Also this issue: Good for Body and Soul Meatless soul food? Patterson's Paradise offers old favorites that are healthy and tasty. -Elisa Ludwig

January 9-15, 2003

food

Sweet Deal

by Jenn Carbin

If you're a chocolate lover, then a company offering such whimsical taste combinations as milk chocolate and star anise, bitter chocolate and orange flower water, or crushed pistachio, white chocolate and cinnamon, might be the stuff dreams are made of.

If you're the owner of a young confectionery, then a write-up in Gourmet magazine, in part, does the job.

So it was around three weeks ago that John Doyle of Philadelphia's Jubilee Chocolates received a call from Jocelyn Zuckerman, an editor at Gourmet. "She said, ŒYou might want to hire a few more people, because we're going to put your chocolates on our cover,'" Doyle recalls.

Zuckerman says the heads-up is appropriate. "We know they're a tiny operation. People [in write-ups] just get inundated. We thought they deserved fair warning." Oh, and the article will hit at the end of January, a few short weeks before Valentine's Day.

A posse of editors from "The Magazine of Good Living" had encountered Jubilee at the 2002 Baum Forum in New York City, a conference of food education and culinary activities. Tastings are part of the event.

Zuckerman says of Jubilee's handcrafted product, "We were blown away. The mint ones, in particular, are just amazing. They're unlike any chocolate I've ever had."

This would make Doyle particularly proud; the Drew garden mint is close to his heart. The mint for these chocolates was originally grown by Drew Elementary School in West Philly and is now cultivated in cooperation with students at University City High School's greenhouse.

Support of local ingredients is part of Jubilee's charm and mission. "We're telling stories through each of the chocolates," Doyle says. Raspberries and cream come from Lancaster County. The lavender honey chocolate features "Philadelphia & environs wildflower honey," produced by a local beekeeper.

Anyway, back at the Baum Forum, photographs were taken. Chocolates were scooped up, taken back to Gourmet's test kitchen and praised. Several freelance journalists had tasted the offerings too, and one thing led to another. The piece is set to be the lead in Zuckerman's "Good Living" section.

Since Doyle and Kira Baker founded the company in 2000, they have made the chocolates and done most of the packaging themselves at a site in Northeast Philly. Doyle figures the article will mean, in the near future, "about 100 more orders." Reached while out buying "bigger" kitchen equipment, racks and trays, he says, "We're hiring part-time help."

To order Jubilee chocolates, call 800-747-4808 or visit www.jubileechocolates.com.