As was mentioned in the article on chocolate in colonial America, Philadelphia was a hotbed of early chocolate manufacturing during Colonial times. To some extent, that independent pioneering spirit is still alive in Jubilee Chocolates, founded by John Doyle and Kira Baker back in 2001 in the borrowed kitchen of a friend’s apartment.

Jubilee—and John Doyle in particular—in many ways exemplifies the new generation of chocolatiers that is cropping up all over the country ... 

... Generally very well educated, chocolate making is often a second or third career for many.

John spent many years in investment banking, parlaying degrees in Art History and Italian Literature into a job with the Italian team of a Manhattan investment bank but after several years found out that he did not like the work he was asked to do. So he quit and pursued his passion for food (honed during an extended European trip that included an internship in #### management at the Ritz in Paris and two years in Florence and Siena waiting tables and educating himself in Italian cuisine). After returning to the US and a stint in a Manhattan restaurants, John took a job with Judy Wicks in the White Dog Cafe in Philadelphia, absorbing her interest in using food as a way to introduce people to social change in a broad sense, using business to make positive changes in people’s lives. John left White Dog to start Jubilee—with no formal training as a chocolatier—and chose Philadelphia in part because no one was doing anything like it.

From the beginning, the social mission drove all of the important business decisions, especially the desire to work with small producers making high quality goods, that share their mission to create products that add benefits to people’s lives versus harming the environment or people’s health and livelihoods.

John says that Jubilee Chocolates is “... a search for authenticity and authentic experiences in a world that’s full of gimmicks.” Since the beginning, they have offered only seven flavors, each with its own interesting story to tell, from Glenn’s Raspberries to the Drew Elementary Garden Mint. At the moment, Jubilee makes only ganaches, feeling that it is the best way to communicate their flavors to the palate. The flavor selection will expand to 10 in October with the addition of three new flavors, Lingering Lemongrass, Green Meadow Farm Strawberry, and Hawaiian Ginger made with ginger from a small biodynamic farm on the island of Molokai.

I had a chance to visit with John in his factory (in the old Goldenberg Peanut Chew facility in North Philly) several months ago and was able to taste their work at its freshest. Jubilee uses only Valrhona couverture, selecting the couverture that delivers the flavor they are looking to convey the best. Jubilee’s pieces—which take as long as four days each to make in small batches of 500 to 1000 pieces— are very much in the Nouvelle American style, small squares of delicate ganache with delicately thin enrobings individually hand-marked on top to make identification simple. One of the hallmarks of the Nouvelle American style is that the flavors are distinct, easily identifiable, and clear out of the mouth cleanly, and in these areas, Jubilee excels. While the top sellers are the Mint and Raspberry, their Coffee Whiskey piece made with Jivara milk chocolate, organic cream, and coffee from the Mt Vitz Coffee Cooperative in Mexico is the most interesting in the way that the flavors weave in and out beating a rhythm of flavors on the tongue.

For fans (and if you’ve never tasted their product you can order them online), the future holds many things in store besides three new flavors, but (with the exception of the chocolate) all of the ingredients will be sourced directly from small independent farmers and telling their stories. Adds John, “We’re interested in celebrating artisans, and that’s why we use the ingredients we use. We want everyone who receives one of our boxes as a gift to open the box and go, ‘Wow!’ It’s beautiful, there are some great stories, and it’s also filled with great chocolate.”

(This article first appeared in the October 2004 issue of The New World Chocolate Society Newsletter in Chocolatier Magazine.)