How we pack a box

We temper dark, milk, and white chocolate in the back room, then fill shells with ganache, caramel, coffee cream, and citrus. Boxes come in 9, 16, and 25 pieces. Labels list cocoa percentage and common allergens. Gift wrap is available at the till. We can hold a named box for same-week collection if you write before Thursday. Amberwhisk is a shop counter: we do not swap a filling without asking, and we do not ship chocolate in midsummer heat without a cooler pack.

Boxed chocolates packed in the Observatory sweet room

Amberwhisk added a dedicated chocolate bench when the Lower Rochester Road kitchen opened in March 2013. Shells are tempered, filled, and left to set before we pack them. Cocoa percentage sits on the lid. Nuts, dairy, and citrus sit on the allergen card. We read the week’s butter and cocoa allocation before we promise a 25-piece tin. This page is a shop note from a Cape Town sweets counter. We do not claim a prize, we do not run a mail-order warehouse, and we do not substitute coffee cream for caramel unless you ask.

• Boxes are packed in 9, 16, or 25 pieces from chocolate we tempered that week.
• Named holds stay until Friday if you write before Thursday.
• Summer orders leave with a cooler pack so ganache survives a Cape Town taxi.

A nine-piece pack is a small gift. A sixteen-piece pack is the size most desks ask for. A twenty-five-piece tin needs a weekday collection or a delivery window, not a Saturday queue. Gift wrap is a small extra at the till. If the citrus shells are gone, the card says so. Independent kitchen, live stock, no flavour promises we cannot finish.

Pastry trays and celebration cakes sit on different calendars. Croissants leave the ovens before eight. Two-layer cakes need three working days. We keep those systems apart so a guest does not treat a chocolate box as a substitute for a birthday sponge. Later seasonal tins add biscuits beside the shells; those tins are also separate from the everyday 9-16-25 packs. If a recipe changes, we rewrite this note. Until then, treat Amberwhisk as a labelled counter, not as a catalogue that never sells out.