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There’s an episode of “The Simpsons” in which Homer meets a German businessman who tells him he’s from “the land of chocolate.” This leads Homer to immediately daydream of a city made entirely of the sweet stuff, from the lampposts to the rivers to the dog he eventually munches on with unbridled glee.
That scene comes to mind upon entering Stubbe Chocolates, at Dupont and Christie, which, while founded 26 years ago, has roots that go back to 19th-century Germany.
(Read about another landmark, Toronto’s oldest Vietnamese Restaurant, where the special ingredient is tradition.)
Inside this quaint shop, 33 different chocolate bars line one wall (the mango lime chile one is a standout), while another shelf features chocolate high-heel shoes filled with 14 truffles. Champagne “bottles,” also made from chocolate and brimming with truffles, crowd one shelf, not far from a display of owls made from dark and milk chocolate.
The store also specializes in larger desserts, such as colourful mini smash cakes, which resemble regular cakes but are really chocolate shells filled with bonbons, truffles and sometimes chocolate-coated orange peel. They come with small mallets to smash the “cake,” like a take-home pinata.
These desserts, and other pastries like hazelnut cakes and sponge-cake tortes, set Stubbe Chocolates apart from other similar confectioneries. “In this city, some chocolatiers just make chocolate and there are pastry shops that just make cakes. But we do both,” says Daniel Stubbe, the store’s owner and founder. “We are also influenced by a more Viennese and German and Swiss approach to chocolate making, while many other chocolatiers are inspired by the French style.”
Apart from the shop’s high-quality cakes, Stubbe’s true centrepiece is the glass display of bonbons and truffles. The white-chocolate ganache truffle infused with the Asian citrus yuzu and coated in a dark chocolate shell is sweetly delicious, and the Gewürztraminer truffle is perfectly tinged with white wine and topped with white chocolate.
To fine-tune each chocolate’s makeup, Stubbe has to taste-test at least five of his creations daily. “I only eat half of each chocolate,” he adds, “because I eat so much every day. And I only have the filling, since I know what the outside tastes like.”
Stubbe, eager to discuss the particulars of chocolate making, explains how bonbons differ from truffles. “A bonbon can have any kind of filling, like alcohol or fruit” he says, “while a truffle is always with ganache, which is a chocolate and heavy cream kind of filling.”
His shop specializes in both traditional and exotic chocolates, the latter of which he and his team will experiment with come the holidays. It’s a group effort, he stresses, and they may concoct unusual pairings, such as a truffle with balsamic vinegar and rhubarb.
“But many of our customers have their favourites,” he says, “like someone who always likes our whiskey truffles.”
Boozy chocolates and chocolate shoes filled with truffles may seem eons away from the Stubbe family’s legacy, which began in May 1845, when Stubbe’s great-great-great-grandfather Johannes Heinrich Petrus Stubbe established Stubbe Chocolates in Meppen, Germany, 2 1/2 north of Dusseldorf. When his grandfather took over the shop, young Stubbe was quickly exposed to the business and craft of making specialty chocolate and pastries.
Stubbe recalls being seven and using a pedestal to get level with the kitchen table so he could glue candies on gingerbread cookies with his father. “And that area of the house was always full of steam from our big bakery oven we had there,” he says with a laugh. “Honestly, sometimes that huge amount of steam was scary to a young kid like me.”
A trained pastry chef, Stubbe completed his chocolatier apprenticeship in Ibbenbüren, near Münster in northern Germany. When he and his family emigrated to Ottawa in the late 1980s, they opened a Stubbe Chocolates, which is now run by his father and sister Anne.
Wanting to open his own store, Stubbe decided to leave for Toronto, as Ottawa was deemed too small a market for two outlets. Stubbe Chocolates held fort for 11 years on Davenport before moving to its current location.
It may seem surprising that a trained pastry chef doesn’t also sell baked goods beyond cakes, but Stubbe attributes that to a valuable lesson his father taught him. “He once told me that it might be tempting to sell croissants or other items that may be hot at the time,” Stubbe recalls, “but he said to focus on what you’re good at.”
He bites into a sea salt and caramel bonbon, then says, “And we’re really great at making chocolate.”
Correction — Oct. 17, 2022: Daniel Stubbe is the owner and founder of Stubbe Chocolates. A previous version of this file misstated his first name and misspelled his surname. As well, the headline of the file erroneously said the store is in the Annex neighbourhood.
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