Forum Activity for @Thomas Snyder

I'm pretty simple with my packaging. I use this box for most of my chocolates. I put 8 of my truffles in it. Each of them are around 15-16 grams, so it ends up being just shy of 5 oz most of the time. I have the other larger windowed box, but I don't use it quite as often. I should for assorted boxes, but since I have to pay for every minute of kitchen time at the moment, I try to keep things as streamlined as possible.

I like the box though because it's simple, it's cheap ($0.34 each on a cs of 250 before shipping), and it's got a good sized window to display the truffles with. They're really easy to set up too. It only takes me a few minutes to put together a bundle of 25 of them.

Looking for a packaging manufacturer.....any suggestions?

Thanks to everyone for your response.

Do you have a problem with the leaves drying out after you wash the berries? I try to buy, wash and dip the strawberries one day for use/deliver the next day but found that the leaves tend to dry up overnight. I store the dipped berries in a 70 degree room overnight. Any suggestions on keeping the leaves from drying out?

Karen

Karen -

Jeffray makes a good point about refrigeration. In my experience, it's best to use the freshest berries you can get and then keep them at room temp if you can. I try never to buy further in advance than the day before (or Friday for weekend festivals). I rinse the berries in cool water and place them on a towel, then dry the berry usinglint-free microfiber cloths. I don't worry about getting the leaves/stems perfectly dry. If I have to worry about longevity, I use gel packs in rack a large cooler and don't put the berries in a refrigerator.

When it comes to the dipping in chocolate part the berries need to perfectly dry. I also use lint-free microfiber cloths here.

I have spent many weekends at various festivals with a pair of Chocovision Rev2s dipping hundreds and hundreds of strawberries and dried apricots garnished with slices of candied ginger (and don't forget pretzels sticks for the kids).

Hi Karen,

Besides our bean to bar business we sellmany chocolate covered strawberries year round. We use organic strawberries and find that it is best to wash them approximately an hour or two before dipping otherwise the shelf life onthe strawberries is diminished significantly. We also do not refrigerate the berries as this tends to shorten the shelf life of the berry. We use large stainless steel bowls to wash the berries and then place them on baking pans to dry. We snip any dead leaves and make sure that berry is not bruised or damaged. The majority of the time the berries are in perfect condition as we purchase them usually the day before they are picked. Not sure where you live but we get sometimes spoiledhere with our fresh strawberries!Hope this helps.

Honestly, I haven't thought about it much... I've only done them a couple of times. Today was probably the fourth batch of 5lbs that I've dipped so far...

Thanks.........do you find that washing even in plain water dries out the cap & green leaves? I've had trouble with that happening to me in the past.

Thanks, Karen

I usually wash gently in a colander and dry with multiple paper towels. I get a little excessive with it, but I can't afford to waste chocolate. lol.

Can anyone give me advise on the best way to wash & prepare strawberries before dipping them?

Many Thanks,

Karen

Mike:

One way to look at the question is to take a look at the price you're going to be able to charge for your finished product and then work backwards from there.

If your market will pay for a premium product at 60 or more per kilo then you've got a lot of freedom to choose the chocolate you want. If your market has trouble paying20/kg then you need to look a lot harder at your chocolate choices.

Keep in mind that there's nothing magical about the air or water in Belgium or Switzerland or France that makes their chocolate any better than chocolate manufactured elsewhere. They all use pretty much the same machinery, they all use pretty much the same beans (that is, until you get into the premium brands).After that it's just marketing.

I think it's a matter of taste. Buy the chocolate you like. That said, there are people who think that Belgian chocolate is best or Swiss chocolate is best and if your market has a lot of people who've bought into the marketing hype then it makes sense to pay attention to that fact and use it to your advantage. From personal experience {{{{ shudder, trying to forget bad tasting experiences }}}} I can tell you that there is a lot of crap chocolate made in Belgium and Switzerland.

One approach I recommend to all my consulting clients is to consider blending two or more couvertures to arrive at a distinctive taste profile. One of the challenges with using the same chocolate that everyone else does is that it's much harder to differentiate your product from others when the base ingredient tastes the same. Another thing to consider is always using the same chocolate for the enrobing and shells, and then to use different chocolates for the fillings.

So - I wouldn't go for a "safe" choice, I'd go for something that gives you a competitive edge over all of the other confectioners in your market.

Hi Mike,

I'm surprised you've got to this stage without knowing what chocolate you're going to use but I'm sure you know what you're doing! If you looking for a safe, mainstream, decent value couverture then the standard ranges from Callebaut or Belcolade are probably the most popular ones. Next level up in terms of quality (and price) would be either the higher-end ranges from these companies or Felchlin, Cluizel or Valrhona.

Good luck,

Nick.

Hello Mike,

Are you planning to only use chocolate couverture or cocoa beans, liquor or butter as well?

Here in the US reliable sources for couverture would be Barry Callebaut, Guittard

Really exciting time as we're shortly due to openour firstchocolate factoryshop in the UK.Now that the reall leg workhas started, we are currently looking at suppliers of raw materials and I was absoluteley astounded by the sheernumber of chocolate and couverturetypes on offer from the various suppliers.A

difficult question to answer as I realise everyone has their own taste in chocolate but is there any such thing as a 'safe' choice for the main chocolate types to use for a retail start up?

From the world famous THE CHOCOLATE ROOM BROOKLYN ...

" Single-Origin Tasting event [was] such a great success! In addition to sampling outstanding single-origin chocolates, we had a fun, and friendly blind taste test of 5 different single-origin chocolates baked into our Flourless Chocolate Cake . The judging was difficult because all competitors have such incredible chocolates, but, in the end, kiXocolatl from Mexicos Yucatan peninsula was voted most delicious."

http://thechocolateroombrooklyn.com/WP-blog/chocboard.php/

Hi Matt. I've used an X3210 for a couple years now with no problems. There are several threads here on The Chocolate Life discussing the Chocovision machines in depth as well as other tempering machines. If you search for X3210 or Delta you should be able to find them.

Has or does anyone use the Chocovision Rev Delta or Chocovision Rev X3210?? Are these machines reliable and do they work as advertised??

I use a bread proofing cabinet and just don't turn on the humidity. Works great!

Hello,

I am starting a new chocolate company and am looking for someguidanceon heating cabinets. Does anyone know any alternatives to the ultra expensive "made for chocolate" versions?

Would a regular hot food holding cabinet work if I can manipulatetemperatureand humidity? What is the best humidity for holding chocolate?

Thank you for your suggestions.

Thank you all for your responses!

Hi Juan Pablo, Sarah, I can definitely recommend Finca la Amistad. It is in a wonderful rural area of Costa Rica. The farm is well run and the cacao produced is first quality. Peter

Sarah, just be aware that October is THE absolute wettest month of the year in Costa Rica. With that said, I can suggest at least one place where you can ask if they will have you. If interested, contact me privately.

Great area. Lots of red and black 8)

Thank you so much for your input. I am absolutely flexible. Please let me know more specific details if you have them.

If you wanted to change your destination (slightly), there are options here in Nicaragua for this kind of thing. Matagalpa (they call it the North, but it more like the center of the country) has a lot of cocoa production and some interesting things to see if you are interested.

Giff Laube

Visited Costa Rica last month and had the opportunity to tour a couple of outstanding cacao farms while I was there. I would be glad to share that experience and contact information. Both were quite rustic and might be challenging for any kind of extended stay. Michael

Hi All,

I'm traveling down to Costa Rica this October, and was wondering if anyone knew of any working cocoa plantations, farms or coops I could possibly work on for a few weeks.

Thank you for your help,

Sarah

Melanie -

Brian Donaghy is a member here and has worked with Tomric. He can probably tell you what they are if you send him a PM and ask.

I recently started attempting to use CCB for my chocolates. The biggest problem that I have been having withthe CCB is the tempered chocolate not sticking to the mold cavities.The chocolate seems tomelt the CCBand when I go to empty the cavities of the excess chocolate it all falls outwithout sticking to the sides. Can someone please give me some advice?? Thank you.

Wine fridges can only help if the ambiant air is +/- 15' of your desired temp. I can tell you from experience you will freeze up the unit. Not to mention every time you open the door you flush the unit and those units do not have the return capacity to make it nice again. Condensation will also quickly happen and then you'll have water droplets on your product. Experiment, it's the only way to really learn, but I just finished toting out two of our coolers from those days.

These type of questions come up each season. Search around the forums for a lot of solutions:

http://www.thechocolatelife.com/forum/topics/selling-at-farmers-markets-in

http://www.thechocolatelife.com/forum/topics/farmers-markets-and-other

http://www.thechocolatelife.com/forum/topics/small-chocolate-climate-control-display-for-fair-events

http://www.thechocolatelife.com/forum/topics/schlepping-chocolate-to

http://www.thechocolatelife.com/group/startupcentral/forum/topics/chocolate-in-the-summertime

My advice and you'll find it in one of those threads. Make fakes or sacrifices to the heat for your table, keep multiple coolers on ice (dry ice is too cold), use sealed containers containing product and multiple at that.

Your enemies are heat and moisture. Heat melts/warps, andcondensationfrom constant cooler access will eventually create condensation on your products. If you limit the exposure or access points you can have healthy market life. We've sold at farmers markets, multiple, for the last 5 years in the Carolinas. Now we have the luxury of taking off July and August due to having a shop but we know how it goes.

Much luck to ya!

I seem to remember one guy here saying that he used an insulated cambro like this one with ice in the bottom for his back-stock, and a hotel pan with ice in it to display his individual chocolates.

I'm in the same boat you are. Our first Farmer's Market of the year was yesterday, and it gets REALLY hot (90-105 in the middle of the summer) around here. Fortunately for me, our Market has a large open-air building, so my chocolates were in the shade most of the day. There was a short period that I was a little worried because the sun was directly on my chocolates (shining though a skylight), but I would think that an umbrella would be able to assist in keeping direct sunlight off the packages.

I've been considering picking up something like these reusable ice cubes and wrapping two or three around the package with paper towels to insulate. I think something like that might be sufficient to enable the customers to get their confections home without damage.

Oh, and I'm also considering picking up a small wine fridge and remaking the shelves to fit my needs. They keep the perfect temperature for chocolates, and could even possibly be used as a display fridge if needed...

Just because you were asked, doesn't mean you should do it. If it is too warm for chocolate, it might not be a good market for you. Even if you can keep the chocolates cool enough to sell, your customers still need to get them home safely.

This looks like a piece of belt from a cooling tunnel. I know you can get custom belts made for cooling tunnels with logos/patterns on, but you have to buy a massive roll. I would just imagine Godiva are using some of their excess belt/off cuts to dip product onto in store.

Thanks all for you feedback and replies. I will figure out another way.

Kevin -

As there is no water in chocolate, technically it does not dry. It crystallizes and hardens as it cools. Not a big deal but it is helpful to be technically accurate.

These mats are expensive,but, there may be a couple of ways to make one that's not too stupidly expensive.

What comes immediately to mind is to use a laser etcher on a sheet of thin stainless. There is certainly a laser etching service near you (search online) that can do this. You could also use a 3D printer to make a pattern and pull custom molds using food-grade silicon. In both cases, aCAD file of the logo would be the input and you'd create a step and repeat pattern before actually etching or printing the design.

Another thing to consider is custom transfer sheets. Not infinitely reusable as the mat is, but easy to source.

:: Clay

I believe I've actually seen these being cut up for Godiva years agoit's called embossed belting try Maertens or Ammeraal Beltech.

I think it was close to 1k to have just a die made to do thisfor atunnel belt.

Very good ideas but my wife is looking to do small batch orders, not necesarily for Chocolate dipped fruits and would like to brand her chocolate pieces this way.

I have a suggestion for a less expensive and far more flexible alternative:

After dipping the strawberries, set them on shaved chocolate, or crushed Skor bits, or toasted coconut or something like that. It takes no added effort, will add depth of flavour, allow you to charge more, and clearly differentiate your strawberries from every other boring chocolate dipped strawberry out there (except now that I've written this and everybody else starts doing it! LOL).

I don't want to sound like a party pooper here, but who looks at the bottom of the strawberry anyway? They sure will if it's coated with something!

...anyway, it's just an idea.

Brad