My high school teacher shared this trade secret to a couple of us, I’ve shared this to my mom after that and since then, we’ve been frequenting this haven and source of sweet solid happiness. We give one of our happiness a name, “chocolate”, and our chocolate temple, “The Chocolate Lover”.
About the Shop
Part of the attraction to the shop is how the structure looks. ^_^ See for yourself!
What We Bought
We’ve been there lots of times in the past and we get all our chocolate goodies there (molds, peanuts, cookies – you can add to your molten and molded chocolates) so we really know what to buy and how much of each item. Our goal that day was to make our own version of the chocolate “Crunch”, so we got some Rice Crispies, Regular Milk Chocolate, and a couple of heart chocolate molds.
Regular Milk Chocolate (1Kg) P158
Rice Crispies (500g) P46
Chocolate Molds P86each (standard price but there were discounted ones too)
CORRECT WAY OF MELTING YOUR CHOCOLATE LOVER CHOCOLATE
Follow these steps carefully or your chocolates won’t melt at all… Even if you turn the heat up! The key to these steps is that their chocolates SHOULD NEVER BE MELTED IN DIRECT HEAT. So we’ll be using steam in this set-up.
1) Select a small-regular sized pot and put a small amount of water (I’d say an inch or even less than an inch high).
2) On a glass heat resistant bowl (pyrex recommended), place it on top of the pot that has the water. Make sure that the bowl doesn’t touch the water inside the pot. If it does, reduce the amount of water in the pot, or get a deeper pot.
3) Slice or cut your chocolate bars in small pieces. What I do is cut them into quarter of an inch thick rectangular chunks so that they melt faster.
4) Put your stove into low fire, and put the chocolate chunks into the bowl.Once the chocolate melts, that’s the time you can mix in however much amount of crispies, nuts, cookies or even raisin (if you want) into the bowl, or you can have it plain. You can use a silicon spatula to mix the chocolate.
5) With a spoon, you can scoop out some of the molten chocolate into the molds. Most of the time I just spread them out into a wax paper lined pan and create really cool chocolate barks (pictures next time… ^_^).
*** Sometimes, if you feel that the water is hot enough and there’s still enough steam and heat inside the pot to melt the chocolates you still have, you can turn the stove off and turn it on again if you need more heat/steam.
CONTACT INFORMATION:
45 P. Tuazon Blvd. cornerC. Beniztez St. CubaoQuezon, 1109 Philippines
(632) 411-7474 / (632) 724-5752 / (632) 724-4964
info@echocolatelover.com
website: http://echocolatelover.com/
How I prefer to go to Chocolate Lover:
I prefer commuting to the place to avoid the EDSA traffic and wasting gasoline sitting in, again, heavy traffic (but Mario prefers taking the car). If you commute, take the MRT and get off at Cubao station. Go down at the south bound lane of EDSA (not the side where gateway or Farmer’s plaza is). Take an orange tricycle and say “Chocolate Lover” and they’ll know where that is and take you there. Same way going home, ride an orange tricycle back to the MRT (and they conveniently have a terminal right in front of Chocolate Lover).
MAP:
Have you been to this castle of chocolates? Do you have any choco combination tips you want to share?
The Wandering Boots 
Ask ko lang Po.. After po ba tunawin how many hours need ilagay sa ref? and if ever matutuyo din kaya yung chocolate kahit hindi ilagay sa ref? thanks. I’m just new in baking ee.. :)
LikeLike
Hi Jam!
TIME TO PUT IN THE REFRIGERATOR
Kahit iwan mo lang sa ref ng 7-10mins ok na sya (give or take 1 miinute depende kung gaano kalamig ang ref temperature nyo). Don’t leave them in too long, or else you’ll get water droplets on your chocolates when you take them out of the refrigerator. And remember, hindi sa freezer, sa chiller compartment lang… I’ve tried putting the chocolates in the freezer (sa kakamadaling tumigas ang chocolate) and the result was not good. The chocolates were covered in water droplets when I took it out of the freezer (due to condensation). Similar to what happened to the chocolates when you store them in the refridgerator for a long time as seen on one of my photos above. If you remove the chocolates too early, before sya tumigas, mahihirapan ka tanggalin mula sa mold kasi didikit parin ung parts na hindi pa tumigas ng husto, and masisira ung shape na gusto mo sana i-achieve. Anyway, the time isn’t strict. You can check 5 minutes after you put them in the fridge to see how they’re doing… and you can estimate how many minutes more you need for them to stay inside.
ROOM TEMPERATURE
As for not putting the molten chocolate inside the ref, I haven’t tried that yet but I think they will still set, but that can take the whole day or maybe overnight. Remember, the chocolates were melted using heat and in order for them to form into 1 solid shape, that much heat needs to be cooled down and room temperature, unless you live somewhere cold and your heater’s not working, pales in comparison with refrigerator.
STORAGE OF STORE BOUGHT CHOCOLATES BEFORE MELTING and AFTER
Best to store them out in room temperature, but if you don’t have any place where the chocolates are safe from ants, place them in airtight plastic storage. It’s super difficult to chop the big bars of chocolates into chunks if you store them in the fridge and takes longer to melt.
Hope this helps! For more answers from the experts, you can send an email to Chocolate Lover (info@echocolatelover.com) or call them up at (632) 411-7474 / (632) 724-5752 / (632) 724-4964
LikeLike
Thank You,Ms. Anne.. I really love Reading Your Blog Post Specially The Food Trips with Mario and Food Photo’s.. It’s Already Part of My Bookmark Page and I’m a Subscriber of Your Blog.. :)
LikeLike
Oh Jam! This made my day! I always post articles wondering if it’s of some use to other people. I do my best to take good photos and write sensible and informative articles. Comments like yours validate the efforts I put into this blog and just makes me happy! Thank you for subscribing! I’ll find a way to show my appreciation somehow, other than writing useful articles. ^_^
Questions are always welcomed!
LikeLike
Hello I’m also a follower of Chocolate lovers, though I am not in the business, anyway when chocolate fundue became a craze, I made sure I bought the bars at chocolate lovers. the reason why I am here is I wish to copy one photo of the chocolate bars,I am going to use it at my hub, I will acknowledge you are the owner of the photo and will even share your link there… I hope is it alright with you… Thanks
LikeLike
no problem!
LikeLike
san po nakakabili ng chocolate molds ?
LikeLike
Hi Ysheene,
Sa Chocolate Lover din mismo. May hiwalay na section ng store na puro molds… Kadalasan nasa wall malapit. Enjoy!
LikeLike
Hi! Would you know how long we can store the molded chocolates? :) Thanks!
LikeLike
Hi Kriselda,
Unfortunately, I’m not sure how long the molded chocolates can be stored. I think if it’s just pure chocolate, you can rely on the expiration date you can find in the original bar where you cut the chunks off… It should be either marked or there should be a “best before” date sticker… But if you added nuts or anything else, you can follow the earliest expiration date… But that’s just me. Most likely, heating up things or keeping them cold, keeping them dry or keeping them moist – all that will have some effect on the chemical composition of the chocolate and whatnot… So maybe it would be safer to assume that the real expiration date would be earlier or later, depending on how you store them ^_^; In storing something, it is generally best if it’s completely void of moisture, and kept in a cold place. I hope I was able to help even by a little bit.
LikeLike
Thanks!!! This is a big help already!! :)
LikeLike
bkit po ung chocolate inisteamed ko po ndi xa ngmelt ng husto, lalo n ung brown chocolate ndi dn. antgal ko ng inisteamed. ano po kyang dpat gwin don. pde kyang iref ko lng pra kpg tnunaw ko mbilis mgmelt. db gnun po ung s chocolate, once n nilgay s ref tpos inilbas mblis ng mgmelt. ok po kya ung gnun gwin?
LikeLike
Hello po! Indirect heat po ang kailangan na set-up nung chocolates in particular po sa mga galing sa Chocolate Lover… I’m not sure kung pwede pa po ulit matunaw pero sa experience ko po, usually, try ko lang po ulit sa susunod na batch… low heat lang po..
LikeLike
nag try ako gumawa ng chocolate pero unfortunately d nag melt yung chocolate.
same na chocolate ang ginamit ko, pero sa microwave ko pina melt. bakit kaya d nag melt?
LikeLike
Hi Faye,
Chocolate Lover chocolates don’t do well with direct heat so it has to be heat from steam touching the bowl. I think a lot of chocolates for molding are like that. So once you melt them in ways other than the one I mentioned on the article, they won’t melt properly, or they won’t melt at all.
I also tried not doing the steam method and just putting them in a pan and directly on top of stove flame, that didn’t work…
LikeLike
THANKS..
LikeLike
ok lang po ba na i melt and chocolate na galing sa ref? tnx
LikeLike
Hi Faye,
STORAGE OF STORE BOUGHT CHOCOLATES BEFORE MELTING and AFTER
Best to store them out in room temperature, but if you don’t have any place where the chocolates are safe from ants, place them in airtight plastic storage. It’s super difficult to chop the big bars of chocolates into chunks if you store them in the fridge and takes longer to melt.
TIP: If you really have to store in the fridge, leave it out of the fridge when you’re going to use it (similar to defrosting) and cut into small cubes (shave if you have the patience) so that it melts quicker.
LikeLike
Hi! I found your post so helpful talaga! infact yan ang nagserve na guide ko when I went to choco lovers last weekend, question lang after tanggalin sa molds ung choco san mo na siya isstore? and gaaano katagal lifespan niya? im planning to make it sana 1week before bday ng son ko kasi medyo matrabaho.
LikeLike
Hi Grace!
Glad you found my article helpful! As for shelf-life or storage life… I think 1 week is ok. Safe to base it on the expiration date of the chocolate bar you bought… They put expiration dates on the bars. If you store them inside the ref… they’ll get water droplets.. moisture… Why don’t you try storing half of what you make in the ref inside airtight container, then half of them in airtight containers in room temperature… Best if you call Chocolate Lover ^_^;
LikeLike
Ung prices po same parin po ngaun?..kc ung blog nio po 2011 p..ei mdmi n pong pag taas ang nangyari..kya natanong ko po kc mg budget n ko bgo mg punta dyn..thank u!
LikeLike
Hi Kz!
For prices, I’m sure kung magtataas man sila, not a whole lot… Estimate ko hanggang 5 pesos on most items…
Pero para makasigurado, pwedeng silang tawagan sa: 7244964
At mas gusto nga nila na tinatawagan sila para sa price inquiries!
http://achocolatelover.com/products__chocolates
Sana nakatulong ito!
LikeLike
Thank u so much po..kc ng start n po ko ng buss. ko,nag ha2nap lng tlga ko ng mga pang boxes & wrappers,ei dito pla nandito ng lhat..thank u so much,sobrang mka2tulong toh sakin.. :) God Bless!
LikeLike
HI..
Ask ko lang po anung cause bakit nagamoise ang chocolate pakatapos ko tanggalin sa molder? mga ilang minutes po sya ilalagay sa ref para d magmoise? tanx
LikeLike
Hi Faye,
Kaya nagmo-moist pag tinanggal mula sa ref ay dahil may difference sa temperature ng chocolate vs surrouding air kaya nagkakaroon ng condensation. Same thing na nangyayari sa isang 1.5 Cola na galing sa ref, tapos paglabas sa ref nagkakaroon ng droplets/moisture sa gilid ng bote.
I think the technique is not to leave the chocoloates too long in the ref… Time it enough that the chocolates are hard and formed completely.
LikeLike
thanks a lot.. ^_^
one more pa po, panu ko magagawa yung my kulay ang design ng chocolate?
LikeLike
Hi Faye,
if you’re talking about 1 color for 1 design/chocolate… you can just buy a colored chocolate…
if you’re talking about multiple colors in 1 chocolate… YOu can…
1) Melt the colors you need separately…
2) With a brush, apply your preferred colors to the parts of the mold that you want… it’s like painting the mold… It should be thick enough so that the color is opaque and the brown chocolate will not show through the colored chocolate…
3) Let it harden (you can put it inside the ref really quick)
4) Pour in the rest of the chocolate in the mold and let it harden the usual way…
^_^
LikeLike
Hi ms.anne, I am very eager to know how to make chocolate like this.sana makapasyal ako sa chocolate lover one time,ask lng po meron po ba kau starter kit na iniooffer para sa mga baguhan na tuladkko? Salamat po
LikeLike
good morninf po, ngayon pa lang po ako magttry gumawa nito, Gusto ko po sana gumawa ng colorful chocolates panu po ba un??? salamat po Godbless
LikeLike
Hi Riza,
Pwede po gumamit ng mga colored chocolates (melt them and pour them into the mold – normal process), or melt them and pour a thin layer into the mold or use a paint brush to spread the colored chocolate into the parts that should be that color, once it’s colled, you can pour the brown chocolate into the mold to complete the piece. ^_^
Best if you ask the chocolate lover crew.
Have fun!
LikeLike
Thank you po Godbless po
LikeLike
Hi, ask ko lng po bakit po mabilis tumigas ung minelt kong chocolate bars, is there any way po ba para mag soft siya and para mabilis po mag melt, kasi it takes about 30 mins po before magmelt ung chocolate. Thank u po.
LikeLike
Use CBS pra medyo bumilis ung pag melt u ng chocolate…oil for chocolate un..
LikeLike
Hi ask ko sna f pg gumawa ng brownies pnu ba ung tamang temp.or time para chewy?
LikeLike
Good question! I love chewy brownies too! Unfortunately, I do not have the answer to this question… :( Thank you for taking time to comment!
LikeLike