When pastry chef Jocelyn Dubuque had the idea to launch Atlanta Candy Kitchen (ACK), she knew two things. It has to be fun, and it has to be a creative way to make people rethink the nostalgic candy of their childhood.
Dubuke, founder of JARDÍ Chocolates, has been creating hand-painted filled chocolates, chocolate bars, and chocolate-covered snacks since opening in 2015. Her candy-making process uses no preservatives, additives, or dyes. Cocoa butter-based paint for styling chocolate.
“I like using real ingredients. You can't make it better than what nature gave us.”
But Dubuque thought Atlanta's candy market needed more than that. It's a candy that brings childlike joy to customers. ACK's “Traditional Treats, Elevated” slogan refers to this sensibility as its “little sister,” the “life of the party.”
But Dubuque admits it was really her love for turtles that inspired her to open Atlanta Candy Kitchen.
Dubuque attempted his first turtle adventure in 2023. In this adventure, we have added a new member to our kitchen staff. Her enrobing line machine, affectionately referred to as “Lucy”. The reinforcement machine “Luna” was already holding down the fort. Dubuque hand-soaked all the turtles before Lucy arrived. That amount is equivalent to about 2,500 hand-dipped candies.
After giving away some turtles as Christmas presents, Dubuque's family encouraged her to sell them. Dubuke runs her ACK and her JARDÍ alone, but her family plays an important role in the candy business.
“I was lucky because my brother was a mechanical engineer. He talked to me about rewiring things. [on the machines]. My sister is my sounding board for ideas,” Dubuque told Rough Draft. “Her mother likes to taste everything, and her father also runs his own business, so he's kind of a sounding board for business decisions.”
While most Turtles have a default formula of milk powder and unroasted pecans, Dubuque takes a very different approach to Turtle. She starts by making her own caramel. It is a slow cooking process that takes 1.5 hours. She also roasted pecans to bring out the right flavor notes, and used heavy cream and butter to create the candies' rich chocolate coating and caramel center, giving the turtles the perfect soft and chewy texture. I am.
But there's another secret. It's salt.
Dubuque says her turtles are seasoned rather than salted, resulting in a “very deep cooked dairy flavor” in the chocolate-covered nut chunks.
And the Dubuque turtles were just the beginning. Atlanta Candy Kitchen also offers chocolate-covered pretzels. Dubuke's turtles and pretzels are served dipped in dark chocolate, milk chocolate, or white chocolate.
The company plans to eventually sell fudge products such as peanut butter and peanut butter crunch, and has several other unnamed confections in the works. One such candy that Dubuke is currently developing begins with a light pop of vanilla bean his marshmallow and ends with his fruit base of bright passion blended with white chocolate. Incredibly light, with a delicate, rich vanilla mixed with a hint of acidity from the fruit. A strawberry version will also be available soon.
“[They are] A kind of game of s'mores. Chocolate and marshmallows make me happy when I eat them together. But I didn't want to do the cookie or graham cracker element…and again, real ingredients. White meat. It's vanilla from Uganda. ” She sources her vanilla from Atlanta chocolatier Xocolatl.
Dubuque tapped into childhood nostalgia in other ways for ACK as well. She collaborated with her graphic designer Stéphanie Lacmelon to create the packaging, which referenced 1980s candy cigarette boxes but gave it a modern, clean twist. The two turtles are packaged together in a clear box about the size of a deck of cards, featuring a playful logo featuring Atlanta's iconic Ferris wheel and a peppermint candy cane front and center. It features a swirl and the city seal incorporates the initials ACK. return.
The price for two turtles is $8.
“Cooking and baking have always been a way for me to connect with people. So I want people to taste my food and be happy. 'Oh my god, this was worth the money.' That's what I want you to say. And I want to bring smiles to people's faces, whether they're adults or children. ”
The Atlanta Candy Kitchen website opens on May 6, and orders can be shipped to your home or picked up at JARDÍ in Chamblee. To stay up to date on new candies, Mr. Dubuke suggests following his ACK on Instagram.
