Chocolate Drinking Machine Recommendations

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Permalink Reply by Jenny Bunker on October 23, 2010 at 6:28pm

Hi,
I have never actually used these machines, but I too was searching and found this:

http://www.sarahs-sweet-fountains.com/drinking-chocolate-dispenser-...

This model seems to be cheaper because it has a 3 liter capacity verses the more expensive 6 liter model:

http://www.sarahs-sweet-fountains.com/drinking-chocolate-machine-ch...
Good luck!
Jenny

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Permalink Reply by Andy Ciordia on October 25, 2010 at 2:05pm

Thanks Jenny, great to know there's a smaller version at half the price.

Kerry1, the little home ones: http://www.amazon.com/Back-Basics-CM300BR-Cocoa-Latte-Hot-Drink/dp/... they seem to come in a few varieties. Cheap, plastic, paddle.. not much science to it.

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Permalink Reply by Kerry on October 25, 2010 at 6:38pm

I wonder if the little ones stir - I'd probably go after the 3 litre one mentioned above.

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Permalink Reply by Kerry on October 24, 2010 at 10:12am

I've helped people get their hands on the $900 ones - they are a nice piece of equipment. Can you link me to a $50 one so I can see what you are referring to to compare?

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Permalink Reply by Tom on October 25, 2010 at 6:28pm

I have looked into this half heartedly every now and then but haven't found anything that has made me buy. One question to ask when you look at a machine is does it heat the liquid from cold - many do not. I presume this has to do with the fact that things like urns heat really rapidly and would burn a milk based drink so the heating has to be gentle. I have also looked at other things that may do the job such as soup warmers (soup kettles) which hold soup at 80 degrees celcius, again you have to preheat liquid before it goes in. Also you may look under 'milk warmers' again a lot of these require preheating the beverage.

I did send an email to Sarah of Sarah's Sweet Fountains and she said that their unit will heat from cold but it will be slow, I downloaded their specs and this machine seems to be the best I have seen so far. But that is just looking on the internet.

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Permalink Reply by Andy Ciordia on October 25, 2010 at 8:55pm

Tom, can you share the spec sheet?

I hadn't really given too much thought to the pre-heat idea and it's one worth knowing going into it.

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Permalink Reply by Tom on October 25, 2010 at 10:36pm

Sure here are the links:

http://ssfpics.com/sf/SFS-DCD901-Instruction-Manual.pdf

http://ssfpics.com/sf/Drinking-Chocolate-Dispenser-Manual.pdf

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Permalink Reply by Andy Ciordia on October 29, 2010 at 12:16pm

We ordered one today. I'll do a review of it once we receive and put it through it's paces. Thanks for hoisting up the documentation.

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Permalink Reply by Tom on November 1, 2010 at 11:06pm

Cool, it would be good to get the lowdown.

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Permalink Reply by Tracy Hueth on January 17, 2011 at 1:47pm

did you get this up and running? 

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Permalink Reply by Andy Ciordia on January 18, 2011 at 2:40pm

Yes, thanks for the reminder to circle back here.

 

The dispenser works as advertised and actually warms up to a heat we are looking for from cold-start in ≤ 30minutes.  You can get your liquid to scalding if you like as well so it's got quite a range on it.

 

The only caveats we've seen is as liquid heats it creates condensation, condensation collects and then is redeposited into the liquid basin which does not really rejoin your chocolate concoction.  Due to thermal dynamics and whatnot the surface will be cooler so a thin layer of chocolate sludge may begin to form--I'm sure this is aided or perhaps even created by the condensation.  Again these are picks not show stoppers as we wouldn't serve anything that got that low anyhow.

 

Our method of creation is not to add pure chocolate, cream, etc, to be combined with the machines aid. We combine in our kitchen/stovetop then refrigerate.  We pour the chocolate-carafe-container into the dispensary when we are ready to go.  If 30m was too long you could pre-heat your drink and probably reduce this time to minutes.

 

Cleanup is pretty easy; the entire container breaks down.  I wonder how long certain seals will hold up with lots of regular use but so far the way it's built everything secures the next piece of the puzzle.  We'll see.

 

That's my general overview, if you have specific questions I can field I'd be happy to.

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Permalink Reply by Tracy Hueth on January 18, 2011 at 2:47pm

Thanks Andy.  How much are your serving sizes and what are you putting them in?  I am looking to have this as an additional serive along with our mini-donuts.  We get hired to do events like weddings, parties, etc.

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