Short answer: tempered chocolate has been melted, cooled and rewarmed so its cocoa butter sets in one stable crystal form (Form V). It is glossy, snaps cleanly, contracts so it releases from the mould, and resists bloom. Untempered chocolate, melted and left to set on its own, sets slowly, looks dull or streaky, feels soft and often blooms within two days. Temper whenever chocolate has to set and look finished on its own: bonbons, bars, dipped fruit, decorations.
| Your need | What we recommend | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Temper by hand with control | Martellato digital thermometer for chocolate 50T001 | $29.95 |
| Melt, seed and hold the working temperature | Meltinchoc Digital melter, 3.6 L | $1,150.00 |
| A machine that runs the whole curve | Pavoni MiniTemper 110 V, 3.5 kg | $3,350.00 |
| Couverture with a published tempering curve | Bassan Sur del Lago 71% dark couverture, 5 kg | $273.00 |
Tempered vs untempered chocolate at a glance
The difference is the crystal form the cocoa butter sets in, and you can see, hear and feel it.
| Tempered | Untempered | |
|---|---|---|
| Cocoa butter crystals | Mostly Form V (βV), small and numerous | Unstable forms, or Form VI later |
| Surface | High gloss | Dull, matt or streaky; white spots or rings when it blooms |
| Break | Clean, firm snap | Soft |
| Setting | Sets quickly; a dark temper test sets in about 7 minutes | Sets slowly; crystallisation time increases drastically |
| In the mould | Contracts and releases | Less contraction, harder to release |
| Bloom | Good resistance | Often within two days |
| Mouthfeel | Melts at body temperature | Soft; can be grainy |
Sources for each row: Lonchampt and Hartel (2004), KREA Swiss, Greweling (Pastry Arts, 2024) and BCcampus; see the Sources line below.
What is untempered chocolate?
Untempered chocolate is real chocolate whose cocoa butter crystallised without control: melted and left to set, or warmed past its working range.
Melting chocolate fully dissolves every crystal, stable and unstable, which is why tempering starts with a full melt (KREA Swiss): once melted, chocolate stays untempered until you temper it again. Chocolate that is already tempered and only warmed loses its temper too if it goes much above about 34°C (93°F): the stable crystals are destroyed and the surface comes out rough or matt (KREA Swiss). Compound coatings are a different product: made with another fat in place of cocoa butter, they do not need tempering (BCcampus; Lonchampt and Hartel).
The science: six crystal forms, one target
Cocoa butter can crystallise in six forms; only Form V gives gloss, snap and shelf life, and it melts at body temperature.
| Form | Melting point | Behaviour |
|---|---|---|
| I | 17.3°C (63°F) | Very unstable; transforms quickly |
| II | 23.3°C (74°F) | Very unstable; transforms quickly |
| III | 25.5°C (78°F) | Very unstable; transforms quickly |
| IV | 27.3°C (81°F) | Unstable; transforms toward the stable forms |
| V (βV) | 33.8°C (93°F) | The target of tempering: stable, glossy, snaps |
| VI (βVI) | 36.3°C (97°F) | Forms over time; linked to bloom |
Melting points by Wille and Lutton, as compiled by Lonchampt and Hartel (2004); other authors report slightly different values. Form VI is the one to watch: it is often invisible when you finish, and weeks later the chocolate turns grey, loses its shine and tastes flatter (KREA Swiss). Go deeper in our article on chocolate crystallization.
How chocolate is tempered
Every method does the same four things: melt completely, cool while adding stable seed crystals, rewarm to working temperature, and hold it there.
Peter Greweling of the Culinary Institute of America describes tempering as pre-crystallising a small quantity, about 1%, of the melted cocoa butter so the rest sets quickly and evenly. In practice, follow your chocolate's curve:
| Chocolate or equipment | Melt | Cool / crystallise | Work at |
|---|---|---|---|
| FCH 55% dark, Venezuela | 45–50°C (113–122°F) | 28–29°C (82–84°F) | 31–32°C (88–90°F) |
| Bassan Sur del Lago 71% dark | 50°C (122°F) max | — | 30–32°C (86–90°F) |
| Martellato Digital Meltinchoc (seeding) | 45°C (113°F) | Seed when the display signals | 31°C (88°F) dark, 29°C (84°F) milk, 28°C (82°F) white |
The simplest home method is seeding: America's Test Kitchen melts three-quarters of the chocolate very gently, then stirs in the remaining quarter, finely grated, so its stable crystals trigger new ones as the chocolate cools. Step by step in how to temper chocolate.
How to tell if chocolate is tempered
Do a temper test before you mould or dip: a smear of chocolate should set quickly and free of streaks.
- Dip the tip of a palette knife and leave it at room temperature. Greweling's benchmark: dark chocolate sets within about seven minutes, free of streaks or grainy texture; milk and white take a little longer.
- Streaks or a grainy texture mean the chocolate is under-seeded: add more seed or keep working it, do not warm it.
- Once the test passes, check the flow: chocolate that falls from the paddle decidedly thicker than when it was untempered is over-seeded (Greweling). Over-tempered chocolate does not contract enough in the mould, and its surface turns dull grey quickly (Lonchampt and Hartel).
Problems and fixes in detail: tempering chocolate troubleshooting.
When you need tempered chocolate, and when you don't
Temper when the chocolate sets on its own and is seen; a ganache filling starts from melted chocolate mixed with cream.
| Application | Tempered? | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Moulded bonbons, shells, bars and hollow figures | Yes | Contraction releases the piece from the mould |
| Dipping and enrobing (fruit, truffles, biscuits) | Yes | The coating sets on its own and must shine and snap |
| Closing (sealing) moulded bonbons | Yes | Chocolate World's chef recipes seal shells with tempered chocolate |
| Ganache fillings | No, melted | In the same recipes, chocolate is melted and mixed with cream at about 40°C (104°F) |
| Compound coating | No | Made with other fats; not suited to moulding |
BCcampus notes that compound coatings do not set firmly enough to come out of a mould, while properly tempered cocoa butter chocolate shrinks slightly, which aids release. For moulding technique, read how to mold chocolate.
Can you fix untempered chocolate?
Yes: melt it down completely and temper it again.
Once the temper is lost, by overheating or by over-crystallising in the bowl, KREA Swiss's advice is to start the whole process again. A full melt dissolves every crystal, including the wrong ones (KREA Swiss), so pieces that set badly can go back into the melter.
Keep tempered chocolate tempered
Even well-tempered chocolate can bloom if it is stored warm or through temperature swings.
Lonchampt and Hartel report that storage below 18°C (64°F) inhibited bloom for over a year, and that both temperature and its fluctuations drive bloom. Bassan specifies 16–20°C (61–68°F) below 50% relative humidity for its 71% couverture; BCcampus gives 18–20°C (64–68°F) at 60% relative humidity as ideal for chocolate in general. Prevention in detail: how to avoid chocolate bloom.
By hand or by machine?
Hand tempering works for small batches; past roughly 500 g, a machine is what keeps the crystals under control.
KREA Swiss explains that passive cooling by hand cannot pull a batch of more than about 500 g down to the roughly 26°C (79°F) the process needs, which is why hand tempering does not scale. Each machine we carry has its own place:
| Equipment | What it does | For whom |
|---|---|---|
| Martellato Digital Meltinchoc | Melts at 45°C, signals seeding, holds 31/29/28°C; you seed by hand | Small labs that seed and want a steady working bath |
| Pavoni MiniTemper | Runs melt, crystallise and harden stages; 3.5 kg; 5 programmable presets; interchangeable basin | Shops tempering every day in small batches, switching chocolates |
| Bilait Adam K6 ($10,990.00) | 6 kg; tempers 20 kg in 4.5 hours, up to 45 kg a day; heated vibrating table; stop & go pedal; 230 V single-phase | Small workshops, pastry shops and restaurants starting chocolate production |
View chocolate tempering machines →
How AI can help your production
Give an AI assistant the tempering curve of each couverture you use and ask it to produce a laminated bench card: melt, crystallise and working temperatures in °C and °F, and the temper-test result to look for. Ask it to design a batch log (chocolate, time, temperatures, test result, who) and to summarise each month which batches failed and at which step. Patterns in the log show whether your problem is temperature, seeding or the room.
AI organises the information; tasting and the final decision stay with your chef.
Tempering equipment and couverture at Zucchero Canada
We are an authorized distributor of Martellato and Pavoni Italia and the exclusive distributor of Bilait in Canada. Our Bassan Sur del Lago 71% couverture is made in Canada from Venezuelan cacao with ancestral Criollo lineage, and ships with a bilingual technical sheet; the 20 kg case is $880.00. The FCH 55% Venezuelan dark minibars ($299.00 per 10 kg box) list their full tempering curve. For producers who want to go back to the bean, our Sur del Lago cocoa beans from Venezuela start at $80.00 for 1.5 kg.
For a complete reference on tempering, coating and glazing, Chocolate by Ramon Morató ($160.00) runs to 416 pages and 200 recipes.
Not sure which machine fits your volume? Contact us or call 587-774-8873 (toll free 877-741-8251); we also handle volume orders for chocolate shops, bakeries and hotels.
Tempering machines | Dark couverture | How to temper chocolate | Chocolate melting tips | Why use a 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: P. Lonchampt and R. W. Hartel, "Fat bloom in chocolate and compound coatings", Eur. J. Lipid Sci. Technol. 106 (2004) 241–274 (Table 3 after Wille and Lutton); KREA Swiss Knowledge, "Tempering, what it really is and where it goes wrong"; P. Greweling, "Tempering Chocolate", Pastry Arts Magazine (2024); BC Cook Articulation Committee, Understanding Ingredients for the Canadian Baker (BCcampus), chapter 7; K. DeMichele, "How to Work with Chocolate", America's Test Kitchen (2018); Chocolate World Moulds catalogue, Edition 15, chef recipes; Martellato Digital Meltinchoc manual; Bilait catalogue 2026; Pavoni Italia, FCH and Bassan product data.
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