pastrygirl

@Tri2Cook I do like window boxes for display or in a retail setting. However if you are primarily shipping chocolates, the non-window might be better so you can protect the pieces with tissue, candy pads, bubble wrap, etc between the candy and the box.

yes, and yes if room temp is cool and dry - best around 65-68f with less than 50% humidity.

We have quality chocolates and we have lower priced chocolates but not much overlap between the categories

Was the chocolate mixture tempered and allowed to fully crystallize or did you remove the parchment immediately after pressing?

Back to the original question - I use mostly Felchlin and AUI does give a volume discount above $750 (but of course that doesn't apply to sale items). I don't know much about Valrhona's Cercle V but there appear to be perks associated with using a lot of their chocolate - trips, social media, hopefully discounts. I buy Valrhona and Cacao Barry through Peterson (wholesaler here and in NJ), Valrhona Dulcey is around $81/3kg, raspberry Inspiration was about $106, and CB Zephyr is around $88/5kg Caputo's has a good selection of Valrhona, might be worth a wholesale inquiry. https://caputos.com/

Made in January, best by November so they only give it 10 months which is on the short side anyway. I figure if I can sell it in holiday stuff it’ll be eaten by spring, or max 15-18 months from manufacture.

Valrhona US hq is in Brooklyn, I bought directly from them. I can ask my west coast rep for a contact in your area if you like. The Opalys is sell by next month but it’s sealed bags so I’m risking it.

The best news to come out of the pandemic is that chocolate is now on sale. If you have any contacts at Valrhona, ask them about overstock. They have a lot of whites plus some of the inspirations at deep discount due to being close to the sell by date. Shipping from Brooklyn would be much gentler on you east coasters. (I bought 6 assorted bags for approx $400 including $100 second day air shipping. But with cooler weather and shorter distance you could risk ground shipping) AUI also has some Felchlin on sale and I believe they’ve lowered their shipping minimum to $150. The container was already at sea when COVID started, then they lost all their summer hotel & cruise ship customers.

Following up, I had put in a query to Roxy & Rich, this is their response on creating your own jewel colors: I ordered their fat soluble colors and a couple of the sparkle dusts (not the pearl), and already have some Chef Rubber pearl powders, will play around.

Room temp of 23C/73F is on the warm side for chocolate, especially if humidity is high. I prefer 18-20C/64-68F, ideally with humidity below 50% so the chocolate can cool and crystallize rapidly. If you have a melter, you can leave your chocolate melted overnight at 40-50C/and re-temper it the next day, or you can let the excess solidify then re-melt and re-temper. You can't really hold melted but tempered chocolate for long amounts of time, once the crystallization has started the chocolate will continue to thicken and solidify.

@Muscadelle thank you! I don't use a lot of pink but will def get some black. Is the first photo CB with only sparkle powder and no additional color? Do you have the 'snow white' titanium dioxide or the plain white? https://www.chocolat-chocolat.com/home/c210060/c378157873/c378157875/index.html

I was going to stock up on colored cocoa butter for holiday bonbons then remembered I have way too much plain cocoa butter on hand and should use it up, so I think I'm going to make the leap to powder color. Between Power Flowers, Chef Rubber, and Roxy & Rich, Roxy & Rich are priced best and I've been happy with their already-mixed colors so will probably go with them. Couple questions for powder color users before I order: Do you find the primary colors (red, blue, yellow) sufficient for mixing all the other colors you might like, or should I go ahead and get purple and green for convenience? How much extra white is needed for opaque colors? And have we figured out how to make jewel colors - do the dry sparkly powders still sparkle and how large of an airbrush nozzle is needed to spray them? thanks!

char-cookie-rie board, so clever!

I use Online Labels blank, pre-sized label sheets. They come in a variety of sizes and colors, you can print at home as needed. Definitely make sure to list any of the top allergens (peanuts, tree nuts, wheat, milk, and soy are most common in chocolate items). Do you have a website? An ecommerce site such as through Squarespace can calculate shipping charges for you. I buy small shipping boxes through Papermart, it is usually cheaper to use your own box than to ship USPS flat rate, unless you are sending something pretty heavy pretty far.

Yes a ladle can be a bit messy. I’ve seen a pump I think at Design & Realisation but don’t have one. I get the attraction of all the expensive toys, I’ve been lusting after a Selmi for years. But for me, and especially now, not being in debt is priceless. If you have other people’s money to spend that could change things.

The downside of the wheel is the constant agitation can lead to faster over-crystallization. I worked with one briefly at a side job and found it awkward to maneuver molds under the spout to fill them. Also found the spinning distracting, but that's just me. If you do go for the wheel temperers you can get just a regular food warmer instead of the more expensive melter to keep a back-up supply of melted chocolate.

I got a quote on a Selmi last year that was around $16k. You really can do a lot with a couple of 24 kg mol d' art melters for a small fraction of that.

I'm maintaining my brush in first stance

with their powder colors, the ‘decor’ are not approved for human consumption by the FDA but the ‘pearl’ powders are, so maybe it’s the same with decor cb and you can airbrush it all over things not meant to be eaten, like showpieces. Or eat it anyway at your own risk!

Yes but look at the colors named after metals, gold, silver, bronze, brass. I think the combo of shimmer in the cb, and shine from tempering makes it read more metallic in those shades than say green or yellow. for example here are some bonbons with silver dabbed in with a brush, though I’m not sure if it was Chef Rubber or Roxy & Rich color more silver, black splattered in first then airbrushed silver

You'd get that if the metallic CB was roughly brushed or sponged in, leaving some bits uncovered (by metallic) to be filled in by the next layer (of choc or CB)

I'd guess silver, gold, and bronze metallic cocoa butters, could be backed with black or just dark chocolate in the mold.

Interesting, does it melt well? Definitely a unique way to market it and stand out from the zillions of powder cocoa mixes.

How do you even temper something that thick? Anyway, if you're pressing it into molds, you could lay a plastic sheet (acetate, guitar sheet, etc) over the top then press with a flat plate and the excess will squish out the sides. Leave the sheet in place until the chocolate has solidified then peel it off. Like the way people seal their bonbon bottoms with transfer sheets. Can I ask if this is your own product or something you're producing for a client? The client doesn't always understand how chocolate actually works ... I had a client who wanted me to add a lot of dry material to chocolate, lets just say that's a past client not current. How fine are the particles? I don't know if further refining the dry would help or hinder fluidity. Do you have any sort of melanger?

I have a heating pad that fits perfectly in a 2 gallon zip-top bag. A large cardboard box can catch most of the over-spray. And yes, you can keep your airbrush warm in either your melter or your EZ temper!