I received an email a few weeks ago from Stacy Self asking if we might be interested in doing a story on her business, Obsidian Confectionery. It sounded promising, and I do love chocolate, so why not check it out?

I first touched base with Chris Andrews, who lives in Saraland and serves as a city councilman for Place 1. Chris founded Bienville Bites and Taste of Fairhope Food Tours, wrote the book The Culinary History of Mobile, and currently has a series of excellent short videos about Mobile's history and its connection to epicurean delights. I figured he might have a personal experience with Stacy, her husband Stan, and Obsidian Confections.

“They are amazing,” he told me. My next call was to set up a time to meet Stacy and Stan and hear their story. It’s a great story. In a word, I’d say it’s driven by passion, and I would add an uncompromising work ethic to hand-make each delicious offering. No cutting corners.

The story has an interesting beginning. Both Stacy and Stan grew up in the Mobile and Chickasaw area of Mobile County, married soon after high school, and had their only child, Clinton. He is now grown, married, has four children, and lives in Norfolk, Virginia. Early on, Stacy, Stan, and Clint left the Mobile area and began a life in California. After five years, the Selfs moved to Marshall, Texas, which is about halfway between Longview and Shreveport, where they lived from 1994 until 2012.

Stan worked for a Texaco distribution company, while Stacy became a police officer. I quickly pick up that Stacy doesn't enjoy talking about herself, and Stan is her biggest fan. They both have a servant’s heart, which becomes more and more evident as the conversation goes on. Stan fills in a lot of the story as we go along.

“How did you get into baking?” I ask. Stan looks at Stacy and says, “She absolutely hated giving traffic tickets, but it was required by her contract with the police department. She felt so bad writing tickets that she began baking cookies, fudge, and cupcakes to give to the people she pulled over.” It turns out Stacy would get up at 3 am to bake treats to hand out. It softened the blow of receiving the citation.

After a while, Stacy and Stan felt called to found a 501(c)3 ministry called Shepherd’s Pasture, which included a retreat and conference center on several acres in East Texas. They both quit their jobs around the year 2000 and operated the retreat for 10 years. When family members in Mobile became ill with end-of-life issues, they moved home to Saraland in 2013.

We talked about life at Shepherd’s Pasture. It became a place where wounded souls came for spiritual rehabilitation. One particular event left an indelible mark. After Hurricane Katrina, they put a sign on the road at Shepherd’s Pasture that read, “Evacuees Welcome.” They had about 150 beds available, and people came and went as their situations allowed.

One woman and her six-year-old daughter lost everything, including their home in New Orleans's 9th Ward, and ended up staying 2 to 3 months at Shepherd’s Pasture. A somewhat tame three-legged deer and a fawn lived on the property, and they became comfortable enough with Stan, Stacy, and Clint to be fed and petted.

One day, Stan saw the fawn without its mother, and it seemed out of sorts, so he picked it up to comfort it. Just then, the six-year-old girl came running up and said, “Mr., may I pet your deer?” As Stan peered over his shoulder, he saw the girl's mother weeping on the porch. Alarmed that he had done something wrong, he apologized to the mother. “No,” she said. “My daughter has been diagnosed with an extreme level of autism, and this is the first time I’ve ever seen her speak to a man.”

Stan began college at Faulkner (now Coastal Community College) and graduated from the University of South Alabama with a degree in marketing. He joined the Navy and was an active-duty deep-sea diver and submariner for 6 years before spending 15 years in the Navy Reserves. During his time in the Navy Reserve, Stan earned a Master’s degree in accounting at South and two terminal degrees while executing his many other jobs. Dr. Self now teaches Graduate Accounting and is a full-time professor for Purdue University’s online Global program.

During their time at Shepherd’s Pasture, Stacy prepared over 100,000 meals and desserts; Stan managed the business and day-to-day operations. When they decided to move back to Saraland, they sold Shepherd’s Pasture and spent the next six months transitioning home. “We really missed our family and wanted to be closer to Clint (stationed in Panama City Beach) and the grandchildren,” says Stacy. Clint followed in his father’s flippers and has now advanced to Master Diver in the Navy with a 22-year career so far. Stanley and Stacy are extremely proud of him.

After moving to Saraland, Stacy continued baking and learned how to become a master French baker, which requires rigorous technical training, hands-on apprenticeship, and a deep understanding of ingredient science and heritage. Formal and informal training guided her learning. The formal training included apprenticeships with pastry chefs, confectioners, and master bakers. She is a classically trained chocolatier who specializes in the intersection of molecular gastronomy and sustainable, luxurious confectionery arts. (Say that five times)

Stacy’s work is defined by a meticulous approach to the V (Beta Five) crystal structure—the scientific gold standard for chocolate stability and gloss. Beyond the laboratory, she is also a staunch advocate for Direct-Trade sourcing, working personally with estate farmers in the Soconusco-Chiapas region in southwest Mexico to ensure that every chocolate confection’s and bonbon’s origin tells a story of ethical craftsmanship.

Stacy’s signature style blends avant-garde flavor profiles (such as toasted black sesame, smoked sea salt & exotic caramels) and sugar work with architectural design. Chocolate work requires a very precise method of cooking and tempering. It’s a very unforgiving cooking medium.

She said she was never very good at math, so she always asked Stan to help with measuring and conversions. Since she has been doing this so long now, her math skills have really improved.” She also stated, “Chocolate is an extremely challenging medium.” She is driven to keep working until she achieves perfection. And her Master Chocolatier mentors are always eager to help; they are just a text message or video conference away!

With no clear vision for a business, Stacy began making chocolate confections, brownies, cookies, cakes, and fudge to drop off at the homes of people in the community who were grieving the loss of a loved one, were sick, or needed a special gift. She made things and donated them to sell at church bake sales; people noticed how good her creations were and increasingly encouraged Stacy to start a confectionery bakery.

As she continued to grow and learn about making confections, she says, “Bonbons are the most difficult baking experience I’ve ever had in my life, but I was determined to get it right.” She brings out a display showing each stage of the chocolate confection process. First, there is the whole Cacao pod from Ecuador or Colombia. She shows me the beans inside, which must be fermented for three to five days, then air-dried, and placed in an oven at 325 degrees for 20-minute segments, four separate times.

Some of her techniques are specially developed and unique to her method because of Mobile’s climate. “The humidity here makes it difficult. That’s why you don’t have many chocolate confectioners in this area.” Next, she shows that each bean has a husk that must be removed until you have the ‘cocoa nibs.’

“Those are placed in a stone grinder (mélange). The goal is to reduce the product to 20 microns or smaller. If it is bigger, the result is a grainier product. So, it CAN take about three days to process enough cocoa/cocoa butter to successfully achieve the proper micron size.” Of course, they could simply use a food processor or use the mélange for a shorter time, but both are driven to provide a smooth, luxurious chocolate experience.

To make “milk” chocolate, Stacy uses a 50-50 blend of white and dark chocolate. Stacy’s “dark” chocolate is 70% cocoa and 30% cocoa butter. Everything they do is designed to provide 100% organic ingredients, no preservatives or additives, and the chocolate confections are made by hand without machine processing. Much of what they do also includes growing a great deal of the 100% organic ingredients and herbs grown in raised bed gardens and fruit trees on their property. Those include peach, pear and plum trees. They also have blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries. For the adventurous Bonbonon connoisseur, they also grow a variety of chilies.

One of Stacy’s specialties is creating special order flavorings. For example, she created a Bonbon to pair with a Rum Tiki Week drink prepared by the Firehouse Wine Bar in downtown Mobile. The flavoring paired with the “Hibiscus” cocktail was a hit. Stacy also created a special request bon-bon for Stanley: Bacon and maple flavored bon-bon. She specializes in custom orders, designs and flavors for her clients.

Obsidian Confectionery operates under the Cottage Baking license in Alabama. There are no designs to scale the business. “The shelf life for our products is 6 to 8 weeks, and can be frozen for up to 6 months. Although the federal government does not absolutely mandate that preservatives be added, practically speaking, to sell in stores, they would need to add preservatives and additives to extend the shelf life, and they both are passionate about the products being 100% Organic and additive free. They told me they are good with where they are and what they are doing. They do offer the ability to purchase from them directly on their FB page Obsidian Confectionery Stacy Self or the website www.obsidianconfectionery.com.”

I asked Stan about the business plan. “We’ve been approached by marketing people to advertise, but after doing the cost analysis, we decided we would go to the public through markets, pop ups, private events, special classes and philanthropic events to let people taste for themselves.” Obsidian Confections incorporated in January of this year and has participated in Piggly Wiggly’s Taste of Saraland, and the Mobile Taste of the Bay, Feeding the Gulf Coast’s Chef’s Challenge, United Cerebral Palsy's Food and Folly, among many others charity events.

The results have been overwhelming. At a recent Taste of Saraland event a gentleman approached the Obsidian Confection’s booth and said, “I like chocolate, may I try a bon bon?” Stan tells me there were maybe 1500 people at the event and you could hardly hear yourself think above the noise of the crowd. “He puts the bon bon in his mouth and all of a sudden, over the den of the crowd, he exclaimed, “Well, Damn!,” as if tasting chocolate for the very first time.

People flock to the Obsidian Confectionery booth wherever they are. “Chocolate is magical…. People “ooh and aah” over the offerings. This is because you are experiencing the “real” taste of Chocolate and the 100% organic ingredients that hit your palate like a flavor bomb, says Stan.. Stacy never turns down a request, if possible. She puts in the long hours to create 1000 or 1500 bon bons to give away. No easy task. And Stan is by her side every step of the way to lend help and support.

“Where did the name come from?” I ask. Stacy and her grandchildren love the obsidian volcanic rock, and Soichiro, her oldest told her “Nana, Obsidian looks just like your bon bons, they are dark and shiny; you should name it Obsidian.” Thus, the name Obsidian became official. “Obsidian is a hard, dark-colored volcanic glass that forms when molten lava cools rapidly. That’s much like chocolate. When ‘tempering’ the chocolate, you have to heat, reduce heat, and reheat to create a shiny confection that snaps when you bite into it,” says Stacy. “Then your taste buds are ignited.”

Obsidian Confections offers bonbons, macarons, cookies, fudge, brownies, cakes, and “Pretty Pastries,” visually stunning, artfully crafted baked goods and desserts that look as much like art as they do food. Obsidian Confections can even be found on the pillow at the turn-down service at The Admiral Hotel in Mobile.

Stacy's passion for baking is tangible. It’s a high-value product that requires a discerning and patient person who doesn’t consider cutting corners to produce the best confections possible. It’s created a ripple effect in Saraland and is gaining quite the reputation at fund raising events. Keep Obsidian Confections in mind for special occasions and events, and corporate and holiday gift giving.

As the couple held hands throughout our visit, I asked Stacy, any parting words?

“Live your passion,” she replied.