Her favourite design is the Minions, which blew open doors when her Instagram reel on it garnered 1.5 million views. Her first design was simple stripes but Seah now draws inspiration from everywhere, from social media to YouTube. She now has a five-man team, including a business partner who does BerryBar’s branding and business development. When word spread and corporate interest poured in, Seah decided to rent a shop space at Kensington Square and hire her first team member in October 2021. Her mum also began helping her on busy days. “It took a year before my parents warmed up to the idea that maybe I was on to something that could be good,” recalled Seah. She gave up her commission-based recruiter job, where she made from $3,000 to $5,000 in a good month, and started working from home in July 2020. “I did not have any student, housing or car loans then, nor any dependents, so I thought it was ‘now or never’ if I wanted to try and start something.” Her father, who runs a car dealership, knew how hard it was to build a company and did not want her to go through the same stress. Her parents were not supportive at first, preferring her to have a stable salaried job. I realised that I was more excited, felt happier and more fulfilled about BerryBar and so the choice was easy.” “It was not sustainable for me to juggle both. Two months in, she realised that she had to make a choice. “If I was feeling this way, I was sure there would be others like me with the same dilemma.”īerryBar was meant to be a side project while Seah continued with her recruitment career for at least a year. The chocolate lover wanted to explore a different angle – for women to buy them as gifts for their girlfriends, beyond the usual flowers, bento cakes and cupcakes. “Traditionally, chocolate-covered strawberries have been reserved as romantic gifts for women, from men,” she said. But she did not feel fulfilled in either role and, at 24, had no idea what she wanted to do.Īfter making her first chocoberries for her boyfriend, she realised how much she enjoyed creating edible pieces of art – and more importantly, how there was a gap in the market that she could plug. Her first job was in human resource management and she eventually became a full-time recruiter for renewable power projects in the region. However, while she enjoyed learning psychology, she realised that she did not necessarily want a career in it. “It always surprises people when I tell them, because I’m very petite,” said the 1.53m who loves true crime documentaries and crime movies. She had studied psychology at the Singapore Management University because she wanted to become a police officer. Making chocolate-coated strawberries is a far cry from Seah’s original career goals. Her chocolate treats began catching the attention of corporate clients, including Netflix, Deutsche Bank, Twilio and Pomellato, and she eventually opened a bricks-and-mortar chocolate boutique at Kensington Square.īerryBar has done so well that Seah is currently expanding her business in Dubai, where she relocated in October with her boyfriend for his job in shipping. Pour hot milk or water over it to make your beverage. Her chocoberries, which start at $40 for a box of six, to $143 for a box of 24, come in fun designs like Minions and Star Wars characters, and even cheeky R-rated “fancy bits”, as one of their customers described BerryBar’s popular Netflix & Chill box.īesides chocolate-covered strawberries, her other signature item is cocoa bombs – round chocolate shells filled with marshmallows and your choice of oats or powdered Milo, or coffee, matcha or Horlicks. Seah uses strawberries from the USA, South Korea and Australia, depending on where she can find the sweetest seasonal fruit. And just like that, she started BerryBar, then a home business selling chocolate-covered strawberries, or chocoberries, in different designs. Seah, who had no baking background and did not even know how to use a piping bag, asked her mother if she could borrow her baking equipment. No part of this story or photos can be reproduced without permission from 8days.sg. She made some chocolate-covered strawberries to decorate the cake and then thought: “Chocolate-covered strawberries are very popular and common in Europe and America, but not so much in Singapore. “I was amazed and intrigued by how a small piece of fruit could be transformed into so many different characters,” she said. While searching online for design inspiration for the cake she was baking, the founder of BerryBar stumbled onto the world of chocolate-covered strawberries. During Singapore’s circuit breaker in 2020, Maribelle Seah wanted to send her boyfriend a cake for his birthday as they were unable to meet.
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