Make Your Own Chocolate Kit

We followed the directions exactly (YES to the optional vanilla extract from the pantry) and it was easy to make and - also important - REALLY good chocolate. It ended up tasting somewhere between dark and milk chocolates. More on the dark side, but not bitter (quite smooth, rich tasting).My son loved doing it even though it did require patience (mostly for the chocolate to cool down enough to add the final ingredients and finish the process - you can't rush that). He was really proud of the fact that he MADE chocolate (bonus - he'd just been studying early South American cultures in school, so this was a delicious extra learning project). He also liked tasting the cocoa beans in the kit, to see how you could taste the essence of chocolate, but would never want to eat it that way.The handout had some interesting facts about the history of chocolate, too.Now he's eager to get our own ingredients and try our hand at more chocolate making.

Easy, but did not taste good. The flavor was similar to the cheapest brands of chocolate that I refuse to buy. Maybe options in the directions of how to change the flavor by adjusting ingredients might have helped?

My daughters received this last Christmas and to be honest, I was less than thrilled at the prospect of making chocolate in my kitchen and expected a complete mess that ended in failure.I was wrong. Both my 7 and 11 year olds loved doing this. They have been to Mexico and have heard about and tasted a variety of traditional Mayan chocolates. It was rewarding to see how much they remembered and their interest in the history blurbs in the kit.The directions are very clear. Read them before starting and again as you take each step. If you do so and allow the truffle-like sweets to cool, you'll be rewarded with a rich tasting treat. No, there is not enough for a crowd, but that is not the point of this kit. As far as price, if one were to price the ingredients I believe those complaining would understand that you're getting a reasonable deal. The idea is to give the new candymaker an all in one experience that is done quickly and rewards the learning experience with a tasty treat. I'd say it does that perfectly.

A neat kit for a child (9-11) that likes to be creative and make things. It is a very small kit and you only can make one batch of chocolates but the recipe can be repeated if you can find the unique ingredients. They actually tasted really good. My daughter put peanut butter, marshmallows, and walnuts in them to make a variety.

The kit is pretty self-explanatory. You combine ingredients to make chocolate. Your are provided with small, paper holders to hold your creation. The process is somewhat tedious, with about 10+ minutes of stirring as you temper the chocolate. My daughter got tired of stirring fairly quickly, so I was tasked with most of that job. The "crystals" that you add at the end of the tempering process ruined our batch. No matter how much stirring and smashing we did, we were never able to get the chocolate completely smooth again. Also, once you add the crystals, the chocolate begins to set up VERY quickly. We couldn't even pour it all before it began hardening in the bowl. It would have made more sense to pour a bar instead of attempting to fill the small cups.The end product is obviously edible, but certainly not as good store bought chocolate. Overall, I have a hard time recommending this product. Because you are dealing with heat and manual labor, there isn't much the child will be able or willing to do in the cooking process. While eating the chocolate at the end is nice, there isn't much to be gained by making it yourself.

We bought this kit for our 11YO son for Christmas, and made it with him. It included everything needed to produce a nice batch (about a dozen) of chocolate candies, including papers and a stick-on thermometer for tempering. The instructions were complete and easy to follow. We considered it a major plus for the price that the kit features Fair Trade ingredients, as both of our sons are aware of the child slave labor involved in most chocolate production. We loved the inclusion of the cocoa beans, and everybody sampled them, as well as the raw cocoa butter. For the price, it was a great kit. We did turn to the Internet for more detailed information on the extraction process. Now my son plans to buy larger quantities of the ingredients to make bigger batches of candies, as the kit really does provide decent understanding of the process.

The kit looked great - all of the parts were in there and the "thermometer" was a small piece of tape. My kids like chocolate and candy but this chocolate was way too sweet for them. Perhaps use less sugar than what is provided with the kit (to taste). Overall it was a fun activity but sadly, no one ate the chocolate :(

This was so much fun to do with the kids. Only about half the instructions actually got followed and it still came out in the end. Worth it for the experience but if you don’t like messes just buy a chocolate bar.

We give 3 stars - we were able to make very yummy chocolate; however,1) Insufficient shipping packaging squashed the box (the items inside were undamaged).2) It took one week longer in shipping than they had estimated (total of 3 weeks) to Canada3) We followed the instruction very carefully, but when we added the chocolate crystals, the temperature dropped so much that the crystals didn't melt and we had to re-heat the chocolate several times.