In case you missed the first post in this seriesĀ about my favorite chocolates (and my #1 indulgence), click here. This post tells the story behind the chocolate and its inspiring owner and creator, Jinji Fraser!
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Born in Germany (her dad was in the military) and raised in Baltimore, Jinji grew up without any particular interest in food.
She credits her uncanny smell memory with many of her creative inspirations.
Her first food memory is one that she draws on a lot for inspiration and is a key part of one of her favorite treats ā Chocolate-Covered Date Poppers stuffed with raw honey, crunchy cacao nibs and sea salt.
The inspiration? Honeysuckles.
As a child spending her summers in Alabama, she and her brother would spend hours lying by her grandmotherās endless chain link fence, interwoven with honeysuckles, pulling them off one by one and soaking in the sweet nectar.
Inspiration can literally come from everywhere [ā¦] Inspiration is everywhere all the time.
As we sat at the table during the interview, she saw a bag of popcorn lining the counter of one of the food vendors and told me it made her think about her new corn-infused chocolates and how they would taste different if she incorporated popcorn instead of corn flakes.
Her creative wheels are always turning; sheās open to being inspired.
Jinjiās start in the chocolate business came in a rather unexpected way.
The Turning Point
After graduating with a college degree in Communication and Culture and completing her health coaching training through the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, she returned to Baltimore, eager to become a nutrition counselor and teach classes.
Her first corporate job after college was working at Under Armour. At that point, she had no inkling she would a) have her own food business and b) have anything to do with chocolate.
One of her roles at Under Armour was designing nutrition and fitness programs for kids with Living Classrooms, a non-profit organization based in Baltimore.
As she was doing that, she had her first āahaā moment:
You know what? Iāve gotta do food. This is what I want to do.
With nothing holding her back or tying her down, Jinji left her corporate job and went out on her own. She started organizing events around food and got connected to the local healthy food and chef community, including Daniela Troia, owner of Ziaās CafĆ© & Plantbar (another favorite place of mine at Belvedere Square).
The turning point in her career came one night during an event she had organized at The Black Olive that centered on creating a delicious raw food dinner to introduce people to that way of eating.
Throughout the night, Jinji kept stepping over a postcard that was turned over on the ground. Eventually, she heeded the urge to pick it up and flip it over (after all it was her event and she knew she should at least pick up the trash).Ā The card was advertising raw chocolate workshops.
I canāt imagine what compelled me to actually look into this thing. This is totally not me to go do this thing.
But she did, and it changed her life and career forever:
I went to this workshop that wasnāt very good. It didnāt need to be good. All I needed was to see this thing, to see chocolate being made and to see that process of making it and the amount of work that goes into it. I just needed to see that. And once I did, I said, āThis is what Iām supposed to do. This is what Iām going to do.ā
Jinji has been ācompletely in love with chocolate ever since.”
Her father, Guy, who retired from the military after 38 years of service, came on to help her with the finances and logistical and administrative details.
Jinji and her dad
āHeās a big heartbeat of the business,ā she says. Heās also a welcoming, friendly face. I always look forward to seeing and chatting with him when Iām looking for my chocolate fix š
The Path
Like most successful people, Jinjiās path has not been an easy one. I asked her what barriers sheās faced in business.
āALL of them,ā she said.
Her greatest challenge was figuring out how to work with chocolate and turn it in to decadent and carefully crafted bites of bliss.
Chocolate is so emotional. You have to get that in order to work with it [ā¦] Itās never the same from one day to the next. [ā¦] It takes on whatever energy you have. I swear it does. It knows how you feel, and it reacts to that [ā¦] When I was starting out, I donāt know that I really understood that. I thought it was just like candy, like everyone else does [ā¦] but I didnāt really get that thereās something much deeper to it than that.
When she first started, she would get stressed out trying to make the āperfectā piece of chocolate.
Eventually, she learned that if she was patient, wasnāt in a rush, took her time, and just loved the process of what she was doing, it was so much easier to work with.
Iāve found the same to be true in my career and life. When I feel like Iām forcing things to happen, itās exhausting. It doesnāt feel easy. And often, it doesnāt feel quite right.
When Iām patient, enjoying the process and allowing myself to be āin the zone,ā on the other hand, I feel alive, and Iām fully present and being the best and truest version of myself. Iām all of me, and things just flow. Whether Iām teaching a workshop, leading a cooking class, or speaking to a room full of people about WHY health matters, it comes easily to me, and I shine.
Think about what makes YOU feel most alive. What comes easily to you? What feels right and natural? Pay attention to that. Do more of it. Be open to what “ease” is trying to tell you.
The Future & āThe Nodā
I asked Jinji whatās next and how she envisions her future, given the success she has had in such a short period of time since opening her business.
She wants to travel, see the world, and most importantly, connect.
I feel like enough people love chocolate that they could be connected by chocolate. I feel like enough people would be open to this world that Iām creating right now. Thereās just so much happiness in it.
I really just want to travel. I want to get other kinds of inspiration. I want to taste things. I want to share with people the things that Iām doing. I want to keep teaching and doing workshops and talking to people and really just connecting people with chocolate.
But donāt worry, Baltimore, Jinjiās chocolates will always have a home here.
In some capacity, the chocolate will live on in Baltimore because I love Baltimore and I love what Iām doing here, but thatās not my story, thatās not the end of my story at all.
It is so much bigger than Baltimore. It has to be. It just has to be. I really have this dream of just seeing the entire world and all of the people out there [ā¦] I love what Iām doing. I love people.
Jinji loves what she does and is grateful for it.
I come and I make chocolate all day long. As bad as life could ever get, at the end of the day, I make chocolate for a living.
One of the greatest joys of her career has been meeting so many chefs and other people who truly love food, including herĀ crew from Belvedere Square.
We have this saying, a couple of chef friends of mine: āAt the end of the day, we do it for the nod.ā When someone eats something that weāve made and they just nod, weāre like,
‘Thatās the moment, thatās the thing, thatās why we do it.’
If you want to try Jinji’sĀ chocolates, here’s where you can buyĀ them, but to get the best of the best, visit her shop at Belvedere Square Market.
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