How to match candy coating to an invitation, swatch or brand color

1. Read the color properly

The match can only be as good as the color you start from. In order of reliability:

1. A hex code from the designer, the brand guide or the invitation file. It looks like #9ED9D8 and it means one exact color.
2. The file on a screen. Open the invitation or logo and pick the color straight from it.
3. A photo of the printed piece. Take it in indirect daylight with a sheet of white paper in the frame, so you can see how far the photo has drifted. Avoid kitchen bulbs, which push everything toward yellow.

Printed colors and screen colors never agree exactly. If the customer will hold the treats next to a printed invitation, the print is the one to match, so ask to keep a copy on the bench.

2. Choose the coating first

Dye can darken and shift a coating but never lighten it. Icy and pale colors need the whitest coating, and deep colors need a dark one.Pastels and deep colors each have a guide.

3. Expect to blend dyes

Few customer colors are a single bottle. Sage is not “green, but less”. It is green pulled toward gray and warmed. Here are six real targets, each with a common one-bottle guess and the blend Coco Match’s color model picks, scored out of 100 for closeness.

• Target
• One-bottle guess
• Blended recipe

4. Mix a small test bowl

1. Weigh 2 ounces of melted coating into a small cup. Thin it first if you thin your dipping bowl.
2. Add dye by the drop and write down each one. Two ounces at 1.5 drops per ounce is 3 drops.
3. Stir for a full minute, scraping the sides. Streaks hide the true color.
4. Dip one treat, or spread a spoonful on parchment as thick as a dip.

Half drops are easier in a bigger cup: half a drop per ounce is one drop in 2 ounces, or two drops in 4.

5. Let it set, then compare in daylight

Dyed coating keeps deepening for about 10 minutes, and set coating looks different from melted. Wait until the test dip has fully set. Then hold it next to the original by a window, in indirect daylight, with something white nearby so your eye has a reference.

• Too pale: add dye in the same proportions.
• Too dark: stir in a measured amount of plain coating, and note it.
• Wrong direction (too green, too pink): add a little of the color opposite the error, one drop at a time.
• Dull or muddy: more dye will not fix it. Start again from a whiter coating, or with fewer dyes.

6. How close is close enough

Coco Match scores each recipe by how different the two colors look to the eye. The same bands are a useful way to judge a test dip.

When a color can’t be reached, say so early. Show the customer the closest test dip beside their swatch and let them choose. That conversation is far easier before the order than at pickup.

7. Scale it and write it down

Once the test dip is right, the recipe is the coating, the thinner and the drops per ounce. Multiply the drops by the ounces in the real bowl.The coating guide covers how big that bowl should be. Save the recipe with the customer’s name, because the reorder always comes.