In 2024, a video of chocolate-covered strawberries skyrocketed in popularity, garnering over 50 million likes and 475 million views. As a result a fast-growing trend took the dessert industry by storm. Businesses quickly jumped to replicate this virality, turning a TikTok video into an Chocolate Tap opportunity for success.
Vendors like Turnips in London became a sensation for serving fresh strawberries covered in warm, flowing chocolate from a tap. This simple eye-catching dessert proved how powerful chocolate can be when served fresh, fast and in front customers.
CFW’s ICB ChocoHot tap dispenser is the perfect for businesses looking to bring delicious melted chocolate to their menu. It is ideal for following the craze, along with making chocolatey waffles, crepes, churros, doughnuts, ice cream toppings and more. It creates an eye-catching counter display while making chocolate service quicker, neater and more consistent.
For dessert parlours, food markets, kiosks etc chocolate taps are ideal to serve warm flowing chocolate and adds a strong visual to counters.
What is a chocolate tap?
A chocolate tap is a countertop machine that melts, holds, and dispenses warm, flowing chocolate. It conveniently keeps the chocolate inside a heated bowl and serves it directly through a spout.
The ICB ChocoHot One, from CFW, has a 5.5kg heated stainless steel bowl, dispensing melted chocolate using a tap-style spout. Any excess chocolate can flow back into the machine, helping to maintain a continuous chocolate display during service.
There are multiple modes for serving the chocolate depending on the user’s needs. This makes the chocolate tap suitable for both detailed decorating and fast-paced commercial dessert service.
Convenience and accessibility: how do I operate the chocolate tap?
Vendors use three modes to dispense from a Chocolate Tap, giving them more control over how they serve the chocolate.
The foot pedal mode provides hands-free stop-start control of the chocolate flow. This is ideal for detailed decorating or providing an interactive experience for customers, while keeping things controlled and mess-free. It is especially useful when staff need both hands free to hold strawberries, waffles, crepes or dessert cups in place.
The automatic timer mode keeps portions precise, ensuring a consistent volume for every pour. This is ideal for chocolate shots, dessert cups or repeat menu items, giving customers an equal portion without excessive measuring. For busy dessert businesses, this can help improve consistency and reduce waste.
The continuous mode offers a non-stop flow of chocolate, allowing you to create desserts quickly and efficiently. It catches customers’ attention, turning the cascading chocolate into part of the display, not just a serving tool.
An incredibly convenient feature of the ChocoHot dispenser is night mode, which keeps the chocolate warm overnight while conserving energy. This helps avoid a tricky melting process day after day, making it more practical for businesses using warm chocolate regularly.
The viral potential of chocolate taps
A number of small businesses have shown how quickly a dessert can take off when it looks good on camera. Chocolate-covered strawberries are a perfect example, providing not only a tasty treat, but a visual experience as well.
Customers and online viewers love watching the rich chocolate pour right before their eyes. Chocolate taps can become a staple part of a vendor’s service when placed where customers can see the chocolate flowing.
Turnips in London is a good example of how fast-paced chocolate strawberry service can become a sensation online. It brings in more customers who want to not only enjoy the food, but also become part of the trend.
The same idea applies to other viral desserts. Dubai chocolate, for example, has grown in popularity thanks to its combination of chocolate, pistachio and crunch. You can use Chocolate Taps to create Dubai chocolate-inspired strawberries, waffles, crepes, and dessert pots by combining warm milk chocolate with pistachio sauce, crushed pistachios, and crispy pastry-style toppings.
Here are the details on how to transform these desserts:
- The Drizzle & Base: Combine warm milk chocolate from the Chocolate Taps equipment range with a rich, creamy pistachio sauce.
- The Crunch: Add crushed pistachios and crispy kataifi (shredded pastry) for that signature Dubai-style crunch.
- The Finish: Drizzle this luxurious blend over fresh strawberries, warm waffles, fluffy crepes, or layer it into dessert pots.
For businesses, this kind of setup offers more than just a dessert. It creates a moment. Whether customers watch chocolatiers cover strawberries or see them finish a waffle with a warm chocolate pour, the chocolate tap makes the serving process part of the experience.
How can I use the nozzles on a chocolate tap?
The ICB ChocoHot tap has the ability to change the appearance of your chocolate flow using attachable nozzles. The CFW website offers four different nozzle setups for different desired effects.
The metal nozzle attachments disrupt the flow of the tap giving the chocolate a more delicate appearance. These nozzles produce varied visual and flow effects.
For example, ChocoHot Nozzle 1’s gentle cascading chocolate ends in a finer flow, ensuring more even coverage across the dessert. This can be useful for coating strawberries, topping waffles and crepes, or adding chocolate to dessert cups.
This makes serving more practical choosing a nozzle that suits the product such as wider coverage or a softer drizzle. A market stall serving strawberry cups benefits from a flow that covers fruit quickly. A dessert parlour may prefer a nozzle that gives better control over waffles, crepes or plated desserts.
The different nozzle setups also allow businesses to use the same chocolate tap across a wider range of menu items. Instead of needing separate tools for different desserts, vendors can adapt the chocolate flow to suit their menu. This process makes the Chocolate Tap more flexible for everyday service.
What desserts can I make?
You can use a chocolate tap for a wide range of desserts, making it a practical addition for dessert parlours, market stalls, kiosks, cafés, and event caterers.
Chocolate-coated strawberries are one of the most iconic desserts. You can enjoy this versatile treat sitting down in a restaurant or on the go from food markets and kiosks. With warm flowing chocolate served over fresh strawberries it is easy to see why this dessert has become so popular.
Chocolate taps are also ideal for waffles, crepes, and pancakes, allowing you to drizzle warm chocolate straight over your dessert. Customize your treat by adding fresh fruit, biscuit crumbs, marshmallows, pistachios, ice cream, and sauces for ultimate indulgence.
They are also a great option for churros, doughnut bites and brownies, either by pouring chocolate directly over the top or serving warm chocolate dipping pots on the side. This gives vendors a simple way to add value to existing menu items without making the preparation process too complicated.
A recent trend, Dubai chocolate, also benefits from the use of a chocolate tap. Vendors can use it to make Dubai chocolate strawberries featuring pistachio sauce and melted milk chocolate, or create Dubai chocolate-inspired waffles, crepes, sundaes and dessert pots. The combination of warm chocolate, pistachio and crunchy toppings works well for businesses wanting to offer something trend-led while still keeping the menu simple to produce.
What chocolate should I use?
For the best results, it is important to use a chocolate that is suitable for warm flowing equipment. Standard chocolate may be too thick once melted, which can make it harder to dispense smoothly through the tap. A chocolate tap requires a product that melts well, flows consistently, and remains easy to work with throughout service.
For this reason, CFW recommends Sephra Fountain Ready Milk Chocolate Flavoured Blend. We blend 50% Belgian milk chocolate with 50% milk chocolate flavoured compound, which gives customers the familiar taste of milk chocolate while providing vendors with the practical flowing performance needed for chocolate taps and fountain-style equipment.
The Belgian milk chocolate element gives the blend a creamy, recognisable chocolate flavour, while the compound element helps with smooth flow and ease of use. This makes it ideal for commercial dessert service, especially for businesses serving chocolate-covered strawberries, waffles, crepes, churros, doughnuts, dessert pots and ice cream.
Using a chocolate designed for flowing equipment can also make service easier for staff. Rather than trying to adjust standard chocolate with extra ingredients, vendors can use a ready-to-flow blend designed for this type of machine. This helps keep the process simple, consistent and suitable for busy service environments.
Where can I buy a Chocohot Dispenser?
When you buy a ChocoHot One or a ChocoHot Two dispenser from CFW you receive a free 10kg bag of milk chocolate to get you started. This gives businesses a practical starting point for adding warm flowing chocolate to their menu, whether they are launching a new dessert concept or adding to an existing setup.
Whether you plan to make Dubai chocolate strawberries for the masses, serve dipping pots for doughnuts, drizzle waffles and crepes, or coat ice cream with irresistible melted chocolate, the ChocoHot dispenser can be the tool to sensationalise your chocolate serving style.
For dessert parlours, food markets, kiosks, cafés, ice cream shops, event caterers and mobile vendors, a chocolate tap offers a simple way to serve warm chocolate with strong visual appeal. Paired with Sephra Fountain Ready Milk Chocolate Flavoured Blend, it gives businesses a reliable setup for creating chocolate desserts that are quick to serve, easy to customise and perfect for catching customer attention..