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Permalink Reply by Bob Sanders on April 22, 2008 at 10:59am

They have to be panned. Which requires a copper panning (looks like a cement mixer) kettle, chocolate to melt, and
an air conditioner to control the cooling. Plus a lot of skill. My sister used to make them several years ago before
she got out of the business.

Bob

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Permalink Reply by Bob Sanders on April 22, 2008 at 1:02pm

btw - A thought I had is if you want to save some money on the raw materials - Chocolate Covered Espresso Beans,
buy in bulk and package them. You'll need a calibrated, inspected, and sealed scale, food service handling area,
pre-printed bags, ribbon or heat sealer, some type of price tagging. And a visit from the local health inspector.

You could even go specialty with a specific roasted coffee and a high end or single origin chocolate. But a lot of
the labor is in bagging. Someone has to pay for that. And most small candy makers do all this by hand by
bringing in part-time help to bag and box up batches. Taking this cost on would lower your purchase cost but
add to your labor costs.

Bob

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Permalink Reply by Brady on April 22, 2008 at 6:38pm

There are several recipes around for chocolate covered raisins... you could probably use the same approach. Sounds like they have problems with appearance (like Bob said, the commercial ones are panned), and the home-dipped approach looks to be a pretty work-intensive process. You more or less melt chocolate, dump in raisins, spoon them out individually, and drop them onto a silpat to dry. They come out a little dull looking and flat-spotted.

If you are looking to reduce cost for this, it probably isn't the way to do it. Bob's suggestion about buying bulk is about as good as you'll get, though I don't think it needs to be any more complicated than your regular retail bean-bagging operation.

If you are looking to go more upscale-artisan, the handmade look might be ok.

Good luck.

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