Essential Chocolate Making Equipment and Tools for Your Chocolate Business

Short answer: a chocolate business needs equipment for six jobs: measuring (thermometer and scale), melting, tempering, moulding, finishing (scrapers, spatulas, dipping forks) and decorating. Start with accurate measuring tools, a melter or a tempering machine sized to your daily volume and good polycarbonate moulds; add continuous tempering, enrobing and cooling only when hand work becomes the bottleneck. Below, each stage with the equipment we stock and what it does.

Quick answer: the equipment list by stage

Stage	What you need	Example	Price
Measure	Digital thermometer, precision scale	Martellato 50T001 thermometer; scale 1 g to 15 kg	$29.95 CAD; $95.99 CAD
Melt and hold	Dry-heat melter	Martellato Meltinchoc Digital 3.6 L	$1,150.00 CAD
Temper small batches (110 V)	Automatic bench temperer	Pavoni MiniTemper	$3,350.00 CAD
Temper all day	Continuous tabletop temperer	Bilait Adam K6 or Pomati T5	$10,990.00 CAD; $11,650.00 CAD
Mould	Polycarbonate moulds	Chocolate World half sphere Ø 50 mm	$44.95 CAD
Finish and dip	Scraper, dipping forks	Professional scraper 145 mm; dipping fork set	$36.95 CAD; $69.50 CAD
Decorate	Coloured cocoa butter, heated sprayer	Pavoni Chocolart cocoa butter; KREA Swiss chocSPRAYER	$79.99 CAD; $1,250.00 CAD

Starting the business itself (licences, costs, ingredients)? Read how to start a chocolate business in Canada. This article is the equipment checklist.

Measure: thermometer and scale come first

Every other piece of equipment depends on two numbers: the temperature of the chocolate and the weight of each ingredient. Chocolate is worked within a few degrees (each couverture's technical sheet gives its own curve), and ganache recipes only repeat if every gram is weighed.

• Martellato 50T001 digital thermometer → $29.95 CAD: Martellato's digital thermometer made for chocolate work.
• Martellato 50T003 with immersion probe → $53.95 CAD: immersion probe and built-in timer, reading from −32°F to +482°F (about −36 to 250°C).
• Martellato 50T002 infrared thermometer → $76.50 CAD.
• Martellato 50BI02 steel scale → $95.99 CAD: 1 g to 15 kg, tare function, stainless steel surface.

Melt and hold: a melter keeps chocolate ready

A melter melts chocolate gently and holds it at a set temperature, so it is ready whenever you need it for ganache, dipping or as the starting point for hand tempering. Choose by capacity and by how many chocolates you work at once:

Martellato Meltinchoc	Capacity	Control	Best for	Price
Mini Meltinchoc MC09	1.8 L	Manual thermostat up to 50°C (122°F)	Small batches, ice cream dipping	$390.00 CAD
Meltinchoc MC108	2 × 1.5 L tanks	Manual thermostat	Dark and milk at the same time	$865.00 CAD
Meltinchoc Digital MCD101	3.6 L	Digital PID, probe, 3 programs (dark, milk, white)	Guided tempering curve on the bench	$1,150.00 CAD

All three run on 110 V and are made in Italy. The MC108 and the MCD101 include a 145 mm scraper, and Martellato table-top melters come with a free spatula from us.

View chocolate melters →

Temper: match the machine to your daily volume

A melter holds chocolate; a tempering machine also takes it through the tempering curve and keeps it in temper, which is what gives shine, snap and clean release. Each machine we sell has a different job:

• Small batches on a standard outlet: the Pavoni MiniTemper runs on 110 V. Pavoni rates its bowl at 5 L / 3 kg; it has five programmable presets with three stages each (melt, crystallise, harden), set from 20 to 60°C in 0.5°C steps, and interchangeable bowls for quick changes between chocolate types. $3,350.00 CAD.
• Tempering all day, with moulding and dosing: the Bilait Adam K6, for which Zucchero Canada is the exclusive distributor in Canada. Bilait's 2026 catalogue gives a 6 kg capacity, 20 kg of chocolate tempered in 4.5 hours and up to 45 kg a day, a heated vibrating table, a stop & go pedal for dosing, and a reversible pump that allows complete cleaning in 10 minutes. $10,990.00 CAD.
• A compact auger machine for pastry shops and ice cream parlours: the Pomati T5 has a 5 kg tank, direct auger tempering, a removable auger for quick changes of chocolate and cleaning, and forced-air cooling. A vibrating table is available as an accessory. $11,650.00 CAD.
• Larger production: the Chocolate World CW12 is a continuous machine with a 12 kg tank and an Archimedes screw, rated up to 45 kg of tempered chocolate per hour, with a heated vibrating table and dosing pedal included. $20,299.00 CAD.

The K6, T5 and CW12 are not always held in stock in Calgary: ask us about availability and voltage before you plan the installation. For a side-by-side comparison, read the best tempering machines for home use and small businesses and chocolate making machines for a small business.

View chocolate tempering machines →

Mould: polycarbonate for shine

Chocolate copies the polished surface of the mould cavity, which is where moulded chocolates get their gloss. Pick the material for the job:

• Polycarbonate, Chocolate World: made in Belgium, for bonbons, bars and figures. Each mould page lists cavity size, count and weight; for example the half sphere Ø 50 mm (CW2251) has 12 cavities of about 40 g ($44.95 CAD). Chocolate World gives a working range of 5 to 80°C (41–176°F).
• Tritan, Pavoni Italia: BPA-free moulds, such as the chocolate bar range designed with pastry chefs.
• Magnetic moulds: for printed designs. Chocolate World's instructions: place the pre-cut transfer sheet on the steel bottom plate, printed side up, close the mould (the magnets hold it), then fill it like any other mould.

A vibrating table removes air bubbles after filling; the Adam K6 and the CW12 include a heated one. To keep moulds shiny, follow how to clean polycarbonate chocolate moulds.

View bonbon and praline moulds →

Finish and dip: the hand tools

Hand tools decide how clean each piece looks: a scraper levels moulds and clears the excess chocolate, forks dip and lift centres, spatulas move and mix.

• Professional Chocolate Scraper 145 mm → $36.95 CAD: rigid stainless steel blade (145 × 80 mm), handle with no rivets or screws, made in Italy by Martellato.
• Martellato dipping fork set, 10 pieces → $69.50 CAD: for hand dipping. See how to use chocolate dipping tools.
• Martellato one-piece soft spatula → $12.95 CAD.

View chocolate tools →

Decorate: colour, spray and stamp

Decoration is what makes your range recognisable. Each tool covers a different effect:

• Coloured cocoa butter: Pavoni Italia's Chocolart colours (200 g, E171-free) are made for colouring moulds, chocolate surfaces and chocolate in mass. Apple green $79.99 CAD.
• Heated sprayer: the KREA Swiss chocSPRAYER (60 W, 120 V) has a heated nozzle and an insulated 700 ml container that keep pre-tempered chocolate workable for up to an hour, and sprays without a compressor. It does not temper: bring the chocolate to working temperature first. $1,250.00 CAD.
• Transfer sheets: Pavoni Italia's Christmas transfer sheets, for example, measure 340 × 265 mm, come in boxes of 30 and work with dark, milk or white chocolate.
• Stamps: Frank Haasnoot chocolate stamps by Martellato, such as "Love" (large) $86.50 CAD.

View coloured cocoa butter → View transfer sheets →

Scale up: enrobing, cooling and bean-to-bar

When hand dipping or hand moulding limits your output, the next investments automate one stage each:

• Enrobing: the Chocolate World M1200A is a 180 mm enrobing line for the CW12, with a double chocolate curtain, adjustable vibration and a blower to control coating thickness. Enrobing machines →
• Cooling: Chocolate World cooling tunnels work with its 300 mm enrobing stations. Cooling tunnels →
• Bean-to-bar: crackers and winnowers turn cocoa beans into nibs (the FBM Ninja Kid cracks 25–30 kg of beans an hour), and refiners grind them into chocolate (the Bilait R15 refines batches up to about 15 kg and heats to 70°C, so refining and conching happen in the same chamber). Bean-to-bar machines →

Buy in the right order

Buy for the volume you produce now, then for the bottleneck you actually have. A practical order:

1. Thermometer, scale, scraper, spatulas and a handful of moulds for your core products.
2. A melter, or a MiniTemper if you want the machine to temper for you.
3. More moulds and decoration once your range is set.
4. A continuous temperer when you temper every day and the hours spent tempering by hand become your largest labour cost.
5. Enrobing and cooling when dipping by hand limits how much you can sell.

To judge a machine, compare its price with the hours of labour it saves each week at your own hourly cost, and with the chocolate you stop wasting. Those numbers are yours; no supplier can give them to you.

How AI can help your production

List your products, weekly volumes and the minutes each step takes now, and ask an AI assistant to find the stage that limits your output and estimate the payback of a melter, a temperer or an enrober with your own labour cost. Ask it to turn your machine's manual into a one-page cleaning and start-up checklist for each shift, and to build a temperature log for the tempering machine. A written routine keeps every shift working the same way.

AI organises the information; tasting and the final decision stay with your chef.

Chocolate equipment at Zucchero Canada

We are the exclusive distributor of Bilait in Canada and an authorized distributor of Martellato, Pavoni Italia, Chocolate World, Pomati, FBM Boscolo and KREA Swiss. Tools, moulds and melters ship across Canada from our Calgary warehouse; machines that are not in stock are sold on order, so ask us before you plan. Bilait machines come with pre-purchase consultation and Calgary-based technical support. Customers who bought their machine from Zucchero get 15% off genuine spare parts with code PARTS15.

Moulds and tools count toward free shipping on orders of CAD 300 or more within Canada (remote areas and the territories pay the actual carrier rate; machines are excluded), and orders over CAD 500 get 5% off automatically at checkout. Equipping a new shop, bakery or hotel pastry kitchen? Contact our team or call 587-774-8873 (toll free 877-741-8251).

Chocolate equipment | Tempering machines | Chocolate moulds | How to start a chocolate business | Why an automatic tempering machine

This article is for information only. Every business is different: draw your own conclusions based on your own expectations, budget and goals, and talk to qualified experts before you decide or invest.

Sources: Bilait 2026 catalogue (Adam K6); Pavoni Italia machines catalogue (MiniTemper); Pomati, T5 tempering machine page; Chocolate World Moulds catalogue, Edition 15 (moulds usage, magnetic moulds) and Chocolate World equipment catalogue (M1215 vibrating table); KREA Swiss chocSPRAYER specifications; Martellato and Zucchero Canada product data.