Dairy industry article on cocoa powder

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HOW SWEET IT IS

by Kathie Canning

Chocolate facts and figures

Courtesy of Peter's Chocolate

Ecole Chocolat Note: This is a good introduction to chocolate facts and specifications from a commercial perspective – it disappeared from the Peter's site so I've included a copy here.

Learning Objective: Decide on the type of packaging you will use to protect your chocolate products

Lecture: Sourcing your packaging

The first "chocolate box" was introduced by Richard Cadbury in 1868, when he decorated a candy box with a painting of his young daughter holding a kitten in her arms. Cadbury also invented the first Valentine's Day candy box.

Learning Objective: Research and source chocolate equipment manufacturers

Chocolate equipment manufacturers

Depending on the size of your operation, you'll need specific equipment for chocolate making. This might include molds (or moulds – both are correct spelling and can be used interchangeably), tempering machines, oscillating (vibrating) tables, racks for stacking trays, cold tables, cooling tunnels, refrigeration units, etc. 

The curriculum will go into more details about equipment in Module 5 but it's never too early to research and source equipment in your local trading area. Note that there are both small equipment and large equipment manufacturers included in this list. I think it's important for you to see the whole spectrum of equipment so you can decide on your production needs, depending on what you're producing and the size of your operation.

Chocolatier preferences

In Chantal Coady's book The Chocolate Companion, she not only talks about each of the featured chocolate companies, but lists the kind of chocolate they use.

Chantal Coady is a force for chocolate in the UK. She founded Rococo Chocolates.

Learning Objective: Familiarize yourself with the large chocolate manufacturers and what type of products they offer

A picture of the chocolate product manufacturing industry

Whether you refer to the product as cioccolato, chocolate, chocolat, schokolade, chocolates, chokolade, choklade, coklat, schokoladen, chocolade, sjokolade or cokolade – there is a world of chocolate out there.

Included in the following list are the larger candy/confectionary product manufacturers who mainly sell their products to food retailers and who have a website (or are described on one) – many others do not. It is too long a list to spend time looking at each one but try at least to research a random group of 20.

Learning Objective: Research and source the different chocolate and cocoa products

Bulk chocolate and cocoa producers

Major international companies

Use each company's website to do your product research. You should be familiar with all these producers and their products by the end of the program. The bigger companies have distributors in different regions. If you're interested in tasting a particular chocolate, use the company contact or lists of distributors on their website to find the distribution source in your region.