Chocolate Making

Pakalolo Chocolatier

The 100% online Pakalolo Chocolatier Program teaches you to create high quality, fine chocolate products in which you can include cannabis ingredients. Building on our years of successfully educating students in our Professional Chocolatier Program, you will learn the knowledge and techniques for working with chocolate to create professional products, while addressing issues specific to working with cannabis, including responsible and accurate dosing, and recipe development to deliver a beautiful and flavorful edible.

Program Date & Fee

Chocolate Class

Next program: April 19 - June 14, 2024

$550.00 US funds

Note: The registration fee does not include ingredients or equipment. These extra supplies could cost approximately $200 US depending on what small equipment you already own. We are a culinary school only. We do not sell, promote or provide any ingredients or equipment needed for chocolate work. We want students to source their own ingredients and equipment as they will need to do that anyway when they start producing their products after the program.

Global Legal Marijuana Market revenue expected to surpass USD 59 billion by 2025; according to a new research report by Global Market Insights, Inc. Increasing demand for applications of cannabis in the treatment of chronic pain will significantly drive industry growth across the forecast timeframe. Edibles will become a big segment of this business with chocolate being a favorite flavor.

According to Marijuana Business Daily, "The COVID-19 outbreak that began about a year ago has proved devastating for many mainstream industries – including airlines and restaurants, for starters – but for those in the cannabis business, 2020 turned out to be a record-setter. Sales of medical and recreational marijuana products smashed former records set in mature markets such as Colorado and Oregon. In emerging markets, including Illinois and Ohio, sales set new, high bars for performance. Looking ahead, industry insiders don’t expect 2021 to be much different. If anything, analysts said, sales will continue to climb. It’s only a question of how big the numbers will get.

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Important Note: Producing and/or selling cannabis products may not be legal in your jurisdiction. Please ensure that you have fully researched the laws in your jurisdiction.

When is the Pakalolo Chocolatier Program offered during the year?

We offer sessions of the program in the winter, spring and fall each year.

Is there a restriction on the number of students you take each session?

Even though the curriculum is online, we do cut off registrations when we reach the maximum number of students our instructor and online tutor feel they have adequate time to be able to work with properly.

Curriculum at-a-glance

Chocolate Edibles

Understanding chocolate

  • Research cocoa butter and chocolate crystallization which is imperative to achieving perfect chocolate temper.
  • Learn and practice tempering techniques – the building blocks of chocolate work.
  • Explore chocolate makers and manufacturers around the world.
  • Research chocolate making equipment and mold suppliers.

Physiology of taste

  • Understand the origin and chemistry of chocolate to create successful chocolate recipes.
  • Explore chocolates that meet special needs, such as organic, fair trade, sustainable and functional (i.e., low or no sugar, ingredient-enhanced, raw, no GMO, gluten-free, vegan, etc.).
  • Participate in a formal chocolate tasting to train your palate to discern the flavors of a chocolate in order to pair it successfully with your cannabis ingredients.

Recipe Development

  • Use master chocolate recipes tailored for the additon of cannabis ingredients as a springboard for creating your own edible recipes.
  • Understand the importance of the protocols and testing for careful, consistent and appropriate THC and/or CBD dosing.
  • Practice chocolate making (including modern, state-of-the-art enrobing, molding and decorating) to produce a consistent chocolate edible each and every time.
  • Discover the creative side of chocolate making by developing edibles that have great taste and visual appeal.

Production Planning

  • Create a production plan for each of your chocolate edibles.
  • Understand how to set up your chocolate making operation to maximize production, efficiency and profitability.
  • Research the diversity of tempering machines and tempering machine suppliers.
  • Develop your chocolate packaging and research packaging suppliers.

 

More About the Program

Chocolate and cannabis Recipe Making

We know that many of you have a business that you are already running or in the process of developing a business where chocolate will not be the focus of your products and sales. But having a line of chocolate edibles can be a draw, especially for those customers who prefer to ingest rather than smoke your products. We know that your time is precious so our Pakalolo Chocolatier Program is focused and intensive. Our goal is to educate you on all the modern chocolate recipe and production techniques and give you a good understanding of chocolate chemistry and flavor so that you can develop your own edibles quickly and efficiently.

Chocolate recipes

Chocolate recipe development with the addition of cannabis ingredients is an important part of program. Our online tutor for this program is a chocolate recipe development specialist who has worked with cannabis companies to develop beautiful and tasty edibles. She knows that working with cannabis ingredients is not easy. The edibles need to balance a medical or recreational need with great chocolate flavor and texture. Our online tutor works with you during the program - you are not out there online all by yourself.

Protecting your plans

All students are anonymous to each other in this program to protect your privacy and intellectual property. We do strongly encourage questions for the tutor and discussions in our forum, but again, anonymously.

How much time each week will I need to set aside to study in the program?

We have organized the readings, technique exercises and assignments for the average student to complete in approximately 8 hours each week. We wanted you to be able to study over one weekend session or by putting in about an hour each day. This program provides anywhere from 60 - 80+ hours of instruction, study, research and practice, depending on how dedicated you want to be.

I have ethical/dietary restrictions. Will I still be able to make beautiful chocolates?

We have seen an increase in the number of students interested in working with chocolate and making chocolate products that meet special needs for both ethical or dietary reasons. Our students and graduates work in organic, fair trade, sustainable and functional (i.e., low/no sugar, ingredient-enhanced, raw, no GMO, gluten-free, vegan, etc.). In our programs, working with a specialized chocolate need or want is not a problem.

Keeping Limits and Food Safety

While we do touch on these topics in the curriculum, once you have finished the recipe development for all your edible products and are getting close to setting up your chocolate laboratory and selling chocolate edibles commercially, then you should take our Quality Assurance and Keeping Limits Program for Chocolatiers. That way you go into the program understanding exactly what recipes you want to produce, the production practices/equipment needed for each product and the ingredients you will be handling/storing for your products. The QA curriculum and assignments will be much more relevant once you have done that homework beforehand.

 

More About Us

Chocolate Ganache with cannabis

Ecole Chocolat is an independent culinary school focused solely on chocolate and chocolate work. Founded in 2003 we have been successfully delivering our 100% online core programs: Professional Chocolatier Program, Chocolate Making from the Bean Program, Quality Assurance and Keeping Limits for Chocolatiers, Business Planning for both Chocolatiers and Chocolate Makers to students from all over the globe.

Our programs are developed by our instructors with the help of industry experts. Unlike a print textbook, the program curricula are constantly updated to reflect the latest news, techniques and advances in the industry. Our instructional team are working professionals – not stuck in a laboratory – and they help to ensure the content of our programs never becomes dated or stale.

How much can I learn about chocolate making online?

Many years of experience in online education has taught us that you can learn a lot! Adult learners taking online programs find that the ability to schedule their studies into a busy lifestyle – instead of trying to fit their life around a classroom session – provides them with more opportunity to actually "study" and learn. Our online chocolate-making curriculum is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and at no specific time do you have to be sitting in front of your computer.

A one- or two-hour session is perfect to enhance retention of the material and techniques. We understand that if you enroll in a program, you have committed your hard-earned time and money to this chocolate making program. So we want to give you the opportunity to get the most out of the curriculum and succeed in your career goals.

Our Learning Centre is robust and delivers the lectures, technique instructions, tutorial videos and case studies in an easy-to-use format. In addition, it also features activities such as forums, chats, glossaries, polls and questionnaires, all of which enhance your learning experience and encourage communication among all participants, anonymously, of course.

How do we teach chocolate making online?

Click here for a more information about our learning experience. »

Certificate

Students completing the program with a score of 70% or more will receive a digital Certificate of Achievement.

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Graduate Reviews

Student Reviews

What our graduates have to say

“Yes! It was ALOT to take on in such a short time. Not having a lot experience with chocolate, I could have used more time to practice--which I will continue to do post the course. I am a baker, and chocolate is soooo much harder! Loved learning about working with chocolate from tempering to bonbon production.”
Janice,'23 Graduate

More comments from our Ecole Chocolat graduates

Cancellation policy

You can cancel from the Pakalolo Chocolatier Program up to three days before the start of the program. A refund of your registration fee, minus a 10% administration fee, may take approximately 10 working days to process. Because our programs are usually full, and in order to make sure all students are committed, on the start date of your program your registration fee becomes non-refundable and non-transferable to another session (except in extraordinary circumstances).