The smell is intoxicating in Sweet Mona’s, and wherever owner Mona Newbauer visits after work in her Langley chocolate shop.

Having founded the company 11 years ago, Newbauer is used to the attention her presence draws even when she’s silent. At a recent Langley City Council meeting, she was presented with an award from Mayor Fred McCarthy for work done on her Second Street building. Several council members remarked that they could smell the shop’s delectable scent emanating from her.

“We sweeten the world,” said Newbauer, 54, during an interview in the store.

“Everyone wants to be friends with the chocolate lady,” she laughed.

People visiting Langley only need to follow their nose to find a treat. And they often do, especially during the busy tourist summer months such as a recent Wednesday early afternoon. A dozen people filtered into the shop, gazing at the gelato selection, fudge and rows of truffles — salted caramel, peanut butter, cayenne. 

There are hundreds of flavors and treats in Sweet Mona’s, most of which are her own creations. Only the bagged treats, such as chocolate-covered peanuts or gummy candy and gelato are not the shop’s recipes.

“It reminds me of when I was a little kid, like my aunt made,” said Michaleen McGarry, executive director of the Langley Chamber of Commerce.

Newbauer has come a long way since starting out selling truffles to the Langley bakery more than a decade ago. The bakery is long gone, but Sweet Mona’s is thriving.

She and husband Tony Newbauer bought the 1,500-square-foot building in Langley Village in 2014. It was a big leap, but one she had planned and pursued for years, first looking at the former Mike’s Place building on First Street before finding her current location.

“There’s still never enough space,” she said.

The move was about as simple as it gets, moving only a hundred or so feet across Second Street. Within a few days the business reopened in its new space thanks to the generosity of friends, family and customers who helped move everything, she said.

Since relocating, Newbauer said sales are up. Even in the winter months, she stays busy because of online orders that get shipped the world over.

Quality products and an adaptable leader are the chief qualities that have made the store a success in the Langley chamber director’s opinion.

“She’s always willing to listen,” said McGarry, who helped set up the Sweet Mona’s website before becoming the chamber’s executive director in April.

“I might be a little biased because I love Sweet Mona’s,” she added, saying she was fond of the fudge and halving a curry and a coconut truffle to make a sweet-and-spicy blend.

Sweet Mona Newbauer learned from some bitter lessons. Success came from several stumbles over growth and expansion, marketing, and even how to make a chocolate truffle.

“There were probably three or four or five times I thought I was going to quit,” she said. “I borrowed against my 401K, took out loans, borrowed from a girlfriend.”

When she started about 15 years ago, Newbauer was a neophyte to the chocolate world. She had worked in the non-profit sector and had never made truffles before, graduating from high school and doing a year of college before pursuing other passions.

One of her three sons was working at the Langley bakery and suggested to his bosses that they ask his mom to make chocolate for them to give out with meals as small treats. Think of it like Langley’s version of giving out an Andes chocolate mint with the dinner check.

“It took me three whole days to make truffles,” she said, adding that the recipe was found online.

In short order, her chocolates were in demand and she found a commercial kitchen at JW Desserts in Clinton, which she rented by the hour. Those chocolates were sold at farmers markets around the island, then she was asked to box them up for a store. 

“I was just like faking it ’til I made it,” she said.

Not one to timidly engage with something, Newbauer went full-bore with learning all she could about making and selling chocolates. She joined trade groups, studied online and got connected with the Washington State University Extension to learn about shelf life for her candies.

Once she got her own space, she sought out aggressive expansion trying to cater to customers’ requests for a breakfast place in town. Increasing her staff and expenses, it never caught on and she ended up laying off the entire crew while she scaled back for four months.

What did she learn from the experience?

“I’m never gonna do breakfast again,” she said.

“I still have to watch the cash flow like a hawk,” Newbauer added.

There have been smaller stumbles, too. Things like trying out an adventurous flavor that falls flat, such as a pear gorgonzola truffle that was not up to snuff.

“I went to a show and it won an award,” Newbauer said of someone else’s creation. “I thought, ‘I could do that.’ And I could not.”

“What sells is what people know,” she added.

Failures and mistakes have hardly kept her from dreaming. She can envision her name splashed across stores from coast to coast, getting picked up by a major grocery chain and having her chocolates up there next to Ferrero Rocher, Godiva, and See’s.

“I’d love to see Sweet Mona’s across the country,” she said. “I can see it, but I’m a little late to the game.”

Newbauer said she had plenty to improve upon, citing display and marketing as areas of weakness. But visit the shop during a summer Saturday and watch the people gaze as one of the machines in the back lays out caramels from behind a glass window, or children’s faces pressed against the glass counter greedily eyeing the rows of truffles and fudge, and her display skills seem to work well enough.

Marketing is one of her strong suits, given that she floats through the slower winter months by doing major discounts in January.

“You never really feel like you’re out of the weeds,” she said.

Most of Newbauer’s work these days is administrative and creative. She tends to the books and tries to innovate new flavors and marketing strategies, while a full-time employee manages the kitchen and candy making.

There are dreams yet unfulfilled for Newbauer, of having a two-story building that would be what she called a “chocolate hostel” where visitors could sleep and earn their stay by cleaning up the kitchen or other in-house tasks.

“That takes millions of dollars, but I can still dream,” she said.

While she dreams of expansion, those faces pressed against the glass will continue to dream of Sweet Mona’s delicious truffles and the scent of chocolate.