area code is 313, in case you were wondering why that length.)

Alexandra Clark’s Lifelong Love of Chocolate

Alex has dreamed of opening a chocolate shop for as long as I’ve known her.

We had a statistics class together in high school and it was the end of the year; we were given some no-credit busy work and there was a problem that was worded something along the lines of “If Hershey’s makes X amount of red M&M’s, X amount of blue M&M’s, X amount of yellow M&M’s and X amount of green M&M’s what the probability that you will pick a certain color?” Alex, little miss chocolatier in the making, answered with, “None, because Hershey’s doesn’t make M&M’s, Mars does.”

I remember when she spent a couple days researching why white chocolate was still considered chocolate if it doesn’t have any cocoa in it (it’s because it uses the oils from the cocoa bean). She has always loved chocolate and Detroit.

On a six hour layover, my first taste of America is a bon bon from my friend's chocolate shop, Bon Bon Bon. — On a six hour layover, my first taste of America is a bon bon from my friend’s chocolate shop, Bon Bon Bon.

Becoming a Chocolatier

After researching cocoa production and farming as a part of her thesis for her Master’s degree, attending culinary school, studying chocolate in France and working at a chocolate shop in Boston, Alex finally felt confident enough to make her own dream come true right here in Detroit.

Bon Bon Bon opened up it’s original location, affectionately called the manufactory, in Hamtramck, a city entirely surrounded by Detroit, in June 2014. They have since opened up two more locations, one in the Chrysler Dime building in downtown Detroit and a pop up location in Ann Arbor, and there are plans to expand even more with ideas for other US cities and possibly even New Zealand as the next location.

Bon Bon Bon makes Bon Bon Bons

So what is a bon bon? It literally means a “good goodie,” which allows the chocolatiers of Bon Bon Bon to be as creative as they want with their creations. Practically, they are a rectangular chocolate shell filled with a variety of things; they currently have over 100 different flavor offerings.

Bon flavors include Mac and Cheese (French macaron, mascarpone ganache), Packzi (pronounced POONCH-key) (fried dough ganache, polish confiture, paczki sliver, donut sugar), Arabic Coffee (Great Lakes Coffee espresso ganache, cardamom royal icing, coffee bean), Johnny Cashew (toasted cashew butter, white chocolate ganache, Johnny’s seasoned candied cashews, dark chocolate drizzle) and Cherry Lux (Luxardo candied Michigan cherries, dark chocolate ganache).

They also have seasonal collections, and the currently featured fall collection has a special connection: the Caprese bons (Tomato jam, basil ricotta ganache, balsamic glaze) are made with cocoa from Tombel, Cameroon, where fellow Blog It Home winner Anna Nathanson served. (She wrote about sending the cocoa to Alex on her blog.)

Source: https://instagram.com/p/6-OQaYRSyI/?taken-by=bonbonbonchocolate

A small piece of rectangular chocolate sits in an open red and pink box in front of a cardboard box

Source: https://instagram.com/p/8axIVYRS28/?taken-by=bonbonbonchocolate

Quite the Box of Chocolates

The packaging that Bon Bon Bon uses is pretty unique. The bons are individually wrapped in thin cardboard, in a design that Alex came up with herself after working at a variety of chocolate shops and figured out what would work for what she wanted to create. Then, the bons of your choosing are lined up in a light and airy cardboard box that are cut to size, taped up and stamped all over.

A long cardboard box with a row of small Bon Bon Bon orange boxes lined up

Source: https://instagram.com/p/8mUIcFRS1w/?taken-by=bonbonbonchocolate

A view from above of a cardboard box with stamps on it next to a potted plant

Source: https://instagram.com/p/8dY4BERS9F/?taken-by=bonbonbonchocolate

Setting a World Record

Which brings me back to the record for the World’s Longest Box of Chocolate. Since the “largest” box is measured by weight, and the “two polite bites” per bon would mean making a lot of bons. However, because of the unique packaging, the babes of Bon Bon Bon paired up with the Detroit Riverwalk Conservancy to make the World’s Longest Box of Chocolate.

The box was filled with bons that were inspired by Detroit and less than five minutes after the record was set, all the bon bon bons were gone gone gone!

Three unopened small orange boxes with two opened ones next to them with chocolate inside on a white table.

An empty cardboard box going into the distance

Visit Bon Bon Bon

You can find Bon Bon Bon located at:

11360 Joseph Campau Ave., Hamtramck, MI 48212 (M – Sa 11 a.m. – 6 p.m.; 313-236-5581)
719 Griswold St., Suite 100, Detroit, MI 48226 (M – F 10 a.m. – 6 p.m., S & S 10 a.m. – 3 p.m.; 313-316-1430)

Eating the World’s Longest Box of Chocolates