Ordering chocolate pieces
March 9, 2010 8:13 PM Subscribe
How do I go about ordering bulk chocolate pieces?
I'm getting married and I'm tasked with making small chocolate boxes for an event. They need to include 2 pieces of chocolate. One solid milk chocolate piece and one solid white chocolate piece.
I need 600 pieces of chocolate, 300 white chocolate and 300 milk chocolate.
My budget is basically 25 cents a piece of chocolate. The size or weight of the chocolate is not a big concern. A gumdrop piece of chocolate would be just as good.
Do you contact a chocolate company directly for this kind of order? Or are there special stores that handle this sort of thing? Shipping is a major concern.
I've thought about just going to Sam's Club and buying it, but I could not find anything other than mixed bags of Hershey's chocolate bars and I know I want to try to get something other than that (I don't like Hershey's chocolate).
I'm getting married and I'm tasked with making small chocolate boxes for an event. They need to include 2 pieces of chocolate. One solid milk chocolate piece and one solid white chocolate piece.
I need 600 pieces of chocolate, 300 white chocolate and 300 milk chocolate.
My budget is basically 25 cents a piece of chocolate. The size or weight of the chocolate is not a big concern. A gumdrop piece of chocolate would be just as good.
Do you contact a chocolate company directly for this kind of order? Or are there special stores that handle this sort of thing? Shipping is a major concern.
I've thought about just going to Sam's Club and buying it, but I could not find anything other than mixed bags of Hershey's chocolate bars and I know I want to try to get something other than that (I don't like Hershey's chocolate).
You need a wholesaler.
My cousin bought her wedding favor chocolate from Chocotopia.com. Unfortunately the only individually wrapped white chocolate I see there is Lindor truffles. They're selling for $20 for a box of 60, so you'd need 5 boxes of each. $200.
http://chocosphere.com/cgi-bin/webstore/web_store.cgi?page=/Products/lindt.html&cart_id=4629576_29888
posted by elsietheeel at 8:47 PM on March 9, 2010
My cousin bought her wedding favor chocolate from Chocotopia.com. Unfortunately the only individually wrapped white chocolate I see there is Lindor truffles. They're selling for $20 for a box of 60, so you'd need 5 boxes of each. $200.
http://chocosphere.com/cgi-bin/webstore/web_store.cgi?page=/Products/lindt.html&cart_id=4629576_29888
posted by elsietheeel at 8:47 PM on March 9, 2010
Ugh, not chocotopia.com, I think I made that up.
Chocosphere.com.
And if you don't like the yellow wrapper on the white chocolate truffles, you could do stracciatella, which has a light blue one.
posted by elsietheeel at 8:59 PM on March 9, 2010
Chocosphere.com.
And if you don't like the yellow wrapper on the white chocolate truffles, you could do stracciatella, which has a light blue one.
posted by elsietheeel at 8:59 PM on March 9, 2010
If your local grocery store sells individual bags of the kind of thing you're looking for, you can talk to a manager and get them to special order you enough full cases to get what you need. I used to do this for people all the time when I worked in a grocery store. (Also, no shipping charges that way.)
posted by frobozz at 9:09 PM on March 9, 2010
posted by frobozz at 9:09 PM on March 9, 2010
Yes, frobozz is on the money. I do exactly this all the time for the customers at my store. The manager may even be able to get you products made by the chocolate manufacturer you're interested in that the store doesn't carry. And you'll probably get a bulk discount.
posted by bubukaba at 9:33 PM on March 9, 2010
posted by bubukaba at 9:33 PM on March 9, 2010
Do they need to be individually wrapped? Valrhona comes in Les Fèves discs that are about the size of a silver dollar (but in oval) and as thick as three stacked quarters. They are available in white and dark chocolates but because they are loose, they do not look perfect. I just weighed mine and they're about 3 grams each. So about $60 all told and you can find them at restaurant supply stores or online at chocosphere. I don't know if that's sufficiently fancy for your needs though.
posted by hindmost at 10:09 PM on March 9, 2010
posted by hindmost at 10:09 PM on March 9, 2010
It looks like Carenero has individually wrapped squares of white and black chocolate at about 28 cents per piece if you get the 200 piece bulk package, a three tin and a 27 square to get 308 pieces. Including shipping you should be at $186.59.
posted by hindmost at 10:17 PM on March 9, 2010
posted by hindmost at 10:17 PM on March 9, 2010
To be clear, are you molding chocolates or buying chocolates?
If you're planning on molding them, you want to find someplace that sells bricks or slabs of couverture. I use Callebaut, which is excellent and moderately expensive and the most widely available, but not the best or most expensive.
Many small chocolate shops may be willing to sell you a slab -- 5kg of chocolate -- or a quantity of bricks, since you want both white and milk. Wholesale food suppliers that deal with small orders will generally sell you a slab, but you'll have to pick it up.
If you can't find it anywhere else cheaper, Whole Foods generally carries bricks of various kinds of couverture, including Callebaut, but their prices are much higher than you'll pay basically anywhere else.
If you're wanting to simply order the chocolate as pieces of chocolate, then what you're describing is the bread and butter service of every chocolate shop known to mankind. They'll either sell you a large order, or sell you the order already packed in little boxes. Your price range might be a little iffy, though. The fact that you want simple molded chocolates rather than fancy truffles should help, but 25 cents still sounds pretty low.
posted by jacquilynne at 6:31 AM on March 11, 2010
If you're planning on molding them, you want to find someplace that sells bricks or slabs of couverture. I use Callebaut, which is excellent and moderately expensive and the most widely available, but not the best or most expensive.
Many small chocolate shops may be willing to sell you a slab -- 5kg of chocolate -- or a quantity of bricks, since you want both white and milk. Wholesale food suppliers that deal with small orders will generally sell you a slab, but you'll have to pick it up.
If you can't find it anywhere else cheaper, Whole Foods generally carries bricks of various kinds of couverture, including Callebaut, but their prices are much higher than you'll pay basically anywhere else.
If you're wanting to simply order the chocolate as pieces of chocolate, then what you're describing is the bread and butter service of every chocolate shop known to mankind. They'll either sell you a large order, or sell you the order already packed in little boxes. Your price range might be a little iffy, though. The fact that you want simple molded chocolates rather than fancy truffles should help, but 25 cents still sounds pretty low.
posted by jacquilynne at 6:31 AM on March 11, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by abdulf at 8:19 PM on March 9, 2010