Breaking The Mold


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Breaking The Mold
By: Tama Swan, Associate Editor
Issue: 2009dec

Chocolate Inn creates custom 3-D treats out of any object or photo.

Have you ever seen a two-foot-tall bust of ’80s TV personality Mr. T made entirely of chocolate? I bet you wouldn’t pass up the opportunity if it came your way.

Freeport, New York-based supplier Chocolate Inn (UPIC: CHOCINN) creates crowd-pleasing, 3-D chocolate confections, including but not limited to the star of The A-Team, in the likeness of any object or photo. “Customers cannot believe what we can do in chocolate,” says Kurt Boehringer, vice president of operations. “That is why we always implore our distributors to present the free samples we provide to their customers.

“Most of these customers have the old mindset that only rectangular, one-dimensional pieces can be produced in chocolate,” Boehringer adds. “Obviously, the type of molds we produce can create a significant impact when the chocolate pieces are received by the customer’s client because they are so unique.”

The secret lies in the company’s high-resolution 3-D scanner, which Boehringer says scans at the rate of 2/10,000ths of an inch and registers 250,000 points of data per square inch. “It’s a precise image,” he says. Chocolate Inn offers stock designs from which customers can choose, of course, but those wanting one-of-a-kind designs go custom.

This is the route Chocolate Inn took when a distributor called indicating the makers of Advair asthma inhalers wanted an edible version of their product.

Chocolate Inn began the process by scanning the inhaler into a computer using specialized software and scaling the image to match the desired finished size. Available sizes range from one-third of an ounce to 10 pounds. Then the design is further customized with the graphic imprint specified by the customer.

All the information is then transferred from the computer-aided design (CAD) software to a computer numerical controlled (CNC) machine that cuts the master mold. These are made from wax, resin or aluminum, depending on the length of the run. Wax is used for shorter runs and aluminum is reserved for longer ones.

From here, plastic molds are vacuum formed from sheets of plastic placed over the master mold. These final molds will make contact with the chocolate, and multiple plastic molds are produced to accommodate the order. Making 1,000 chocolate inhalers, for example, requires 200 plastic molds.

When the molds are ready, dark and milk chocolate is tempered and piped out to the production lines. Boehringer says Chocolate Inn only uses premium chocolate and routinely invites taste testers to verify the quality. “We use the best and most expensive gourmet chocolate available,” he says.

Once the molds are filled with chocolate, they are transported over a vibrating conveyer where gentle shaking eliminates any air bubbles. Then it’s off to a cooling tunnel for 30 minutes before being unmolded and packaged.

The process is quite rapid, and it needs to be. Boehringer says the smallest of Chocolate Inn’s six production lines produces 100 pounds of chocolate per hour. Other lines can produce up to 2,000 pounds an hour—all with only three people working on a line. “Business really picks up in August,” Boehringer says. “And by the first week of December we’re really busy.”

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