Transporting chocolate on a hot day

[AutisticLegoLover]

We are visiting London for the day and I want to buy chocolates from a favourite store but am worried they will melt. I'm thinking of a pick and mix selection rather than a pre-selected box otherwise I could order online. Any ice pack I take with us will melt before we arrive as it's a 3 hour journey. I can take a small cool bag but I don't know if that will make much difference. Has anyone any experience or advice please? Obviously I could eat them all in London but they are a gift for my mum.

If you take a small cool box with ice packs then they should stay cool for more than 3 hours. Other option is to decant them into a thermos flask if they are small enough. You can actually put ice lollies in a thermos and they stay frozen for a couple of hours!

Ask them to post them home to you?

Those blue freezer blocks stay cold for around 8 hours if you put them in a cool bag. Take 2 and put the chocolates between them in a good quality insulated bag.

This should work.

We are leaving here at 5.30am and getting back at 11pm so anything I take like a cool pack isn't going to last that long. They might post them for me I'll ask. It's due to be 26 degrees when we are there do not horrendous but not chocolate friendly. I want to get some for myself too of course so there'll be a fair amount of chocolates to bring back.

If they post them they will be subjected to the same heat.
Take a cooler bag, with 2x poly bag and newspaper.
Buy some ice in London from a shop or bar or something cheap and frozen such as peas. Put the chocs (presumably in a box) in the bag. Wrap in paper, dampen paper then put inside another bag. Finally add the cooling medium, i.e ice or frozen peas around the package.
It will remain cold and the evaporation of the damp paper will also cool. (Same effect as sweat evaporation)
Hope your Mum enjoys the chocs.

I have kept chocolate in a cool bag with no ice block in a tent in summer and it's never melted

When you're in London, go into a supermarket and buy two bags of frozen ice cubes. Put one pack at the bottom of a cooler bag, then your chocs & then cover with 2nd bag of ice cubes.

@Bewilderedandhurt and @TheHandbag brilliant ideas thank you!

The chocolate DH bought me from the shop yesterday was practically liquid by the time he got home. It’s a 20 min drive and he had air con on!
Good luck op.

Agreed we had similar this week. If these are chocolates from your favourite shop then honestly I would just buy fewer and eat them then and there. It's very likely they will melt and it would be such a waste considering how far you're going to get them.

Realistically even if you pick them up near the end of the day they are still likely to melt before getting them home.

You need some instant ice packs. Koolpak is one brand, but any will do. We used to use them when dh ran marathons and ultra-marathons, to treat his knees as soon as he possible after he crossed the finish line. They are stored at 'room' temperature and you activate one when you need by squeezing it very hard.

That won't stop them melting. I had chocolates delivered with flowers to my mum last year, by moonpig, and they melted completely.

Not moonpigs fault BTW, they are always fabulous and refunded straight away as they were inedible. It was just a hot day and the florist couldn't keep them cool. didnt deliver the chocs eary in the day

I saw a life hack video on Instagram about taking ice lolly’s out for picnics in large insulated water bottles. No idea if it works but could you try to arrange the chocolates carefully in one those and then take the box home separately?

Which shop is it? 😋

Fortnum and Mason

@AutisticLegoLover F&M chocolates are mostly supplied by Audreys. They have a website where you can build your own box if it helps

The shop should be able to package them so they don't melt @Flustercuckoo - loads of companies post frozen and cold products and manage it just fine.

I know it's not comparable chocolate wise but last August I sent a block to my son for his birthday It was in a box with some polystyrene type material and it was perfect so I'm sure there is something they can do if you ask

Hotel chocolat

Fortnum and Mason caviar counter will have ice packs they can give you