tammylc

Thanks, John! Knowing I was going to have one larger piece, I had to come up with a new packaging solution for Easter, so I requested some samples from Glerup-Revere, including the two rounds. I had tried just putting the bunny/egg in the middle of the round, but then it just got lost in there amidst the other pieces. It was my husband who gets the credit for coming up with the box in a box concept. And even better - you can use either the top or bottom of the small round. One warning, though - the large rounds are not boxed well. I have to call Glerup today, because almost all of them had some damage, and a full 25 of my box of 60 are so badly crushed as to be non-useable. Some of that damage was probably incurred in shipping (the box was a little crushed when it arrived) but the style of box they used is also a problem.

Thanks, Carol and Lior. Carol, i use a bunch of different techniques. In this round the only thing I used the airbrush for was the yellow ones. The white speckles I did with a toothbrush. The blue swirl is just brushed on. The red/pink splatters are just splattered with a paint brush. And the egg was me painting random swirls! I wasn't sure how that would turn out, but I ended up really really pleased. I use the Badger 250 airbrush that referenced in the "Showroom Finish" thread. I can't remember the exact model of compressor that I'm using right now, but it's a mid-size one also from Badger. The 1100, maybe? I got it used on eBay for $90!

Here's my Easter collection: And a close up of the large box: The egg in the middle is a turtle egg - i filled it with salty caramel and pressed half a pecan in before backing off. The white/yellow one are lemon-rosemary (variation on Grewling's lemon-mint). The white polka dots are hazelnut praline (from Schott). The red/pink splatters are raspberry. The blue swirl is "Chai Spice" (actually an infusion of Republic of Tea's cardamom-cinnamon herbal tea, which has cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, pink peppercorns, star anise and probably a couple other things i'm forgetting).

from the original airing? ← Yes, the first episode is 15 minutes longer than the rest but they edit it on reruns. ← Ah, maybe that explains why I totally missed the mayo thing people are talking about.

Thanks, John. Is hand-painting with plain chocolate the way to go, or is it possible/desirable to make a standard shell as Anna describes? When you're painting it in, are you just doing a single thin layer of chocolate, or building up a couple of layers?

I'm continuing to play around with my ideas for a line of candy bars. My first two have been huge successes. For the third idea I have, I'd be looking at solid chocolate with hazelnut and toffee inclusions. I don't have any bar molds, but will be looking into getting some. When molding chocolate with inclusions are there any tricks I should be aware of to get a nice finish on the chocolate?

That's a truly awesome collection of Easter goodness.

Just wanted to post an update that I tried this, and it did seem to work well even without the peanut butter. I've never made nougat before, so I'm not sure what to expect, but whatever it is that I ended up with is pretty tasty! I put a teaspoon of instant espresso powder in with the egg whites before I whisked them. When I tasted the nougat while I was whipping it, I decided it needed a little bit more, so I added a second teaspoon towards the end. It seemed to dissolve well either way, so that's good to know. Any thoughts on shelf life for something like this? I've topped the nougat with a layer of caramel and dipped it all in chocolate. Thanks!

I think I'm the only person who's been to all the gatherings!

And understandably so. Your health department SUCKS. I've been reading your posts with much sympathy and anguish for you.

Never having used a guitar before, I don't have experience with a real one to compare it to. But even without the base, it made short work of two slabs of ganache for my Valentine's Day production. However, not having as much of the knack with it that David's developed, I think I would have found it cleaner and easier with a base, since I would be better able to take advantage of leverage. But it definitely works as is! My biggest learning from borrowing David's guitar cutter, is that I don't actually want my husband to make me one, even though he probably could. Because it was way too easy to produce 220 perfect squares of ganache, and way too time-consuming and tedious to hand-dip 220 perfect squares of ganache. Have I mentioned how much I HATE dipping? So I bought 4 more molds instead, and will up my capacity that way. (I usually make 4 flavors at a time - 3 molded, one enrobed. I'm just going to switch over to all molded except when there's a flavor I really want to do that has to be enrobed, and I'm feeling particularly masochistic.)

Duly noted. Just to confirm, you are solo/probable for the dinner and +1/probable for the cocktail session? That is correct, Ronnie.

It's The Violet Hour. The Velvet Hour, was in the 70's. Toby ← Sorry, Toby, the pneumonia is making me delirious.

I certainly plan to be there on Saturday, so you can keep as definite for that. It's the Thursday events I'll have to assess when the time gets closer and I can see what the budget looks like. So probably for both of those. Thanks!

It would probably be more accurate to change my status to "probable" - because as much as I want to be there for everything, sometimes life interferes... But assuming I do make it to the Velvet Hour, I expect I will be +1.

In for both. Although I'm not sure I'll be able to drink 3 cocktails worth at the Violet Hour if I get wine pairings with dinner... Decisions, decisions.

Angela, I currently do most of my production as special sales for holidays. I sell through my website and in a few stores in town, but don't have a retail store of my own. I do a fun "Halloween Candy for Grownups" sale for Halloween. This year I did a special offer on bulk chocolates for Thanksgiving, for people to put out on a tray for dessert. Those were both relatively low volume sales. But then the season heats up, with Christmas, Valentine's Day, Easter and Mother's Day. Mother's Day gets tricky for online, because shipping gets harder/more expensive. I might do caramels or praline pretzels or marshmallows - something less heat sensitive - for Father's Day this year. If you get into the wedding favor business, I imagine that can keep you going through the summer. Christmas is the biggie. Valentine's Day, most people are going to buy one box for their one Valentine. Christmas, they'll buy multiple boxes to give out as gifts, and that's the time of year for corporate gifts, etc, as well.

Thanks, Pringle007, I do quite a bit of shipping for my retail orders, so I am all too familiar with the weather challenges! Makes me happy that Easter is so early this year. Mother's Day is always tricky though. I had one customer last year who was totally willing to spend more than the cost of the chocolates on the shipping, but I don't expect them all to be that way! The wholesale shipping I was talking about wouldn't be bad, even in summer, as they are within 1-day Fed Ex ground, so with an insulated box and ice packs it would be fine anyway.

Patty - I always tell my wholesale clients what my retail selling price is. Some won't want to go higher than that because they don't want to be perceived as marking up beyond what people could buy from me direct. But I know there are other retailers in town who are very happy to add a premium, as I've seen them do it for other items. I made very sure when I was first pricing my product to charge a price that would be sustainable - ie. not to price myself too low because it was just a "hobby" business, because that makes it really hard to increase prices later!

Thanks, Mark, great information! A couple of my neighbors are BNI members, and have spoken very highly of it, so that is something else I'm considering. I also did the math on bulk, and as you found, I can be more competitive there than in boxes. When you sell bulk, does the customer provide the packaging materials on their end, ie. ballotins, etc, or did they expect you to supply those? Since the big savings to the chocolatier is in packaging, I assume that they are providing? gfron1 - also incredibly useful! Thank you. And thanks for giving some real numbers - I'm glad to see my prices are in the right ballpark. Can you tell me more about sample programs, and what you expect from your supplier in that regard?

How many pieces do you have to make for your fair in May, Vanessa? I know when I've done things like that, it's so hard to know exactly how much to bring! Patris - I have no idea what's sensible either, when it comes to wholesale pricing. I've been told that most retailers will want 40-50% off retail, but I can't discount that much. My discount is about 32%. I came up with numbers pretty much off the top of my head, but just recently I've been sitting down and doing some really detailed analysis of what it costs for me to make a box of chocolates, and as it turned out, my wholesale price seems about perfect for the moment - just enough to cover my costs and my guesstimated value of labor+overhead. Vanessa mentioned joining Colorado Proud. I've been wondering about joining the Chamber of Commerce, or a local organization called "Think Local First" that's for locally owned businesses. Has anyone joined these kinds of organizations, and found them to be worth the cost?

Barley's is decent. I can't speak to the beer, as I'm not a beer drinker. The first time I went to Lemongrass on my annual trip to Columbus, it was good. But since then it seems to have gone downhill. My favorite place to eat in Columbus (besides North Market) is Betty's - it's a skinny little bar in Short North that has great food. I especially like their meatloaf. Whatever you do, don't miss Geni's Ice Cream in North Market.

I sort of started this thread, way a long time ago, but haven't been very good about posting updates re. the progress of my business. Mostly I've been continuing doing what I've always been doing - direct to consumer sales around holidays, plus the occasional special order. My mailing list and customer base is bigger now, however, so I'm doing more volume. Christmas was much bigger than expected, which was both a blessing and a curse, as then I had to make all those chocolates! But I used the proceeds of that sale to invest in more molds and to stock up on chocolate. A bigger melter is next on my to-buy list, I think, but they are just so expensive! If anyone sees a used 6-kilo melter for sale anywhere, please let me know. Aside from on small loan of working capital, I've been financing this on a cash-only basis, and not buying anything on credit. I'm trying to figure out what's next. This has been a great hobby business, but I need to decide if I want it to be my full time job, because that will require a whole different level of commitment and sales. Direct retail sales without a storefront will only take me so far. The next obvious step is wholesale, and I've taken some tentative steps in that direction, putting boxes into one store for Christmas and another for Valentine's Day. And I'm in the midst or beginnings of conversations with a few others. I may have some opportunity to do bulk chocolates for places that would sell them by the piece. For anyone who's done that - any recommendations on transport/ storage boxes or thoughts on how that's best handled? Some of those locations might require shipping, so shipping friendly thoughts also appreciated! Really, I'd appreciate hearing anyone's ideas on taking it to the next level!

What volume do you associate with "small to medium" production? What kind of tempering system are you using, and what volume of chocolate will it support - that will influence how many molds you can take advantage of at a time. 10 molds seems so luxurious! I've just double my capacity by going up to 4 of each. Of course, i'm still managing with just a 3kilo melter, so i can only work about 10-12 molds at a time in any case.

Thanks, Chris. I've recently invested in more of the "pearl" colored cocoa butters, and they definitely add some bling that the plain colors are lacking.