Anthony C

Hi there, From my experience I don't think not heating the molds would be a big issue. I don't heat any of my molds, they are at 21/22 degrees C (the temperature of my workshop) before filling and I normally don't have any issues. My workshop is also humidity controlled (less than 60%) The cleaning/polishing of molds is something that drives me crazy. I clean after each use as you do. Finally settled on a process of washing the molds in hot water then dry straight away to avoid any salts from the water getting left on the mold. I then polish before use. I used to have loads of issues with coloured cocoa butters getting left on the molds, and still get the occasional one or two bonbons that stick a bit and lose a bit of colour, but never had the sticking chocolate issue that you have there either with bonbons or tablets. Clean molds and well tempered chocolate should result in a clean release I'd have thought. Good luck!

Hi there.. I make salted caramel using the dry method. I sometimes get a few bubbles in my caramel.. maybe it is my stirring technique too. I don't use a blender like Jim because my batches of caramel are relatively small (0.5 - 0.75kg), so I don't see the need, and because I don't want to clean it after, but I can't imagine it would cause an issue. I use a pastry bag to fill my bonbons and then leave them in my cooler for a few hours or overnight before sealing. Most bubbles seem to disappear during the piping stage and 99% of any others seem to have gone by the time I come to seal the bonbons. As Jim says, the AW of caramel is generally super low so any bonbons should last for ages without risk to children! I have tested mine after 8 weeks and they were fine, though my production batches never last this long as these are one of my top sellers. Enjoy your caramel.

Hi Pastrygirl...thanks for your imput. I also use the CW2295 from Chocolate World, with the 32 cavities. Like yourself, typically it would be 3/4 molds per flavour, though sometimes I might just do 1 or 2 for an experimental batch. On occasion I do larger batches of 10-20 molds of a flavour when I am producing for events / bigger hotel orders, which definitely speeds things up on the filling side. I tend to spread my production over several days. I'll spend a day polishing and painting. The next day I might shell those and fill some others already shelled. Day after seal the ones I filled the day before etc. Do you produce whole batches in a day from start to finish, or have I misread your post? That seems pretty intense. To get my approx 5000 bonbons a month I need to turn out about 36 molds per week, which is manageable so long as there aren't any disasters. 8000 bonbons a month would be 58 molds a week (with no holidays) and I think that would be pushing my sanity especially as I really don't enjoy polishing molds 🤪 At the moment I use cocoa butter from chocolate world, but the range is a bit limited, so have just set up an international account with Chef Rubber. They are a bit more expensive, and I have no idea on shipping costs yet, but reviews seem good and the range of colours looks fantastic. Sometimes its quite dificut to find suppliers that will ship to us, due to our unique situation of being within the European Union but outside of it for VAT (sales tax) purposes. What brand do you use? Backing with white is a yes for certain colours e.g. yellow, orange, green and red that are very translucent and lose effect on dark/milk chocolate. Other colours such as the pink, light blue, copper, are more opaque and don't seem to require white backing. Also, sometimes not applying the white backing gives me an additional colour effect.. my mojito and matcha bonbons both have the same green, but the mojito has white backing that makes it light and bright, whereas the matcha tea has a dusting of silver first but no white backing to give a shiny, deep green effect. Have a great day!

Thanks for your reply Curls, and the suggestions, To be honest, the Covid things has been a key issue for me, and it started about 3 months after I opened, having a pretty massive impact. For a few months I was completely shut and received very limited support from the government as the business had very limited history of earning anything. My production is in one place, outlet in the hotel is at another and I have to pay someone to be there. 2500 bonbons basically covers my costs (rents, salaries etc.) and 5000 gives me a pretty great month. With covid its been down at the 2500 level pretty much every month, except around Christmas, and sometimes it has been lower. My bottle necks are the polishing molds and spraying. The shelling, filling and sealing I could cope with more as an extra 10-15 molds each batch doesn't seem to have a major impact on that from my limited experience. Have considered additional molds, both for flexibility and increased volume, but the polishing/spraying would still be the issue. Thinking of having a part-timer in to do the polishing, though employing people in Spain is a major headache and the reason why I have been trying to avoid it. A wider range of products that are quicker/easier to produce could indeed help, but most people seem to prefer the colourful bonbons... eating with the eyes I guess. Here in the Islands the shiny/colourful bonbons are a relatively new thing, so people gravitate to them. It is something that I shall certainly consider again, though buying a guitar & enrober are relatively large investments for me right now, especially as everything here has to be imported and therefore gets hit by additional import duties... typically around 25% Freezing is something I keep considering, and have looked at many threads on this. I should really get around to trying it, as this could be a life saver, especially towards Christmas. Definitely considering buying a freezer for this. You are right about the long hours... a few days or weeks here and there is ok, but is not sustainable. Thanks again for your feedback.

Thanks for the reply Jim.. glad you like the look of the bonbons, though obviously the taste is the most important think. Glad to hear that I am not the only one out here that struggles with big volumes 😄 What's this you say about a life beyond chocolate making? Does that exist? 😜

Hi all, First post here so please bear with me... I have been running a small chocolate business in the Canary Islands for a couple of years, mainly making molded bonbons with various fillings, but also a few bars and other things when I have the time. With the pandemic things have been a bit slow as my outlet is based in a hotel, but I generally make between 2500 and 5000 bonbons a month. All the bonbons are are airbrushed, which seems to take way too long 🙄 At the moment it is just me doing production, so I have to do all the washing, polishing, spraying, filling, sealing and boxing myself, plus all the annoying paperwork that goes with it. Last Christmas I made about 12,000 bonbons in December but it nearly killed me 😂 With my current setup, I have no automation... I use 2 melters (one 12kg and one 3kg) and temper by seeding. At the moment I am in discussions with a potential client who is talking about buying approx 2400 bonbons (600 boxes of 4) every 15 days. On the plus side, I might actually make some money... on the negative side, will it kill me making nearly 10,000 bonbons a month? 😶 I was wondering what other people think a reasonable number of bonbons to produce is? How many can you guys churn out in a month? Maybe I am just really slow and inefficient, but would love to know how many bonbons others can produce before I consider employing help. Any imput received would be greatly appreciated. I have attached a pic of my shop display so that you can see the type of things I am making 👍 Thanks, Anthony

Hi there... am a bit late adding to this, sorry. First, best of luck with your venture.. plenty of hard work ahead but hopefully enjoyable too. Agree with the posters above that say a temperature/humidity controlled case is the way to go. They can be expensive though... we were on a tight budget and still had to shell out 6.5k euros. When we were looking around it seems that most display cases in europe are made in Italy. Our case came from https://www.ifi.it/en though we had to order through a local distributor, and took about 6 weeks to arrive because of shipping. We have ours set to maintain the bonbons at 14-18°C and a humidty of 40-60%. P.S. Our case eats electricity nearly as fast as our customers eat our bonbons, so keep an eye on the power consumption numbers

Hi to everyone out there. Have been browsing the forums here for a while and finally decided to sign up and get more involved. I run a small chocolate business in Gran Canaria, which was set up 4 months before Covid turned up... Perfect timing 🙄 Have just about managed to survive all the lockdowns and lack of tourist trade for the last year or so. On here to pick up tips and advice on growing a small business and happy to offer any back from my limited experience. Hope you all have a great day out there, Anthony