It’s not only conformity but many better reasons that demand you temper chocolates. Without tempering, whitish-gray blotches will dot the surface of your chocolates and there won’t be any silkiness or polish in them. You’ll find the chocolate gritty in your tongue.

No chocolate maker will skip this step because chocolates don’t originally occur with that customary shine or smoothness. Of course, conching is done and the particles are made smooth to a certain extent but it’s tempering that averts the formation of large crystals. If crystals are formed, then you can’t enjoy the chocolates satisfactorily.

For real chocolates, there has to be cocoa butter, the main ingredient, acquired from chocolate liquor, which is obtained by grinding roasted cocoa beans. (Cocoa beans contain more than 53% of cocoa butter, which gives its luxurious and creamy texture.) If the chocolate isn’t tempered, white spots are formed due to the cocoa butter breaking down and when these crystals appear on the surface of the chocolates, you call it blooming.

Several fatty acids that are in cocoa butter have their own melting and forming temperatures. When the chocolate melts, these fat crystals in cocoa butter separate. But with tempering, stabilize these fat crystals and bond them tightly together so that blooming, the dull appearance and crumbly texture of the chocolates are avoided. These fatty acids and the precision needed for keeping temperatures constant make the tempering process difficult.

There are 3 methods for doing tempering of chocolates:

The hard way is the chocolate artisan’s way, otherwise known as tabliering, and is done by melting the chocolate at to 90F. One third of it is worked upon a marble slab after which the remaining chocolate is also incorporated into the mixture slowly until the whole thing has completely melted to the specific temperature particular to the chocolate you’re working with.

“Seeding” is a less complicated method as you use a chunk of already-tempered chocolate base material. As in tabliering, you melt two-thirds of chocolate and the latter third is cut into small strips and worked in later. These small strips serve as “seeds” to bond the free-range crystals of the larger chunk of chocolates previously melted. Maintaining specific temperatures for making the chocolate candies is absolutely necessary.

The hassles in the above two methods are avoided if you use a tempering machine. Within the tempering machine, is a nifty little computer chip that minds temperatures while you’re dipping and molding your candies. This way, you’re free to focus on the creative side of chocolate candy making.