Micelli Chocolate Molds

Artisan Chocolate Has Finally Met It's Match

You’ve crafted your recipe, created your brand, designed your wrapper and now you need a bar that matches the craft and precision that you’ve put into every other aspect of your business. Here’s why Micelli has made a huge impact on the success of hundreds of chocolate manufacturers just like you.

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We work with everyone from startup artisanal chocolate companies who need our experience helping them through every step of the process, to large industrial manufacturers of major name brands who require the consistency and precision the highest quality polycarbonate injection molding process delivers. Our molds have been used in virtually every chocolate plant across North America. And now they can be used in yours, whether you’re just starting or upgrading.

Unparalleled Expertise

Micelli has expertise working with the most discerning chocolate manufacturers, both large multinational brands and the top award winning specialty Artisans.  Micelli has been relied upon as a valued partner in the development of polycarbonate injection molds for 7 decades.

With tens of thousands of artisanal molds and millions of industrial molds under our belt, we’ve seen and met every challenge you can possibly throw at us. The only thing unique will be your beautiful new design completed in a mold made to last. Like you, we’re passionate about chocolate making – let our experience guide you in making the next great chocolate brand.

Injection molded polycarbonate chocolate molds

Micelli specializes in the design and production of INJECTION MOLDED polycarbonate chocolate molds. If you’re manufacturing high quality chocolate with a precise design and you want molds that can last beyond the life cycle of your product, polycarbonate injection molds are the industry standard.

The combination of rigid flat surfaces, ultrafine engravings, high quality surface finish, and extreme durability make injection molds the perfect fit for your mold requirements. We are the only manufacturer in the USA who uses the injection molding process to create the highest quality most sought after Artisan molds.

Clean Crisp Features

From your first batch to the last, your details and finish can remain precise and exact ­ visually exemplifying the quality product to your consumer. With our polycarbonate injection molds achieving the highest quality and durability possible for artisanal chocolate manufacturers, you can be confident that your chocolate will have the same clean edges and detail years and years from now. Choosing our highest quality injection molding process means a flat rigid mold, fine details, perfectly straight lines, curves that intersect at tight tangents, your molds by Micelli will deliver flawless execution day after day after month after year.

Quality Molds, Built to Last

Built to last a lifetime – unlike starter molds, our custom polycarbonate injection molds can last for decades of Artisanal use and are durable enough to withstand **dishwashers, and constant heating and cooling. We hope the only reason you come back to Micelli is because you’re increasing your production size or rolling out a new size or design.

The one time cost of the highest quality polycarbonate injection molds is worth the years of confidence and avoiding the pitfalls of inferior molds which include warping and distortion, cracking, lack of detail and finish. Know that you need to make your molds once and never worry about them again, like our thousands of prior satisfied customers.

Superior Finish

The quality of the mold has a huge impact on the smoothness of the chocolate’s surface. The injection molding process involves injecting liquid polycarbonate under extreme pressure into a steel die forming the highest quality surface. Polycarbonate injection molds are also able to far better handle heating and cooling cycles without damage, also making them **dishwasher-safe. By choosing cheaper, inferior molds, manufactured by thermoforming/ vacuum forming or use of PET plastics will result in eventual warpage or damage the finish.

**Keep surface temperature below 150F and use proper detergents

Making artisan chocolates is more than just handcrafting tastier chocolates. Artisanal chocolate-making is a movement. It’s a cause.

That’s why before learning how artisan chocolates are made, it’s essential to understand the other aspects that together define this growing movement. Hopefully, you’ll appreciate the passion that drives the small-batch chocolate maker.

What is artisan chocolate?

Artisan chocolate is handmade chocolate, produced in small batches from single-origin cocoa beans, with the chocolate maker usually having control over the sourcing and processing of the cocoa beans.

That sounds like a mouthful. Let me break it down for you with an illustration.

A chocolate maker buys cocoa liquor or couverture from somewhere and uses it to hand make his bars in small batches. Does that make him an artisanal chocolate maker? Not at all.

For chocolate to qualify as artisan, it needs to pass some ‘tests’.

Single-origin: The cocoa beans used are a single variety from a single farm or region. That makes the beans traceable.

Bean to bar: Chocolate made from beans ground into cocoa liquor by the same chocolate maker as opposed to chocolate from purchased cocoa liquor or cocoa cake from a different maker.

Handmade in small batches: Not mass-produced in factories like industrial chocolates.

Sustainable: Its cocoa beans are farmed in a way that protects children from slave labor, and shields farmers and the environment from the plunders of Big Cocoa.

Quality ingredients: Artisan chocolate is premium chocolate as opposed to cheap commercial chocolates with artificial flavors.

Organic, gluten-free, and vegan: Except for milk chocolate, should also be dairy-free. These labels matter as consumer trends veer towards healthier food choices.

High cocoa–content: Except for milk chocolate, artisan chocolate is dark chocolate with a high cocoa content, sometimes as high as 70%-99%.

At Bantu Chocolate, we’re proud makers of flavorful artisan chocolate bars. Actually, we’re tree to bar chocolate makers.

From the growing of cacao trees to the tangy bar on your tongue, we control the entire process to ensure that you can enjoy your treat with a clean conscience. We ensure an equitable, sustainable cocoa supply chain. Which brings me to the next point.

Why are handmade chocolates better?

Handmade artisan chocolates are better than mass-produced industrial chocolates in several ways. These include a variety of unique flavours, health benefits, and social responsibility benefits. They make up the reasons you should prefer craft chocolate.

Let’s look at each.

Variety of Flavors

The flavour of a chocolate product depends on how the cocoa beans are processed from the farm throughout the production process. Because artisan chocolate is made mostly from single-origin beans, they tend to have rich flavors.

Health benefits of artisan chocolates

Dark artisan chocolates (excluding milk chocolates) have high cocoa content. That means they’re rich in antioxidants, especially flavonoids, which have various functions in your body.

-help your brain to perform better (helping to prevent Alzheimer’s and Dementia) and elevates mood. You feel fogged and low? Munch a bar of dark artisan chocolate.

You will get efficient and thoughtful service from Huafeng Mold.

-help prevent the development of various cardiovascular diseases like stroke, diabetes, and cancer.

-The rich cocoa content also means less sugar and other additives. Low calorie count.

Social responsibility benefits of artisan chocolates

When you buy cheap mass-produced chocolate, chances are that somewhere in West Africa, a child, who should’ve been in school, labored on the cocoa farm with hazardous equipment to make that bar cheap. Chances are that cocoa farmers cut down forests to increase yields, yet still received less than $1 a day, while the middleman and especially the chocolate industrialist banks a hefty profit margin.

By patronizing artisan chocolate makers, you help break this vicious cycle of poor cocoa farmers destroying precious forest and wildlife habitat. You help make chocolate production sustainable for everyone, the farmer and the chocolate maker.

At Bantu Chocolate, we practice agroforestry. Our cacao trees grow alongside plantains and forest trees. Great for the soil, water, air, and wildlife.

Now, let’s talk about another important issue. The price of artisan chocolate bars.

Why are Artisan Chocolate Bars so Expensive?

Is it to make artisanal chocolate makers rich? You’d be surprised by this quote from Shawn Akinosie, CEO of Akinosie Chocolate, an artisan chocolate brand.

“Most craft chocolate makers are not rich unless they were rich before they started, in which case they are now less rich. Believe me when I tell you that American small batch chocolate makers who are charging $8, $10, even $12 or more for a chocolate bar are not making a lot of profit.”

We’re driven by a passion for a sustainable, equitable cocoa supply chain. When you buy an artisan chocolate bar, you’re not just buying a tasty treat. You’re promoting a cause. Thank you.

Now, let’s come to it. The making of artisan chocolate bars.

How Artisan Chocolates are Made from Bean to Bar

All bean-to-bar chocolate making follows some basic steps, although each brand has its secret recipe! This is a good thing, though, as it gives chocolate lovers a wide variety of flavors and aromas to sample.

Buy quality beans: For the artisanal chocolate maker, this is already sorted out in the growing, harvesting, fermenting, and drying of their own cacao. You can bet that single-origin beans are better than untraceable beans or chocolate made from combining different varietals of cocoa beans.

For a detailed process from harvesting to drying, see this other article (internal link)

Roast your cocoa beans: Roasting plays three functions. Reduce the water content, kill germs from fermentation and drying stages, and further enhance your cocoa bean flavour.

Each chocolate maker has their roasting method in terms of equipment, temperature, and duration. Roasting can take anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours at different temperatures.

Shell the roasted cocoa beans: Shelling removes husks to obtain cocoa nibs.

Ground cocoa nibs: Equipment can vary from heavy steel rollers in large factories to grinding stones at home, but the result is the same: cocoa liquor.

Mix cocoa liquor, cocoa butter, and other ingredients: Chocolate bars and brands have different cocoa content depending on what’s added to cocoa liquor. The most common additives are cocoa butter, sugar, and emulsifier for consistency of texture. Other additives can include milk, vanilla, herbs, chili pepper, and whatever the chocolate maker chooses to experiment with or create.

Cool your mixture and proceed to the next step.

Temper your chocolate: Your final bar needs to have a glossy look, snap when broken or bitten, and melt on your tongue, not on your fingers. That’s the purpose of tempering. But what is chocolate tempering?

Chocolate tempering is the heating and cooling of chocolate to stabilize the cocoa butter so that its crystals don’t stay separate and cause your chocolate to bloom. The technique you use depends on the type of chocolate bar you’re aiming for. Dark chocolate will require higher temperatures than milk or white chocolate.

For details on tempering, see this guide.

Moulding: Pour your tempered melted chocolate into your desired forms or molds and shake it to remove air bubbles. Then leave to cool at room temperature until your chocolate sets.

And that’s it for your homemade artisan chocolate bars.

Sample our Artisan Chocolate Bars

If you’ve read this far, you’re positively a chocoholic (or ready to become one