Stubbe Chocolates Ltd

The moment you step into Stubbe Chocolates in Ottawa’s bustling ByWard Market and take your first sublime whiff of sweet cocoa, all troubles simply melt away. If you close your eyes, you might even be transported back in time to Germany, 1845, when Stubbe Chocolates was founded. Johannes Heinrich Petrus Stubbe opened Stubbe Chocolates in Meppen, Germany in May of that year. Little did he know the shop would thrive for six generations to follow.

“The store was on the main level, and our apartment was above it,” Heinrich recalls. "You could smell the pastries and bread in our home. I grew up breathing the business.” Heinrich’s father insisted that he pursue another career, one with less demanding hours. But at 16 years of age, Heinrich began his apprenticeship to become a chocolatier and pastry chef, certain that his future would be to carry on the family business.

In 1989, Heinrich relocated to Canada, bringing his passion and his past with him. Deciding to drop most of the pastry work and focus almost exclusively on chocolate, he opened his family business in the heart of downtown Ottawa, and he can now say it's the oldest family business in the Ottawa Valley.