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Author Topic: Refrigerated Candy Bar Set-Up? Dave Bird Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 777 From: Perth, Ontario, Canada Registered: Jun 2000 posted 07-04-2017 04:27 PM                        Hitting the warm/muggy nights here at the drive-in. Fond as I am of the "Milk Dud Melty Cube-in-a-Box" myself, anyone using any sort of refrigerated displayer that's more elegant than a glass-door bar/wine fridge? Maybe that is the most elegant, but I'm just wondering....  |  IP: Logged Frank Cox Film God Posts: 2234 From: Melville Saskatchewan Canada Registered: Apr 2011 posted 07-04-2017 04:41 PM                        Don't refrigerate your chocolate candies and bars. Refrigeration equipment that runs in a warm environment will collect and retain too much humidity for chocolate and the product will turn white. This problem would be even worse if you're frequently opening and shutting the display doors or have an open-top refrigeration displays. You need to keep chocolate in a cool, dry environment. 70 degrees F is apparently the ideal temperature for most commercial chocolate.  |  IP: Logged Alexandre Pereira Expert Film Handler Posts: 126 From: Toronto, Ontario, Canada Registered: Jan 2016 posted 07-04-2017 06:16 PM                        I use a wine fridge to keep chocolates and candy cool not refrigerated or frozen. The lobby of the Kingsway Theatre is not air conditioned. Regardless with the warm weather and so many hot machines - candybars tend to melt in the summer at movie theatres. Clear glass wine fridge looks nice and can be used as a sales point - You can even remove the front door for easy access during showtime.  |  IP: Logged Marcel Birgelen Film God Posts: 3357 From: Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands Registered: Feb 2012 posted 07-04-2017 06:26 PM                     quote: Frank Cox Don't refrigerate your chocolate candies and bars. Refrigeration equipment that runs in a warm environment will collect and retain too much humidity for chocolate and the product will turn white. This problem would be even worse if you're frequently opening and shutting the display doors or have an open-top refrigeration displays. That's true for chocolate products that aren't packed air-tight, I've not encountered any problems with the average candy bar in air-tight packaging. I've kept many of them in the refrigerator for extended periods. Personally, I prefer most of them a little firm and cool compared to "meltingly" soft and sticky. But, it is true for stuff like chocolate bars wrapped in tinfoil and paper and candy with just a single wrapper around. Moisture will eventually find a way into those and it will discolor your chocolate. Chocolate is a pretty delicate emulsion which is already close at melting point at average room temperature. The problem is, the different ingredients do have different melting points, that's why chocolate can change color or lose its glossiness when it hits a certain temperature.  |  IP: Logged Dave Bird Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 777 From: Perth, Ontario, Canada Registered: Jun 2000 posted 07-05-2017 09:20 AM                        Small wine fridge sounds good, as I believe those can be set to a little higher temperature. We have very little option but to refrigerate this time of year, certain nights anyway, as we hit stretches of 90 degrees and sometimes 80% humidity. We keep stock in the projection room, downstairs stock in the kitchen fridge & "samples" (usually melted in the bags) on the rack, running back and forth to the fridge when somebody wants something. I see some large "chocolate fridges" actually exist, probably for production, and they talk about being able to vary the humidity up to 70%, so now I'm not sure if chocolate likes humidity or not. But that's one thing we have, in spades.  |  IP: Logged Justin Hamaker Film God Posts: 2253 From: Lakeport, CA USA Registered: Jan 2004 posted 07-05-2017 04:16 PM                        We actually freeze most of our chocolates. For the most part customers really like this and order the frozen 2-1 over the room temperature. Granted we don't NEED to freeze anything but the super melty chocolates like Reese's PB Cups.  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 07-05-2017 10:19 PM                        We use a small under-counter fridge (which we got from Pepsi) for bottled water, a couple of sodas in cans, and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. Beyond those, we just tend to 'run out" of most chocolate items beginning around April. We still stock Milk Duds, Raisinets, and M&Ms but anything real melty goes on hiatus during the summer. The peanut butter cups are very popular in the "fridged" version and the stock rotates fast enough that any discoloration or whatever isn't an issue...we only keep 6 or 7 of them in there at a time, the rest stay in our storeroom which is much cooler than the concession area.  |  IP: Logged Marcel Birgelen Film God Posts: 3357 From: Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands Registered: Feb 2012 posted 07-06-2017 02:31 AM                     quote: Dave Bird I see some large "chocolate fridges" actually exist, probably for production, and they talk about being able to vary the humidity up to 70%, so now I'm not sure if chocolate likes humidity or not. But that's one thing we have, in spades. Well, I've heard this from a Belgian chocolatier quite a while back already. He also explained me how to keep the glossy surface of chocolate when you're working with it, which isn't particularly easy. I'm pretty sure I would fail at a repeat trial. The optimum long-term storage conditions for chocolate seem to be somewhere just below average room temperature. That would be something like ~70 °F / ~20 °C. Chocolate definitely doesn't like too much humidity, because moisture around the chocolate will eventually dissolve the sugar in the outer edges of the chocolate and will cause sugar bloom. I did a quick Google and according to this site, which seems to confirm most of what I said, the optimum relative humidity is below 50%, but real trouble apparently only starts around 78%. Storing chocolate at cold temperature seemingly isn't really a problem, only if you move it back to a warmer environment, you need to do so in a dry environment or risk it turning grey. This can also happen to chocolate in air tight packaging, because of the moisture inside the packaging condensing, so a dry environment will not even help you there. But if you sell it refrigerated, it will be consumed directly afterwards, so no problems there.  |  IP: Logged Dave Bird Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 777 From: Perth, Ontario, Canada Registered: Jun 2000 posted 07-06-2017 09:31 AM                        The freezer sounds like a handy idea for us, our "coffin" ice cream displayer sits right next to cash and we could make some room, at least for those "melty" ones. We'll just keep a "display model" up in the rack.....  |  IP: Logged

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