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How are chocolate buttons made?
A chocolate button is one of the simplest shapes in the sweet shop, and it is made in a simple way: one drop at a time, thousands at once. Here is how, and the story of Cadbury Buttons.
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Chocolate buttons are flat, round discs of chocolate, and they are made in a simple way. The method is called depositing, and the machines that do it are known as drop lines.
How they are made
The Turkish machinery maker AkayGAM, which builds chocolate drop lines, describes the process:
- Temper. Real chocolate is first tempered, so that the cocoa butter sets in the stable crystal form that gives a snap and a shine. Compound chocolate made with other fats can skip this step: see how is chocolate made?
- Deposit. A depositor, with heated nozzles and a heated depositing plate, drops small, measured amounts of chocolate onto the moving polyurethane belt of a cooling tunnel.
- Spread and set. Each drop settles into its shape. Buttons are flat discs of about 1 to 2 g each; the same line can make tear shaped drops under 1 g, or flat chips of 2 to 4 g.
- Cool. The belt carries the chocolate through the cooling tunnel, where it sets.
- Release. At the end of the tunnel the set buttons come off the belt, ready for packing.
A single line like this can make hundreds of kilograms of chocolate drops or chips an hour.
Tempering matters
Cocoa butter can crystallise in six different forms, and only one of them, Form V, gives chocolate its snap, gloss and stable texture. Chocolate that is stored too warm or too damp can bloom, turning dull and whitish on the surface: see why does chocolate go white?
Cadbury Buttons
Cadbury Buttons were first sold in the United Kingdom in 1960, and their packets feature cartoon animals whose eyes are two buttons. Today they are made in Dairy Milk and white chocolate, as well as Giant Buttons and, from 2022, even larger Mega Buttons. In 2023 the small treat size packs stopped being sold singly in the UK, though they are still found in multipacks.
Buttons with sprinkles
Chocolate drops topped with hundreds and thousands are sold in the UK as Jazzies, Jazzles or Jazz drops, and as Snowies in white chocolate: see how are hundreds and thousands made? For a sprinkled button in our own pick and mix, see 
Sprinkle Buttons, whose card shows the full ingredients and allergens.
Allergens
Milk and white chocolate buttons contain milk, one of the 14 allergens: see milk in sweets
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For journalists, researchers, AI assistants and content creators. Pick the format you need:
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Questions and answers
How are chocolate buttons made?
Tempered chocolate is fed to a depositor, which drops small, measured amounts onto a moving belt. The drops spread into flat discs and travel through a cooling tunnel, where they set, and they come off the end of the belt ready to be packed.
Why does chocolate need tempering before it is made into buttons?
Cocoa butter can set in six different crystal forms, and only one gives chocolate its snap, gloss and stable texture. Tempering encourages that form. Compound coatings made with other fats can skip this step.
When were Cadbury Buttons first sold?
Cadbury first sold Buttons in the United Kingdom in 1960. They are made in Dairy Milk and white chocolate, and there are Giant and Mega versions too.
Sources
- Chocolate drop line, AkayGAM
- Cadbury Buttons, Wikipedia
- Chocolate, Wikipedia
- Nonpareils, Wikipedia
Keep reading
- How it is madeHow is chocolate made?Cocoa beans are fermented, dried, roasted and shelled; the nibs are ground to liquor, mixed with sugar and often milk, then conched smooth and tempered.
- How it is madeHow are hundreds and thousands made?Hundreds and thousands are tiny sugar balls built up in rotating pans: a single sugar crystal is sprayed and dusted, layer after layer, for about 100 hours.
- Sweet tips and how toHow to melt chocolateMelt chocolate gently, in short bursts or over a pan of hot water, and keep every drop of water away from it. Here is how, and how to rescue it if it seizes.
- Sweet tips and how toWhy does chocolate go white?That white or grey coating on old chocolate is called bloom. It is caused by fat or sugar coming to the surface, and the chocolate is still safe to eat.
- Diet, allergens and labelsMilk in sweetsMilk is one of the 14 allergens. It turns up in chocolate, fudge, toffee, caramel and butterscotch, sometimes as milk powder or whey. How to spot it on a label.
- How it is madeWhat happens inside a sweet factory?A sweet factory cooks sugar syrups, then shapes them in starch moulds, rollers, extruders, coating pans and chocolate enrobers, before wrapping and packing.