Does Chocolate Go Bad? How to Store It, Freeze it, and Ship It

If you’re keeping your bonbons much more than a week before eating, this is when we start talking about fridges and freezers.

Nothing That Isn’t Cold Can Stay

“I rarely advise my customers to refrigerate or freeze their bonbons, but it’s not because it can’t be done. It’s more that it requires a few steps to make sure the bonbons are still as beautiful as they were when I shipped them,” Coppel notes.

If you know you’re keeping your bonbons for longer than a week, Coppel says, a fridge or wine cooler is your best bet for keeping chocolate flavors fresh and potent. Most sources recommend wrapping bonbons tightly in plastic—or in an airtight container—before storing in a refrigerator, to avoid your chocolates picking up funny flavors from whatever else is in the fridge.

“If you have a wine cooler, you’re in luck. That’s the best appliance you can use to store bonbons. Place your bonbons there at 16°C or 60°F (if you want to be even more precise, the cooler should have a relative humidity between 60-70%),” according to written instructions sent by Coppel.

Failing wine coolers, a more standard fridge will do. Coppel cautions that after you keep your chocolates in the fridge, you should take them out and let them reach room temperature again before eating.

“Otherwise, the fillings will be hard, and the flavors won’t come through as much as they should, because cold inhibits flavor perception,” Coppel remarks.

How to Freeze and Travel With Chocolate

Let’s say you’re sending chocolate long distances, or you otherwise need to keep your bonbons longer than two weeks? You can freeze your chocolate for up to a year. “Yes, you can do this,” Coppel notes, “and all the big chocolate productions do.”

Photograph: Annick Vanderschelden Photography/Getty Images

Here are Coppel’s instructions for freezing at home, without subjecting your chocolate to rapid shifts in temperature: