Jump to content
  • Welcome to the eG Forums, a service of the eGullet Society for Culinary Arts & Letters. The Society is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of the culinary arts. These advertising-free forums are provided free of charge through donations from Society members. Anyone may read the forums, but to post you must create a free account.

Edit History

Anthony C

Anthony C

Nice breakdown on timings there pastrygirl.. I guess my times are a little slower than yours but not massively, though I do find that my shelling takes much longer than my capping.

 

For my production I am working on both wholesale orders for some hotels I supply and then inventory for my shop. Like pastrygirl, I sometimes have problems "guessing" the numbers for inventory. Fortunately, I never seem to have bonbons that go beyond their "best before" date, but I still try to keep the turnover relatively rapid as for some bonbons the flavour seems to fade a bit even if they are still safe to eat. This does mean that sometimes I run out of a flavour or two before I can get them back on the shelf... that can be a good thing though as people see they are in demand and as long as I have a good selection on offer nobody seems to mind.

 

I only box for my hotel orders and for boxes of the hotel chocolates that I sell in my shop. All my other bonbons are on display and people select what they want... it saves me loads of time in boxing, and the person who works in my shop prepares all the empty boxes before the shop opens in the mornings. Generally I find most people seem to enjoy the selecting flavours part of the purchase, though it can cause a queue to form on busy days especially at Christmas. Also, it means that people avoid the flavours they might not like. The display can look really cool and add a wow factor, so I would certainly recommend having one if you can.

 

I think I work more like Jim in my production technique, not having a nice "all singing all dancing" tempering machine like pastrygirl. I also tend to shell a lot of molds at the same time and then leave some in my cooler until I get round to filling and capping a few days later. I also apply a similar process with spraying molds, so if I am using certain colours for some flavours, I might spray some molds for other flavours where the same colours are required, but not use them for a couple of days. Normally I have about 1000 bonbons ready for sale in my shop. 

 

The freezing idea was something that curls mentioned way back in this thread, which is something I really need to look at more closely. Not sure about repeated freezing though.. sounds a bit on the risky side to me 🤫 Not sure how it is for you guys, but in Spain I have to keep detailed records of the lot numbers and expiry dates of all the ingredients I use in each batch of bonbons, which takes me more time than I would like, and also assign lot numbers to the batches I make so that I can record production date and final sale/disposal date. Any boxes I sell to the hotels also have to be labelled up with their ingredients, allergens, lot number, best before date etc. Printing and applying stickers to every box seems to take up too much of my time.

 

I have 18 standard flavours, where I might change 1 or 2 once or twice a year, but only when I run out of printed flavour guides. Then I might put out 2 or 3 special editions flavours each month to supplement and to keep regular customers interested. One shape is enough for me, but I do make the hearts at valentines and then some Christmas figures during the holidays... which are a pain in the proverbial. 

 

Oh, and retail price is a bit lower here at about 1.75 euros (about 2.10 dollars) per piece buy then I think my costs are generally lower too.

Anthony C

Anthony C

Nice breakdown on timings there pastrygirl.. I guess my times are a little slower than yours but not massively, though I do find that my shelling takes much longer than my capping.

 

For my production I am working on both wholesale orders for some hotels I supply and then inventory for my shop. Like pastrygirl, I sometimes have problems "guessing" the numbers for inventory. Fortunately, I never seem to have bonbons that go beyond their "best before" date, but I still try to keep the turnover relatively rapid as for some bonbons the flavour seems to fade a bit even if they are still safe to eat. This does mean that sometimes I run out of a flavour or two before I can get them back on the shelf... that can be a good thing though as people see they are in demand and as long as I have a good selection on offer nobody seems to mind.

 

I only box for my hotel orders and for boxes of the hotel chocolates that I sell in my shop. All my other bonbons are on display and people select what they want... it saves me loads of time in boxing, and the person who works in my shop prepares all the empty boxes before the shop opens in the mornings. Generally I find most people seem to enjoy the selecting flavours part of the purchase, though it can cause a queue to form on busy days especially at Christmas. Also, it means that people avoid the flavours they might not like. The display can look really cool and add a wow factor, so I would certainly recommend having one if you can.

 

I think I work more like Jim in my production technique, not having a nice "all singing all dancing" tempering machine like pastrygirl. I also tend to shell a lot of molds at the same time and then leave some in my cooler until I get round to filling and capping a few days later. I also apply a similar process with spraying molds, so if I am using certain colours for some flavours, I might spray some molds for other flavours where the same colours are required, but not use them for a couple of days. Normally I have about 1000 bonbons ready for sale in my shop. 

 

The freezing idea was something that curls mentioned way back in this thread, which is something I really need to look at more closely. Not sure about repeated freezing though.. sounds a bit on the risky side to me 🤫 Not sure how it is for you guys, but in Spain I have to keep detailed records of the lot numbers and expiry dates of all the ingredients I use in each batch of bonbons, which takes me more time than I would like, and also assign lot numbers to the batches I make so that I can record production date and final sale/disposal date. Any boxes I sell to the hotels also have to be labelled up with their ingredients, allergens, lot number, best before date etc. Printing and applying stickers to every box seems to take up too much of my time.

 

I have 18 standard flavours, where I might change 1 or 2 once or twice a year, but only when I run out of printed flavour guides. Then I might put out 2 or 3 special editions flavours each month to supplement and to keep regular customers interested. One shape is enough for me, but I do make the hearts at valentines and then some Christmas figures during the holidays... which are a pain in the proverbial. 

×
×
  • Create New...