How Ethel M Chocolates got its start in Henderson

If you’ve ever toured the Ethel M Chocolates Factory or visited its Cactus Garden in Henderson, you might have asked yourself: Why would a chocolate factory ever set up shop in a sweltering, Mojave Desert town?

The short answer: loose liquor laws.

Lisa Vannerson, creative and public relations director of Ethel M, said Ethel M Chocolates founder Forrest Mars Sr., the billionaire creator of the M&M who helped grow Mars Inc. into an international corporation, moved to Las Vegas to retire in 1974.

But, that retirement was short lived.

After learning about Nevada’s unique liquor laws in the 1970s, Mars became so interested in creating liqueur-filled chocolates based on his mother Ethel’s recipes that he returned to the chocolatiering business, she said.

“There was so much land out here (in the Las Vegas Valley) and he had a plan,” she said. “It wasn’t just to have a flagship store — he wanted so much more than that.”

The factory broke ground in 1979 and opened in 1981 at 1 Sunset Way in Green Valley.

Ethel M was independently owned by Mars through most of the 1980s, but was purchased by Mars’ sons John and Forrest Jr. through Mars Inc. in 1988, according to The Independent.

The factory makes its chocolates in smaller batches without preservatives. This is to keep its recipes truer to the ones Ethel made over a century ago, the Review-Journal reported after the factory’s 30th anniversary celebration.

Ethel’s 16 original chocolates and Mars’ liqueur chocolates that include blends with bourbon, tequila and Baileys Irish Cream are still available for sale today in box sets.

Cactus Garden came from Mars’ love of gardening

The factory wasn’t just where Mars worked, it was also his home, Vannerson said.

Mars lived above the factory in a small penthouse until the mid-1980s. Vannerson said when he wasn’t busy teaching people how to make his family’s chocolate recipes, he would go to the Cactus Garden to indulge in his other favorite hobby: gardening.

With the help of designer Gary Lyons, the 3-acre garden was cultivated with 300 cactus varieties, the Review-Journal reported in 1981, the year the factory opened.

Saguaro cactus skeletons that Mars brought from Arizona can still be seen in the garden, Vannerson said. He also sold cacti outside the store in the ’80s, though Ethel M Chocolates these days sticks to selling cacti-covered chocolate tins and Prickly Pear Satin Creme Dark Chocolates, instead.

The idea to make the cactus garden a holiday destination came from one single Christmas tree that Mars would put in front of the factory each year.

Ethel M Chocolates associates asked Mars if they could put out more holiday decorations and decided to wrap the cacti in lights, she said.

“Slowly, it became not as much about an evergreen tree, but more about, how do we celebrate all the plants that (Mars had) in the garden?” Vannerson said.

Vannerson said the company has continued to add new cacti to the garden over the last four decades thanks to community plant donations.

“We’ve had a lot of people in the community reach out,” she said. “People get tired of taking care of plants at some point. … Even though cactus don’t need a lot of water, there’s still maintenance involved.”

The Holiday Cactus Garden Lights, now in their 31st year, also have evolved. Blow-up decorations between the pointy plants have been swapped out in recent years for new floodlights that project designs onto the cacti, she said.

This year, Ethel M Chocolates began charging a $3 entry fee to see the attraction, with all proceeds donated to Three Square Food Bank and HELP of Southern Nevada.

It’s one way for the factory to give back to the community that has given so much to them, Vannerson said.

“(The Mars family) is making sure that wherever there is a factory that we’re helping our communities however we can,” she said.

Contact Taylor Lane at tlane@reviewjournal.com.