Celebrate World Chocolate Day with a 3D Printed Dessert!

Today, July 7th, is World Chocolate Day, and I wasn’t prepared – I have no chocolate. That’s remedied easily enough, as there are several grocery and drug stores within a few miles of my office. However, that would involve leaving and driving to one of those stores, and as I’m currently hard at work, I will have to remain chocolate-less for several more hours. Life is hard, and I can’t stop thinking, what if I had a chocolate 3D printer? I could have all the chocolate I wanted, right now, in whatever fun shapes I wanted it in. I’d never have to go anywhere, ever again.

Sadly, I don’t have a chocolate 3D printer, and I’m not likely to get one anytime soon, due to a lack of funds and an awareness that such a thing likely wouldn’t be a good idea if I wanted to maintain some semblance of a decent diet. But I can dream, right? Thankfully, these days there are plenty of options out there for someone craving chocolate of a 3D printed nature.

If you want to 3D print chocolate in the comfort of your own home – and have the self-control not to go crazy with your limitless confectionery access – there’s the Choc Creator V2.0 Plus from Choc Edge, a company with offices in both England and China. The original Choc Creator, which was introduced in 2012, was the first commercially available chocolate 3D printer, so it will always hold a special place in both 3D printing and chocolate history. The latest version, the V2.0 Plus, was released about two years ago, and Choc Edge has spent a lot of time and effort perfecting the printer.

Using a syringe as an extruder, the Choc Creator V2.0 lets you 3D print your own designs in chocolate, or you can choose from one of several pre-loaded models (mostly of the heart-shaped variety). It’s a compact desktop 3D printer with a sizable build volume of 18 x 18 x 4 cm, allowing for the creation of fancy, professional-looking desserts. You can buy the Choc Creator V2.0 Plus here, or from one of several retailers across the world.

If you don’t have the money to buy a chocolate 3D printer (the Choc Creator V2.0 Plus is a few thousand dollars), you can always build your own…out of Legos! We’ve covered many great Instructables over the years, but one of our favorites was the Lego chocolate 3D printer created by a maker named Gosse Adema. Adema built a regular 3D printer from Legos, then decided to modify it by adding a chocolate syringe extruder – because what’s more fun than Legos and chocolate? Not much that I can think of.

If you’d just like someone to 3D print some chocolate for you, there are plenty of options in that area as well. Recently, the Smart Gastronomy Lab launched a new spinoff company called Miam Factory, which offers fancy custom chocolate 3D prints to order. French company Babines offers 3D printed chocolate in emoji form, among other things, and if you’re in New York, you can stop by SugarCube Dessert and Coffee to pick up some fancy, architecturally-inspired chocolates made from 3D printed molds.

Finally, let’s not forget about Food Ink., the pop-up restaurant where all of the food – and much of the furnishings and decor – is 3D printed. That includes, of course, some delicious chocolate desserts. Those are just a few of the options available for lovers of chocolate and 3D printing, and there will almost certainly be more coming as 3D food printing technology becomes more advanced. Meanwhile, because I don’t have immediate access to any of the fine products or establishments listed above, I’m mostly likely just going to go down to the grocery store and get myself a Heath Bar. I can’t let an official holiday go by unmarked, after all. Share your thoughts in the 3D Printed Chocolate forum at 3DPB.com.