Please convince me to purchase this $1,500 3D printer with chocolate

It’s unfortunately arriving a little too late to woo whoever was your Valentine this year, but next month, you’ll be able to pre-order a 3D printer that swaps melted plastic for melted chocolateYou can access it by clicking here Make personalized treats You can be that special someone next year.

A 3D printer that creates custom food from plastic objects is an idea that has existed for as long as 3D printing technology itself. Over the years, we’ve reported on everything from 3D-printed meat To be ornately crafted 3D-printed meals To even Experimental 3D-printed chocolate With engineered structures that enhance the snapping sensation of chocolate when bitten into. This is a hallmark of high-quality chocolate.

We’ve even covered pens that trade ink for melted chocolate, allowing users to write edible messages or build up shapes. The Cocoa Press is one of very few chocolate printers that automatically does all the work, producing sweet 3D-printed confections. These creations can be based on your own designs or ones from others. Downloaded from websites like Printables.

The Cocoa Press will offer a build-it yourself kit starting April 17 for $1.499 (with a $100 deposit) and shipping to the US and Canada in September. The Cocoa Press machine will take about 10 hours to assemble, and while it won’t be as easy as putting together an Ikea side table, it shouldn’t require an advanced engineering degree, either.

The Cocoa Press uses chocolate cartridges instead of spools made of resin filament. It is filled with 70g of a mixture of cocoa solids, palm oil and cocoa powder. The cartridge needs to be warmed to just below the average human body temperature before printing—a pre-heating process that takes about 15 minutes. The company will sell 10 packs of refill chocolate cartridges for $49; however, users can use their own chocolate, but it may take some trial-and-error and experimentation to find a mix that prints as well the Cocoa Press offers.

The company also promises that all the components on the 3D printer that actually touch the chocolate can be easily cleaned, and it looks like the six-inch printing bed is covered in a small piece of Silpat-like silicone material, which should make prints easy to lift off once they’ve cooled.

While it’s exciting to see this technology finally reach consumers, the $1499 price tag or $3,995+ professional-grade versions is a bit steep for those who are not intending to sell their creations on Etsy. Unless you’re willing to share your convinctive and shoulder devils with me, I don’t think so.Tell me what you think. I’m listening.