Couverture Making for Chocolatiers
The Couverture Making for Chocolatiers Masterclass is an online, two week program of intense interactive training that will help you understand and develop a plan to make your own couverture for your business. It includes topics such as: what to look for when buying cocoa beans or nibs, sourcing other ingredients you will need, minimum machinery requirements, formulations for a dark, dark milk, milk and white chocolate, storage tips, time requirements, key tasks, and more.
Next Session: Program Dates: TBA 2027
Have you ever thought about making your own couverture? As chocolatiers, we have unique and specific requirements for the chocolate we work with, and a number of our chocolatier students and grads have expressed interest in creating their own unique couverture for their products. In this Masterclass, you will gain an understanding of exactly what is required to make your own couverture, and how this could benefit your business.
To that end, this Chocolate Masterclass program includes:
Live session dates: Dates TBA 2027.
All sessions will take place 12-2pm PST/PDT. Please adjust for your local time zone in your calendar
Approximately 6 hours of guided kitchen homework activities and assignments.
Students should be ready to commit approximately 14 hours of work to complete the program.
Registration fee: $975.00 US
The minimum number of students for the program to run is 6, to a maximum of 12 - we are restricting the number of students in order to make sure each students leaves the program with the tools and advice they need to succeed in making their own couverture.
When you're ready to pay your registration fee of $975.00 please click here: REGISTER NOW
What Will I Learn?
Two week online program
This intensive program is not just about making couverture. It’s about understanding the benefits of making couverture for use in your products, and collaborating LIVE with your instructor, Rich Tango-Lowy and your fellow students to find the best solutions to any challenges.
You will finish the program having developed a complete plan to make couverture that fits into your current business model and production, so that you understand if this is feasible for you. This plan will include processes, a list of equipment, and a list of ingredients and sources. You'll also know how to evaluate and improve both the flavor and the working properties of your couverture. This program will save you countless hours in experimentation, and money invested in equipment to achieve the results you want.
This Masterclass will address alternative options for vegan, non-dairy, and lower sugar applications, but will not cover alternative sweeteners (for example, monk fruit or stevia), as those formulations can't be general in nature but are dependent on individual bean, cocoa butter and sweetener properties - chocolatiers using alternative sweeteners will need to do their own experimentation on their own using the general formulas as a start.
Please see Your Learning Experience below for a full description of what you will learn.
And WHAT OUR GRADUATES HAVE TO SAY below to see what our students think!
Pre-requisites: Good understanding of chocolate flavor and chocolate work.
Your Learning Experience
Our Instructor, Richard Tango-Lowy, has been making his own couverture since 2020, and will pass his knowledge and research on to you to help you achieve the consistent workability, flavor profile and cost savings you are looking for. He retired his Dancing Lion shop in October 2025. Learn more about him from a colleague in A Curious Mind.
Rich will use a number of learning activities to help you identify your challenges including: live demonstrations of best practices and techniques, live group discussions and supervised guidance as you research your own sourcing and equipment. And each live online session will end with some "homework" for you to do over the next two days between live online sessions.
Yes, all live sessions will be recorded so if you have to miss one, you can catch up afterwards.
Live Session 1 - Why make your own couverture?
Unique properties of couverture, with demonstration. Sourcing ingredients.
2-3 hr Homework Assignment: Sourcing raw materials for couverture.
Live Session 2 - Equipment and facilities.
Overview of the production process. Visual tour of the gear. Demonstration of bean sorting and evaluation.
2-3 hr Homework Assignment: Research equipment and facilities
Live Session 3 - Deep dive into the production process.
Understanding the full coverture production process. Building a cost model. Understanding the recipes.
2-3 hr Homework Assignment: Develop your production process and cost model.
Live Session 4- Evaluating and improving your couverture.
Troubleshooting, Q & A, final wrap up.
IMPORTANT NOTES:
This program is delivered in English.
Again, please note that this program is focused on making couverture - not chocolate work. So there will be no instruction on tempering, enrobing, molding or decorating bonbons. We expect you to already be experienced in those skills.
Prerequisite:
Good understanding of chocolate flavor and chocolate work.
Master Chocolatier Program certificate:
Students completing the Masterclass with a 70% or more on assignments will receive a digital Ecole Chocolat Master Chocolatier Certificate of Achievement.
What our graduates have to say
"This course far exceeded my expectation. I should have known it would be like all the other Ecole courses that were rich (pun intended!) with external resources and reading to help me get a more complete understanding of the topic. The live sessions were outstanding and Rich and Roger were so down to earth and approachable with any questions we had. I did! I'm excited to start making my own couverture and experiment to find the flavor I love and share it with my community."
Scott, 2025 Program
"Definitely. I was most anxious to get a full understanding of the process of roasting and grinding and I got that. The multiple recipes and variations that were shared helped me understand the ways I can control and (hopefully) accurately predict my outcomes. The knowledge base the two of them brought to the class was immense and their willingness to share the details of their recipes and processes is greatly appreciated. The written modules are very thorough and the conversation and demonstrations are very useful."
Ryan, 2025 Program
"I really enjoyed this class. Roger was a great instructor and of course Richard is always a wealth of knowledge. Yes. From the spreadsheets and information they provided online to the class time where they walked us through EVERY step of the couverture making process. The open dialogue that this format allows and vast knowlege of the instructors. There is enough time between classes to work on the assignments. Having the opportunity to see the assignments of your classmates is helpful and informative also."
Patrizia, 2025 Program
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If you would like to receive periodic program updates, click on the following button.
Cancellation policy
You can cancel from the Making Couverture Program up to five days before the registration deadline. A refund of your registration fee, minus a 10% administration fee, may take approximately 10 working days to process. Because our programs are usually full, and in order to make sure all students are committed, on the start date of your program your registration fee becomes non-refundable and non-transferable to another session (except in extraordinary circumstances).
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Photography by Jessica Washburn, Bliss Chocolatier and Ecole Chocolat
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Contact Us
Email: info@ecolechocolat.com
Visits by appointment only:
505 Montgomery
San Francisco, CA U.S.
1-213-291-8309
Canadian or International
1666 West 2nd Ave
Vancouver, B.C. Canada
1-604-484-1872
Ecole Chocolat is a woman-owned and operated chocolate education organization. Founded by chocolatier, Pam Williams, we are the professional school of chocolate arts for both chocolatiers and chocolate makers. We also donate our time, leadership, expertise and funds to preserve the fine chocolate industry and save fine cacao.
