Business Must-Know: How to Send Chocolate Without Melting

As an entrepreneur, of course you want to provide the best products and services to your customers. In an era where online shopping is increasingly being used, you need to ensure that your products reach your customers in the best condition. Surely you don't want your customers to give bad feedback because the chocolate product you sent melted during shipping, right?

If you’ve been handling chocolate for some time, you’d know that chocolate does indeed melt easily. As a couverture chocolate brand, this is also in our mind as we provide high-quality chocolate for bakery, pastry and confectionery businesses. Here are ways and tips from Embassy Chocolate that are proven to be able to keep chocolate products from melting during shipping, be it chocolate bars, pralines, or other chocolate-based products.

What’s the Melting Point of Chocolate?

Different types of chocolate melt at different temperatures. This is due to differences in the composition of sugar, cocoa solids, and milk in chocolate.

Some would say that dark chocolate melts the fastest, but this is not true. Milk chocolate and white chocolate melt faster because of the added ingredients in them, namely dairy ingredients. As a result, both types of chocolate have lower melting points, so they melt faster.

In general, chocolate melts at 30-32 degrees Celcius.

What Makes Chocolate Melt Easily?

Chocolate melts easily because of the high fat content in it, namely cocoa butter or cocoa butter. Cocoa butter melts at 34 degrees Celsius, but at a temperature below that the chocolate has started to soften.

Cocoa butter is a naturally occurring fat in cocoa beans, and it is this ingredient that gives chocolate its rich texture and soft mouthfeel. So, don't blame the cocoa butter if your chocolate melts, because this ingredient is one of the biggest reasons why people love chocolate!

In addition to cocoa butter, other additives such as sugar and milk also cause chocolate to melt faster, as we discussed above. Sugar has a lower melting point than chocolate, but it can still melt at room temperature if the chocolate is exposed to heat for a long time. Milk, on the other hand, has an even lower melting point than sugar, so it causes the chocolate to melt faster.

5 Ways to Send Chocolate Without Melting

1. Pick the right delivery time

Most chocolate companies or businesses avoid shipping during weekends or holidays due to the high volume of deliveries on those days. We recommend arranging product pick-up on a Monday or early in the week. That way, you can prevent packages from being stored in transit warehouses over the weekend.

If you provide express delivery service, then it never hurts for you to check the weather forecast on that day before making the shipment. Choose a time that tends to be cooler, such as in the morning to minimize product melting due to hot weather. As much as possible, always make sure that your product is away from direct light or heat sources.

2. Make sure the chocolate product is cold before shipping

Regardless of whether you can delay the delivery schedule or not, it's important to ensure that your chocolate products are chilled before shipping. However, there are some products that must be stored at room temperature to maintain their taste. So you need to determine whether your product can be stored in the refrigerator or not.

Always make sure that your product is away from direct rays or heat sources. Also, if your product is cooked or baked, then make sure that you don't seal the package tightly while it's hot. Allow a few moments for your product to cool before wrapping it.

You can also add a note on the package or packaging of your product that writes the date of production, so that the recipient can know the safe duration of consumption. Not only that, on the note you can also write down storage procedures so that the product can last as long as possible.

3. Provide fast delivery

Due to its low melting point, delivery of chocolate-based products needs to be done as quickly as possible. To ensure that your product arrives in the best possible condition, provide the option of Express, Instant, or Same Day delivery from a trusted courier. Although this type of shipping costs more, you can use these services to minimize transit time and possible damage to the shipment.

If the express delivery option is not possible, choose a courier that provides the option of shipping with a refrigerated fleet.

If your product melts very easily and you can only provide Instant or Same Day options, educate your customers to ensure they understand the condition of the product they ordered, as well as the risks that arise if their location is far from your product pick-up point.

4. Pack your products properly

In the bakery, pastry, and confectionery business, you would certainly want beautiful product packaging to give the best impression to your customers. But not only that, you also need to make sure that your product packaging is also safe during shipping.

Here are a few ways to pack chocolate so it doesn't melt:

• Shipping box - make sure that your shipping box is at least 2 times bigger than the item you are shipping, so that there is room in the packaging for the protective material for your product. For this, there are several options such as corrugated cardboard, insulated cardboard, or styrofoam boxes.
• Cushioning material - to ensure the safety of your product, fill the free space with a material that can protect the product from shocks and impacts. Use materials such as bubble wrap, corrugated kraft paper, air cushion, and so on.
• Ice gel - to ensure your product stays cold in the package, use ice gel or cold packs. Our advice, wrap the ice gel in plastic to reduce heat transfer and so that condensation from the ice gel does not wet the product packaging.
• Cover the outer packaging with masking tape - to influence the effect of ambient temperature, cover the corners and edges of the box with tape so that your packaging box is really tight.

5. Run trials first

Before starting to ship your product to customers using new methods, always test the type of packaging you are using. And when you do,  with several options, for example with the amount of ice gel or box material. This is done so that you can find the most efficient packaging method. Do a test on the product that melts the most. If the product does not melt, then other products can be ensured will also be safe during shipping.

In the end, there are a lot of external factors in product delivery, so it’s totally normal if you cannot handle every shipping problem on your own. However, the best thing you can do is take precautions.

If you need high-quality couverture chocolate for any of your baking, dessert, or chocolate-making applications, then check out our couverture chocolate range on our products page. For more information regarding the pricing, speak to one of our knowledgeable sales reps by visiting our contact page.