Latest / The Monégasque Table / Edible Glitter on Chocolate Covered Pretzels: What a Batch Costs
Transcript
- Dana: A café owner I know wants to sell little bags of glittered chocolate pretzels at the register for the holidays. Her first question wasn't how. It was: what does the glitter add to the cost of a bag? Margaux: Welcome to The Monégasque Table. This is Ask the Table, and today's question is that one: what does edible glitter on chocolate covered pretzels actually cost, per batch and per bag? Dana: And she's a business. She'll do the math whether we do it or not. Margaux: Here's the answer up front. The glitter is the cheapest line on the recipe card, and the number that decides her profit is the 3 to 5 days. The recipe I read dips 108 mini pretzels in 10 ounces of dark and 10 ounces of vanilla melting wafers, adds 6 ounces of sprinkles while the chocolate is still warm, and lets them set at least 20 minutes. It counts a serving as 13 pretzels, so the batch makes 8 servings, which is 8 bags. Then it says store them sealed once the chocolate is solid, for 3 to 5 days. So the real cost of a glittered pretzel bag isn't the pinch. It's the bag that's still on the counter on day 6. Dana: So the money is in the batch size, not the jar. Margaux: The batch size is the whole game. Make what sells in 3 to 5 days. Dana: But she'll still want the glitter number. How does she get it? Margaux: The same way we did it for the cake-pop bakery. Weigh the jar before the first batch of 108 and weigh it after. The difference, times the price per gram, divided by 8 bags, is her glitter cost per bag. On the board, the 15 gram luster dust is $14.99, about $1.00 a gram. The 7 gram is $9.99, about $1.43 a gram. The 10 gram drink glitter is $14.99, about $1.50 a gram. For a café doing batch after batch in one color, the 15 gram is the cheapest per gram. And on Amazon's business pricing there's a quantity ladder: 5 percent off at 2 units, up to 20 percent off at 50. Dana: And timing. When does it go on? Margaux: Right after the fork, while the chocolate is still warm, at the same moment as the sprinkles. Freshly dipped, warm chocolate grabs glitter with no adhesive at all. Wait until it sets and you're brushing, which is slow, and slow is expensive in a café. Dana: My round. 6 ounces of sprinkles in one batch. 20 ounces of chocolate. And we're doing careful per-gram math on a pinch of glitter that's going to round to pennies a bag? The glitter is a rounding error. The sprinkles and the chocolate are the bill. Margaux: That's the round you win, and it's the right correction. On the recipe card, the chocolate and the sprinkles are the real ingredient costs. The glitter is the finishing pinch on top. Weigh it once so she knows, and then stop worrying about it. Her actual math is: chocolate plus sprinkles plus bags plus labor, divided by 8 bags, against how many bags she sells in 3 to 5 days. Dana: So the glitter's job isn't cost. It's why somebody picks up the bag. Margaux: It's the reason the bag is by the register and not in the back. That's the value. Dana: Who should skip it? Margaux: 2 skips. If she can't sell a batch inside 3 to 5 days, skip the glitter and shrink the batch first. Unsold pretzels cost more than any jar. And if the bags will sit in a sunny window, skip the window. Warm chocolate in a sealed bag in the sun is not the finish you glittered. Dana: Dana's Scorecard. I came in with a café owner asking about the cost of glitter. Where I landed. One: 108 pretzels, 8 bags of 13, one batch. Two: glitter goes on with the sprinkles while the chocolate is warm. Three: weigh the jar before and after the first batch, then divide by 8. Four, my round: the glitter is a rounding error, and the chocolate and sprinkles are the bill. Five: the 3 to 5 days is the number that makes or loses money. My caveat: I'd still put them by the register, glitter or not. Margaux: Kept, gladly. The footnote: the MONÉGASQUE Gold 15 gram luster dust is on Amazon at $14.99, about $1.00 a gram, and gold reads beautifully on dark chocolate. Dana: Next time, Christmas fudge for a bakery. And a question about what goes on the label. Margaux: Starting with the label on the glitter jar. One note before we go — this show is produced by the team at Monégasque, with AI-crafted hosts. See you at the table.