Chocolate Box Sizes by Piece Count

Why start from the piece rather than the box?

Stock box sizes were drawn for someone else's chocolates. If your truffles are a little larger, they touch the walls; if they are smaller, they rattle. Starting from one piece of your own reverses that. The box is drawn around the chocolate, not the other way round.

There are only three numbers that matter at the start: how many pieces go in the box, how wide one piece is at its widest point, and how tall it is from the base to the very top. Everything else in this guide is about turning those three numbers into a box that fits.

If you sell more than one size of piece in the same box, use the largest. A box sized for the average piece will always have one chocolate that refuses to sit flat.

How do you measure one chocolate properly?

Measure a finished piece, decorated exactly as it will be sold. A truffle straight from the scoop is smaller than one that has been coated, rolled in cocoa and topped with a curl. A moulded bon bon with a transfer sheet on its base is a touch wider than the mould suggests.

1. Pick three finished pieces from a normal batch.
2. Measure each across its widest point with a ruler or calipers, in mm.
3. Measure each from the base to the highest point, including piping or drizzle.
4. Note the largest width and the largest height of the three.
5. Write down the shape of the base: round, square, oblong or faceted.

Those two largest numbers and the shape are what we need. If the pieces are not round, also note the length and width of the base separately.

What are typical box sizes for common piece counts?

The table gives typical outside sizes for the five most common counts, using round pieces of the sizes shown. They are a starting point for conversation, not a fixed menu: your own box is drawn to your own measurements.

You can try each layout on the tray drawing on our chocolate box sizes page, which shows the cavities redraw as the count changes.

Where do the extra millimetres come from?

A box is always larger than the chocolates laid side by side. Some of the extra is room around each piece, so it lifts out without catching. Some is the wall of the insert or tray between the cavities. Some is the rim of the insert around the outside, and the rest is the thickness of the board itself.

As a rough picture, a 25 mm truffle sits in a space of around 40 to 45 mm once the cup and the gap to its neighbour are counted. Four of those across, plus the insert rim and the board, gives a box of about 200 mm, which is why the twelve piece size in the table is what it is.

Rigid boxes add a little more, because thick board takes up more room at each wall than folding card. That is one reason we always size the box and the insert together rather than separately.

How much air should go above the chocolates?

A few millimetres above the tallest piece is the usual answer. Less, and the lid presses on piped tops, flattens dusting or leaves a mark on a polished shell. More, and the chocolates can lift out of their cups if the box is turned upside down in a bag.

If you place a printed pad or a sheet of glassine on top of the chocolates, add its thickness too. Pads are worth it for decorated pieces, because they take any light contact from the lid instead of the chocolate.

Tall pieces, such as cones, domes and piped rosettes, are best handled by deepening the cup rather than the whole box. The piece then sits lower, and the box stays shallow and neat.

Which layout suits which box shape?

Square boxes suit counts that are square numbers: 4, 9 and 16. Oblong boxes suit 6, 12, 15 and 24. Long, narrow boxes suit a single row of five or six pieces in a sleeve. Hearts and other shaped boxes follow their outline, so they hold fewer pieces than a square box of the same width.

• 2 x 2 for a four piece taster at the till
• 3 x 2 for a six piece gift or favour
• 3 x 3 for a nine piece square box
• 4 x 3 for the classic twelve piece assortment
• 4 x 4 for sixteen smaller pieces
• 6 x 4 for a large bon bon selection
• 1 x 5 or 1 x 6 in a long sleeve and tray

Does the insert type change the size?

A little. A die-cut card insert is a raised deck with holes, so it needs a small gap around the outside to drop in. A formed PET tray has a lip that rests on the floor of the base. Card dividers take only the thickness of the strips.

For the same twelve truffles, a box with a PET tray and a box with a card insert will be within a few millimetres of each other. It matters most when you already have boxes and want an insert to fit them, because then the box sets the limit and the cavities have to work within it.

What about bars, envelopes and squares?

Not every chocolate product is a round piece. Bars, envelopes and brownie or fudge boxes are sized from the item itself: length, width and thickness, with the inner wrap on for bars and the topping included for brownies.

For bars, thickness is the number most often missed. A bar topped with nuts or fruit can be far thicker than a plain one from the same mould. For brownies and fudge, measure the largest hand-cut piece rather than the size you aim for when cutting.

Which sizing mistakes cost makers the most?

The first is sizing to the mould or the scoop rather than the finished piece. The second is measuring the outside of an old box when ordering an insert for it; board thickness takes a few millimetres off every wall. The third is forgetting the decoration on top, so the lid touches it.

A fourth, smaller one is choosing a count that does not suit the box shape, such as twelve pieces in a square box. It can be done, but it leaves odd gaps. Pick the layout first and the box shape follows.

How do you get a box drawn to your size?

Send the count, the largest width and height of one piece, the shape of its base and the style of box you like. Add your logo if it is ready. We reply by email within one working day with a price and the box size we propose, and the free design proof shows the box and the insert layout before anything is made.

Card boxes are made in 4 to 6 working days after the proof is approved, rigid boxes in 8 to 10, and tracked delivery to the UK mainland is free in 2 to 3 working days.