All along, it had used mild-mannered Kentucky Colonel mint from West Philadelphia's Drew Elementary School to flavor its lush ganache centers. (And raspberries from a Lancaster County farm, and local honey.)
But this year it added more schools to the roster, ending up with more Kentucky Colonel than it could swallow:Voila, the chocolate bars, subtly infused with 50 pounds of the stuff, its origins noted and saluted on the label.
"We're a storytelling business," said John Doyle, who founded the company (originally Jubilee Chocolate) in 2003 with his wife, Kira.
The couple had become early disciples of the gospel of local-sustainable-ethical business being preached by Judy Wicks of White Dog Cafe fame.
But there's a part of their story that didn't quite make it onto the label. And there's a touch of irony in how John & Kira's has found consolation - after a heady turn on the national stage - in the farm markets in its own backyard.
About 70 percent of the company's chocolates have been sold by mail order beyond the Philadelphia orbit. And locally, there were no dedicated retail outlets.
Partly, that's because the company started life under an almost impossibly bright star. With barely a few test batches to show, the couple's baby was anointed on the cover of Gourmet as the magazine staff's favorite chocolate.
But it had a bit of an Achilles' heel. Infused with delicate flavors and eschewing preservatives, the chocolates had an extremely limited shelf life, about two weeks.
That argued for a mail-order business, direct to the customer. And it was good. In little over five years, John & Kira's went from zero to $1.2 million in sales annually.
