I’m quite happy with my electric chocolate melting pot bought for less than £16. It’s a budget chocolate fondue soultion but I can also mould my own chocolate. Up to 4 hours rental of a Chocolate Fountains costs from £337.50. That’s a lot more. How much would it cost to buy a Chocolate Fountain?

“Porcelana: The Holy Grail of Pure Criollos” (Marieel E. Presilla)

That fountain looks gross to me . . . I mean, I first off would think this would cause the chocolate to dry out quickly, since the surface area is so huge, and second, just more surface area for the chocolate to attract undesirable stuff from the surrounding air (floating hairs, germs, etc.) . . . call me paranoid.

j a s o n   b u n t i n g

Jason, the fountains work very well and don’t dry out at all – they do need to be kept clean though.

Martin Christy
Editor
http://www.seventypercent.com

There’s an auger in the center of the fountain that pushes the chocolate up, and it’s shielded to protect against large object entry (or even pretty small objects, for that matter). If a pound cake was dropped in, it’d never make it to the auger in the first place – even if it did, it’d just be torn up into itty bitty pieces

Chocolate fountains are used for a variety of events, such as birthday parties, weddings, and even corporate meetings. If you can afford to rent one, then there really isn’t a designated purpose for it. Usually, certain foods that aren’t crumbly, such as certain fruits, marshmallows, and pretzels are used as dipping foods. Pound cake crumbs or fragile berries (blackberries, raspberries, etc.) can manage to sneak their way into the chocolate flow, so these machines require heavy maintenance in order to prevent clogging. Some machines use augers (a big screw-like device) that lift the chocolate inside the machine so that it can cascade down on the outside, while others might use a pump, the latter of which is more prone to clogging and in need of greater maintenance.

Yes, absolutely. That’s a thing which subconsciously turn people of chocolate. I’ve seen (experienced?) a huge bubling chocolate vat, presented as a modernist sculptural piece – you could smell that cloying aroma few rooms before coming to it. Fontains equally revolting and unclean. What for? Big communal fondue idea?

I’m certainly glad to hear that I’m not the only one who’s seriously put off by these things. I was at the fancy food show a while back and they were all the rage. Ick. They just look nasty to me…nothing like the real chocolate I know and love.