You can’t buy happiness, but you can buy chocolate; that’s basically the same thing. We were not surprised to discover that chocolate - to be specific, cocoa beans – was so valuable that it was used as a currency in Mayan times. When making chocolate, cocoa beans need to be dried, fermented, and roasted before using chocolate making equipment to turn them into your favorite chocolate product.

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When selecting production equipment for a production plant, it is important to talk to someone with experience in your field. Our industry experts have experience with various industrial applications. We’d love to help you!

What are you making?

Compound chocolate

Hollow figures

Chocolate bonbons

Chocolate spread

Chocolate bars

Chocolate coatings

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Cocoa powder

Cocoa butter

Cocoa liquor

Chocolate milk

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Everything starts with cocoa beans

Whatever chocolate product you want to make, your chocolate production process starts with cocoa beans. After leaving them to ferment for a few days, the beans are dried to reduce the moisture level.

Roasting is vital because it develops the chocolate flavor. The beans break down in the roaster, and the shell is removed through the winnowing step, separating the cocoa nibs from their husk. If there is any residual shell, this could affect the flavor of the chocolate.

Cocoa butter - more than chocolate

After removing cocoa nibs from their shells, they are ground into a thick paste called cocoa liquor which is pressed to separate the solid content from the butter. To remove its strong natural odor, cocoa butter is sometimes deodorized by steam injection during chocolate production.

Other than in chocolate making, manufacturers make cocoa butter odorless and tasteless through steam and vacuum extraction for use in various industries such as pharmaceuticals.

Chocolate bars, chocolate bonbons, chocolate coatings… the list goes on, you name it

Chocolate making equipment – from beans to bars

Chocolate bars are bar-shaped confections made of solid chocolate. They may also include other ingredients such as caramel, fruits or nuts. Once tempered, chocolate is poured into plastic molds where vibrations are applied to remove all the air bubbles.

After cooling and solidifying, chocolate bars are removed from the molds and wrapped in foil or paper packaging. Make sure your chocolate making equipment includes grinders, molding machines and refiners.

Bonbons and Truffles: Brothers without scuffles

Chocolate bonbons and truffle balls are similar chocolate products, usually mistaken for each other. Which makes what, then?

Both require chocolate tempering, can be molded or enrobed, and can come in many designs. The same chocolate making equipment for bonbons and truffles can be used to produce each other. The difference lies in their core, literally.

You can consider chocolate-shelled products as truffles when their core is filled with ganache. A tempering machine raises the temperature of the chocolate to 46°C before cooling it to around 26°C. A second process then reheats it to 30°C.

On the other hand, bonbons have cores made of fruit puree, caramel, nut pastes, and many more. The process starts filling the molds with tempered chocolate to form the shell. To get rid of any air bubbles, molds must be vibrated. After hardening, the shell is filled and sealed with another chocolate layer.

Tempering – the essence for making chocolate coating

Chocolate coating used for cakes or other desserts is nothing more than chocolate in its liquid form. To get the snap and the gloss look tempering step is all that matters.

Chocolate makers employ tempering because of the unique process of cocoa butter crystallization. The process involves heating and cooling the chocolate so that the fats (cocoa butter) crystallize evenly.

Do you always need a chocolate tempering machine for making your chocolate coating?

No, definitely not.

Compound chocolate is also known as compound coating since it is widely used for coating candy bars. Since there is no cocoa butter, compound coatings don’t need to be tempered, but simply melted and used.

Compound chocolate is made from cocoa, vegetable fats, and sweeteners. Vegetable fats such as coconut oil and palm oil are used as replacements for cocoa butter and instead of chocolate liquor, it has cocoa powder inside.

Molding vs. enrobing for your chocolate products

Choosing to use a chocolate enrober or a chocolate melting machine depends on the design of your chocolate product and its filling.

When using molding, you need to form the shell of your product first, fill it with a flavoring, cover it and cool it. Compared to molding, enrobing is a faster method. You have to form the core of your product first and then you can pour your liquid chocolate over it.

Enrobing machines can also work with several ingredients, such as nuts or chili powder.

Think pink! Ruby chocolate makes its entrance

Ruby chocolate is the fourth variant of chocolate, along with milk, dark and white varieties. It has a natural pink color and the taste is sweet and sour. Made from ruby cocoa beans by minimizing fermentation (no more than three days or less), treating them with an acid, and removing fatty acids to retain the color.

If you are planning to produce ruby chocolate, you can still use the same chocolate making equipment. Grind and melt the beans, subject the pink chocolate to tempering and refinement, and finally cool, cut, and pack your ruby chocolate product.

Chocolate making equipment in action

Chocolate bar decoration

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Complete chocolate line

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Coating Conching Decorating Depositing Enrobing Filling Forming Labeling Milling Mixing Tempering Wrapping Labeling Decorating Depositing Enrobing Coating Forming

Equipment groups

Ball mills Chocolate Spinners

Which chocolate equipment do you need?

Vertical ball mills for chocolate refining

Horizontal ball mill for chocolate refining

Three-Roll chocolate refiner

Five Roll chocolate refiner

Mixer and refiner for chocolate compound

Chocolate laboratory ball mill

Continuous chocolate line with vertical ball mills

Batch chocolate machine with vertical ball mill

Continuous chocolate line with horizontal ball mills

Batch chocolate line with horizontal ball mill

Cocoa and chocolate pumps

Chocolate truffle rolling machine

Compact 4-arm spinner for chocolate

Big scale chocolate spinner

Multi-nozzle chocolate decorator

De-moulder for flat bottom chocolates

Larger versatile cooling belt for chocolates

Batch tempering machine for chocolate and fillings

Semi-automatic moulding line for solid chocolates

Vertical cooling tower for chocolate moulds

Horizontal cooling tunnels for chocolate moulds

Multi-row one shot chocolate depositor

Servo driven chocolate depositor

Chocolate enrober for medium production capacities

Pump-driven chocolate depositor for drops, chips and chunks

Pump-driven chocolate depositor for mould filling

Chocolate coating machine

Hygienic chocolate coating machine

Hygienic chocolate cooling tunnel

Chocolate refiner with chiller

Chocolate bean to bar line 10kg

Chocolate bean to bar line 200kg

Cylindrical batch roaster for chocolate

Longitudinal chocolate conche

Chocolate conche for small batches and laboratory use

Energy efficient chocolate enrober

Continuous chocolate enrober

Chocolate enrober with minimum changeover time

Chocolate tempering and enrobing machine

Small chocolate enrober

High speed chocolate depositor

Chocolate depositor

Economic C-frame chocolate depositor

Energy saving chocolate tempering machine

Chocolate tempering machine

High capacity cooling tunnel for chocolates

Hygienic cooling tunnel for chocolates

Depositor for solid and filled chocolates

Chocolate analyzer

Chocolate temper meter

Small scale packaging machine for chocolate figures

Automatic packaging machine for chocolate figures

Medium-speed flexible wrapping machine for chocolates

High-speed flow pack wrapping machine for chocolates

High-speed bunch wrapping machine for chocolate

Industrial filter for liquid chocolate

Flexible chocolate tablet wrapping machine

Small chocolate tablet wrapping machine

Chocolate decorator for extruded ice-cream

Small capacity chocolate melangeur

Industrial melter for chocolate rework

High-speed chocolate block melt machine

Mixer for production of chocolate with inclusions

Refining plant for chocolate

Continuous liquid conche

Mixer and kneader for sugar based recipes

Continuous cocoa bean roasting line

Cocoa liquor grinding line

Automatic continuous tempering machine

Enrobing attachment for an automatic tempering machine

Small cooling belt for tempering/enrobing

Industrial mini-tempering machine

Automatic book-moulding system

Hand moulding machine

Moulding line for pralines, tablets and cups

Automatic batch tempering machine

Compact enrober

Medium sized melting tanks

Single row piston depositor for soft fillings