Borna, who wears glasses and a loose braid tucked under a pink beanie, transfers the mixture into a bowl and starts to pour in the other measured ingredients: Earl Grey tea, dark-chocolate ganache, hemp seed nougatine, smoked sugar, and cornflower petals. Once finished, she delicately pipes the mixture into glossy dark-chocolate shells, ready to be individually packaged and sold to customers nationwide.
Borna was born in Gopalganj, Bangladesh, a district in the capital, Dhaka, along the east bank of the Madhumati River, in central Bangladesh. The youngest of six siblings, she lived in several districts In September 2015, at age 42, Borna made the difficult decision to take her youngest child, Nee, and relocate to Michigan, applying for asylum due to religious persecution. Leaving behind her sons was extremely hard. “My kids were close to me,” she says. “People used to say I look incomplete without my kids.” Borna says that moving to the United States gave her a sense of security. “When I got to the U.S., I was able to experience safety and peace, which made me decide to try and stay here.
In 2016, Borna got her first taste of Bon Bon Bon’s confections. She recalls Buttry bringing some home for her birthday and sharing them with her housemates. “It was delicious and absolutely handmade,” Borna says. Clark says Borna is the first one to notice when something is wrong in their circle. She’s like everyone’s mom. She is also a big hugger. “My favorite thing that Borna does is when she says, ‘Maybe,’ and then follows it with her exact opinion and the perfect solution for something. Like, ‘Maybe we should just turn the machine off,’ or ‘Maybe we need to have more fun today.’ We basically do whatever Borna says around here — in many ways, she is the boss,” Clark says.