If you are considering making chocolate covered strawberries at home versus ordering them, there are a few things worth knowing about the process — and the trade-offs.
The easiest chocolate to work with at home is candy melts or compound chocolate. These do not require tempering, which removes the most technically demanding part of the process. They melt easily, set quickly, and are widely available. The downside is significant: the flavour and texture cannot match real chocolate. Compound chocolate uses vegetable fats instead of cocoa butter, resulting in a waxy coating that is dull in appearance and flat in flavour.
Real Belgian couverture chocolate — which is what La Fraise uses — requires tempering. This involves carefully heating the chocolate to around 45°C, cooling it to 27°C, and then bringing it back up to working temperature (31–32°C for dark chocolate, slightly less for milk and white). When done correctly, the result is a glossy, snappy coating with a genuinely rich flavour. When done incorrectly, the chocolate blooms, streaks, or stays soft.
For a one-off home attempt, candy melts will give you something that looks reasonable. For a gift-worthy result — something that looks as impressive as it tastes — the skill, equipment, and quality chocolate required make professional results difficult to replicate at home.
If the goal is a box that reliably delights someone, ordering from La Fraise is the straightforward option. Fresh Belgian chocolate, properly tempered, on the day of delivery, with same-day delivery across Dubai from AED 130.