As with most anything, there's always a few user tips that are not in the owner's manual but instead are picked up along the way.

Here's our top 5 tips and techniques for getting the most out of the RoboSugar 10 and RoboSugar 20 caramelizers from RoboLabs.

#1 Keep A Lid On It - While the end goal of cooking caramel is to have most or all of the water boiled off, you'll find that leaving the kettle lid on until the slurry temperature reaches 105 to 110 Celsius has several advantages. By keeping steam in the kettle, you'll see your temperature rise faster. Next, you'll find the slurry dissolves thoroughly and more uniformly. In addition, the steam helps remove any build up of caramel from the previous batch, making clean up easier and also reducing waste.

#2 Add Water Between Batches - Standard operation is that once the kettle has dumped a finished batch to the cooling conveyor, you can immediately add the next batch of ingredients to the kettle to start your next round. Unfortunately, if you add dry ingredients first, they will start to burn very quickly. If you add your liquids first, they will immediately begin to boil off. Adding a premixed slurry is ideal, but not always an option depending on your operations. A simple tactic to get the best results is instead to immediately add 4-8 oz of water to the kettle and allow it to boil off for 15-30 seconds and then add your dry ingredients followed by your liquids. Allowing this small amount of liquid to boil off first reduces the temperature of the kettle floor just enough to protect ingredients for your next batch. Plus, the boiling action loosens and sugars that might have begun to carbonize, keeping your kettle clean for the long term.

#3 Spray Down The Walls - Most operators will add lecithin to their popcorn once it has been dumped into the caramel slurry and begins to mix. We find that in addition, lightly spraying the upper side walls of the kettle in the minutes prior to adding popcorn greatly reduces and can even eliminate any caramel build-up on the interior walls. This make clean up easier, reduces waste and results in a better coating of the popcorn as well.

#4 Pre-Empty the Collection Bin - Once the RoboSugar begins cooling the caramel corn on the conveyor mesh belt you'll see the very smallest pieces of scrap will fall off into the collection bin. If you wait for a minute or two, most of the scrap will have been removed. You then have plenty of time to pull out the collection bin, dump this scrap and then replace the bin. The result is your finished batch will have more whole pieces and less broken bits.

#5 Wait to Add Colors & Flavoring - If you're adding ingredients to make flavored caramel corns, it's temping to add everything all at once. However, many of these can degrade when exposed to high temperatures over long periods of time. The best approach is to add your colors and flavors as close to the end of the cooking cycle as practical. Liquids can usually be added in the very last minute or two and will still have time to mix thoroughly. Powders typically need to be added several minutes earlier, but if you dissolve them first in a very small amount of water or oil, then you can add them at the very end as well.


None of the above tips are strictly required, they're just helpful tactics learned along the way, and many users probably perform several of them just based on experience and intuition.