Transfer Sheets: Tips, Techniques & Care

[jturn00]

I've order directly form PCB around 3 times in the past year and a half. Twice I've ordered from the web and once I ordered on the phone directly with PCB. I agree that the exchange rate has gone up and made things more expensive but I am just doing some home and holiday chocolates so I am not ordering bulk. Also since I am doing small amounts they send me samples which allows me to experiment. I like the idea of dealing directly with them and not worrying about minimums etc. I don't recall what I paid in shipping but the packages arrived very quickly even with standard shipping. I don't have the old invoices in front of me but when I get home I can check to see what I paid in shipping.

Jeff

[WhiteTruffleGirl]

Jeff,

I'd be very curious to know the shipping charges and what those charges were for, i.e., what was the shipment weight/contents. Do you happen to recall whether they sent via parcel post?

Obviously, it's going to be impossible to order any transfer sheets from them until Autumn, so for now, I'll continue to order from Qzina.

[Desiderio]

It would be good to know shipping /weight charges,for the fall .

Thank you for your feed back guys ).Its just me I am terribly shy when I got to call ,but lik you all have said most of this place have very nice people, even online whenever I deal with a company they are extremely nice,Glerup was always very helpfull and fast to respond or let me know if something was out of stock.I am not in Italy anymore , here people treat their costumer with respect and kindness ( haha I am from Rome and they are as rude as they came )

[alanamoana]

i'll also pull up my pcb invoice and give you all an idea of what i paid.

i wrote them an email when i was having trouble with the transfer sheets (the post that started this thread!) and the only complaint i have is that they responded to my e-mail a month later! although they did apologize for taking so long to reply. i guess i should have called them, but i didn't want to pay for an international phone call...cheap!

also, i called qzina and they were very helpful in giving me quotes on specific items i was interested in. i believe they do have minimum orders though.

here you go:

pcb invoice...

ordered four different kinds of transfer sheets.

40x25 cm

one pack had 17 sheets and the other three had 15 sheets each

they all cost 16.37 euros per pack

shipping was 19.64 euros

total price was 85.12 euros

on my credit card statement it came out to: $104.14 USD

if you include shipping that comes out to $1.68 per sheet which is cheaper than a lot of places that distribute pcb products.

but this was ordered in april. not sure what the euro is doing right now.

vanessa, the link you showed me...their prices would come out to about $1.99 per sheet NOT including shipping charges.

so, depends on your needs. i agree that it is better and often more convenient to order from a source here in the states. it is just easier...but gradually...0.30 difference per sheet does end up adding up over time. depends on how much you charge for your chocolates i guess!

Edited June 23, 2006 by alanamoana (log)

[alanamoana]

vanessa, just checked currency rates and i converted the 85.12 euro to usd and it came out to $106.63...as opposed to the $104.14 i got when i bought them. still, it isn't too bad.

[Desiderio]

Thank you Alana for posting your invoice, that really gives us an idea of a real price( after exchange and shipping).It didnt seems bad at all , I gues when big company are used to ship all over the world their shipping prices are lower somehow.

They also have other thing that I would love to order in the future , and I know the euro is going high on the dollar ,but knowing their shipping is not prohibitive ( ahh spelling on that one??), I definatlly gonna try them.

[WhiteTruffleGirl]

Thanks...that's helpful. And I'm glad to know they got back to you about the transfer sheet. I sent them an email about three months ago with questions about custom colors for a transfer sheet, and I never received a reply. I since decided not to go that route for that job, however it is something I still want to pursue. I hope I don't have issues with them responding to future emails. I'm not too cheap to call them, but just don't want to until I exhaust email as 'first line' of communication.

[alanamoana]

I hear you WTG...I guess I should just go and buy one of those international phone cards just in case! Gotta pinch pennies where you can

I definitely love PCB and their designs are better than most other ones out there. The fact that they are one of the biggest producers of these items is definitely on their side when it comes to shipping and prices in general. I know pastry chefs in New York who order exclusively from them and we're talking practically container loads at a time. Plus, if you order a lot of stuff, I think they give you some little freebie scrapers and stuff.

[jturn00]

alanamoana,

I am curious as to what PCB responded to you about having problems with their transfer sheets. Did they explain what went wrong?

Jeff

[alanamoana]

jeff,

they responded with what i think we all already knew...my chocolate was probably a bit too cool. the response was as follows:

"Sorry to answer you this late. You need to put the transfer on the hot chocolate less than 30 seconds after the chocolate has been melted. You have to keep your chocolate in a medium temperature. If it is too cold it will not take.

I hope this will help you.

Albane"

so, i had figured this out on my own. i've done a tiny bit more experimenting and they seem to be working out okay for now. just need to get consistency (meaning, do it the same every time dummy).

Edited June 23, 2006 by alanamoana (log)

[jturn00]

That makes sense. So when the chocolate is tempered it would mean that the temperature of the chocolate should be around 89 degrees instead of 85-87. (My chocolate was tempered throughout the process but cooled as I worked with it and filled and covered molds.)

So next time I work with the chocolate I would fill and work with the transfer sheets first then molds, then fill and close the molds.

Thanks Again,

Jeff

[sote23]

wow, their prices are really high!

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try http://qzina.com/ they have the best prices on them, that i've found.

[sote23]

It would be good to know shipping /weight charges,for the fall  .

Thank you for your feed back guys ).Its just me I am terribly shy when I got to call ,but lik you all have said most of this place have very nice people, even online whenever I deal with a company they are extremely nice,Glerup was always very helpfull and fast to respond or let me know if something was out of stock.I am not in Italy anymore , here people treat their costumer with respect and kindness ( haha I am from Rome and they are as rude as they came  )

←

i'm like you, i prefer ordering online as well, but i recently place an order from them and i had it in 2 days, they are very friendly, have good service, fast shipping, and the best prices. give them a call, you won't be disappointed.

[Desiderio]

Thank you Luis for you feed back , I definatly need to check them out.

[prairiegirl]

My PCB transfer sheets are not adhering to my chocolate. I had the sheets stored in my dining room (oops) where the room gets warm. I just did some truffles and the transfer sheets are not transfering to my chocolate. Are the sheets ruined? What can be done to remedy this problem? I have never had any trouble before, but, I did store the sheets in a cooler room in the past. Help!

[Kerry Beal]

My PCB transfer sheets are not adhering to my chocolate.  I had the sheets stored in my dining room (oops) where the room gets warm.  I just did some truffles and the transfer sheets are not transfering to my chocolate.  Are the sheets ruined?  What can be done to remedy this problem? I have never had any trouble before, but, I did store the sheets in a cooler room in the past.  Help!

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The last time this question came up the solution was warmer chocolate as I recall. I'll look for the thread later unless someone can find it. Of course at that time we weren't looking at sheets that got too warm. As long as they haven't smeared I should think they would be ok.

[HQAntithesis]

I'm not so sure having it too warm would affect it. I've accidentally left a transfer sheet in my car and had the cocoa butter melt and parts of it smear on my hands and... ok I'll stop there but the bits that weren't smeared still turned out fine. That's to say they transferred, there might be a shine issue involved though?

[John DePaula]

I'm not so sure having it too warm would affect it. I've accidentally left a transfer sheet in my car and had the cocoa butter melt and parts of it smear on my hands and... ok I'll stop there but the bits that weren't smeared still turned out fine. That's to say they transferred, there might be a shine issue involved though?

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What Kerry is saying is that your chocolate needs to be on the warmer side, but still in temper, to get the transfer to stick to it.

[Kerry Beal]

I'm not sure if this is the thread I was thinking of or not but here is some discussion of transfer sheet problems.

[gap]

For what its worth, I store my transfer sheets in our living room where it gets to 32+ degrees celcius in summer and have never had a problem using them when winter rolls around again.

Edited to add: although I don't store them in direct sunlight

Edited June 5, 2007 by gap (log)

[sote23]

As John and Kerry said, try raising the temperature of the chocolate a degree or two. Do you know what the temp of the chocolate was you were using?

Luis

[Cbill9274]

Hi all

I am working on a desert presentation for a wedding and it is outside, the client is requesting a sugar backdrop and I have done them with Isomalt before and was wondering if it is possible to get transfer sheets to work on Isomalt she would like to have custom artwork done on each piece and i have not had much luck getting the transfer sheet to work on the Isomalt back drop. Has anyone seen tis or worked with this situation before.

Thanks in advance

Cbill

[chefpeon]

Man, that's a tough question. I'm fairly sure that transfer sheets won't release onto sugar pieces, because the transfer sheets are cocoa butter designs, and you need cocoa butter (chocolate) to stick to cocoa butter.

I hope some other pro on here knows if there's a way to get patterns or artwork onto a sugar piece?

[JeanneCake]

can you airbrush over a stencil on to the sugar piece?

[HQAntithesis]

Airbrushing sounds like a good way to go I think, if you're using a waterbased ink, be especially sure to add glucose when you're cooking your isomalt.

I would have thought a cocoa butter imprint would have worked on sugar though? For example, if you pressed flat a transfer sheet onto the sugar then squeegeed out the airbubbles, hit it with a hot hairdryer then chilled it?