A delicious idea: Making s’mores a gourmet treat
Mountain Brook resident Malissa Nelson is no stranger to the food industry.
After spending the early years of her career working for companies like Amazon and Dean & Deluca, Nelson’s extensive experience in marketing and communications gave her the skills and confidence to launch her own business.
“I’ve always had an appreciation not just for the food itself, but the larger context of meaning associated with the bringing together of people to break bread and celebrate those moments, big and small,” said Nelson, who grew up in Michigan.
She believes the food world is an absolute necessity for life.
“Being surrounded by people who [wanted to] bring a superior product to the marketplace, not just build a great business and tell a great story, but to also have an impact in people’s lives, felt like home to me,” she said.
She was recruited to Dean & Deluca in 2011 and after it was sold in 2014, Nelson consulted for various businesses until the end of 2018, when she had a decision to make — whether to continue consulting or start her own business. Having lived in many parts of the country, Nelson knew she wanted to zero in on the South because of its appreciation for food and hospitality.
“At this point, I had no idea what the concept was going to be,” Nelson said. “Once I got here [to Alabama], it clicked that it had to be something people wanted to indulge in.”
While she tried a couple of different things at first, her inspiration ultimately came from her children. She says that they were always asking to build a fire outside and roast marshmallows.
“It was right there in front of me the whole time,” Nelson told Village Living. “I usually told my kids no [to roasting marshmallows] because the ingredients in them are absolute junk. Even after calling makers I was familiar with from my time at Dean & Deluca, everything had corn syrup in it, especially high fructose corn syrup, and it just wasn’t something I was comfortable with feeding my kids,”
After this experience, Nelson found herself experimenting with different ways of creating marshmallows without corn syrup. A year and a half later, she perfected her recipe and was ready to share it. However, she knew that this product needed to be put in a context that people would understand.
“I had this recipe, and I had to figure out, ‘OK, now what do I do with it?’,” she says. “I started trying to figure out different avenues to create a compelling offering that people would at least try, and, hopefully, they liked it.”
Deliciously launched the first week of October 2022 at CahabaQue, a bi-annual BBQ competition held at Cahaba Brewing Company to benefit the Breast Cancer Research Foundation of Alabama.
Nelson said that experience changed her perspective on the business in a positive way.
“Being able to get out from behind my desk and serve people has been a nice little evolution in my career, and I’m definitely hooked on that now and excited to see where it goes,” she said.
She currently makes all of the marshmallows herself, but she is hoping to expand and utilize local makers for the marshmallows, chocolates and cookies that are available on her website. She believes sourcing her ingredients from the surrounding community is an important step in boosting the economy locally.
Deliciously has shipped their product to all of the 48 contiguous states, and the business has relied on social media and word of mouth advertising for their success thus far.
“We will always have vanilla bean, salted caramel and chocolate espresso flavors,” Nelson said. “Every six to eight weeks, we hope to rotate a seasonal menu for the marshmallows. The next product extension is to add flavored drizzles to our s’mores packages. We are also looking for a storefront to open the door to more ‘s’more-esque’ type things like ice cream or popsicles.”
Deliciously is also available for catering and events. Local delivery and shipping are available. For more information, visit shopdeliciously.com or follow them on Instagram at instagram.com/shopdeliciously.