Forum Activity for @Clay

Brad -

I reached out to a member of the Academy of Chocolate and shared my observation that the guidelines, as written, enabled pretty much everyone to qualify as "bean-to-bar" even if what they were doing was sourcing cocoa beans from a broker and shipping them for private label production.

The response I got was tepid, but my guess is that they will look at the issue more closely before the next competition. They will be holding their bi-annual meeting next October and I am going to suggest that this is a topic that gets discussed. In public. With everyone contributing.

Congratulations to all of the finalists!

CHOCOLATE

• Areté Fine Chocolate – Camino Verde 75% Dark Chocolate, California 
• Brasstown Chocolate – Ecuador 75% & Belize 70%, North Carolina 
• Charm School Chocolate – 70% Dark Belize, Maryland
• Creo Chocolate – Purely Dark, Oregon
• Dick Taylor Craft Chocolate – 70% Bolivia, Alto Beni, California
• Escazu Artisan Chocolates – 70% Piura Blanco, Peru, North Carolina
• Fruition Chocolate – Bolivian Wild Harvest 74% & Nacional Dark Milk 68%, New York
• Just Good Chocolate – Madagascar 70%, Michigan 
• Lonohana Estate Chocolate – Kanahiku 70% Dark, Hawaii 
• Nathan Miller Chocolate – Gingerbread Bar, Pennsylvania
• Patric Chocolate – Triple Ginger & Browned Butter Bar & Red Coconut Curry, Missouri
• Ritual Chocolate – Mid Mountain Blend & Belize 75%, Utah
• Rogue Chocolatier – Jamaica & Tranquilidad, Massachusetts
• SPAGnVOLA – 70% Single- Estate Dominican Republic & 75% Single Estate Dominican Republic, Maryland

CONFECTIONS

• American Spoon – Chocolate Fudge Sauce, Michigan
• Amy E's Bakery – Peanut Brittle, Oregon
• Ashby Confections – Fresh Orange Sour Strips & Salty Desert Heat, California
• Askinosie Chocolate – Hey, Hey Chocolate Hazelnut Spread, Missouri
• Batch PDX – Batch Bar & Twicks Bar, Oregon 
• Bees & Beans – Honey Bar Reserve, Oregon 
• Bixby & Co. – Nutty For You, Maine
• Black Dinah Chocolatiers – Maine Mint Truffle, Maine
• Ethereal Confections – Blood Orange and Vanilla Bean Meltaway, Illinois
• Farm Chocolate – Panforte in Dark, California
• Fat Toad Farm – Fat Toad Farm Original Goat's Milk Caramel Sauce, Vermont
• French Broad Chocolates – Hazelnut & Almond Dragee, North Carolina
• JJ's Sweets Cocomels – Palm Sugar Cocomel, Colorado
• Katherine Anne Confections – Cucumber Cooler Caramel, Illinois 
• Lake Champlain Chocolates – Apple Cider Caramels, Vermont 
• Little Apple Treats – Rose and Cocoa nib Caramels, California 
• McCrea's Candies – Black Lava Sea Salt Caramels, Massachusetts
• Neo Cocoa – Toffee Nib Brittle, California
• Nosh This – Lavender Crack, California
• Sapore della Vita – Caramel Sauce & Torrone & Totally Fudged- Chocolate Fudge Sauce, Florida
• Serendipity Confections – Chocolate Covered Butter Caramels with Fleur de Sel, Wyoming
• St. Croix Chocolate Co. – Wild Grape and Peanut Butter Bar, Minnesota
• Videri Chocolate Factory – Sugarplum Ganache Bonbon, North Carolina

If you are referring to the Academia de Cacao in Nicaragua, the course in May is not yet filled. However, it is not bean-to-bar class, it's rooted in what you need to know to improve cocoa quality.

Matt -

You might want to look into the small business nutrition labeling exemption. As a small business (under something like 500 employees and $50,000,000 in sales) you are not required to put a nutrition label on a package, especially if it it's small. And I think federal law trumps state law on this. You do however, have to have the nutrition information available and it has to be easily accessible. But, I am not a lawyer and you should check.

That said, some retail outlets will demand it, along with UPC codes. Ingredients labels with allergen statements should be considered mandatory no matter what the regs require. 

As you are in the US you only need to really worry about internationalization if you find yourself selling outside the US. As near as I know there are no special requirements unless you are wholesaling to a retailer unless the retailer requires it for liability reasons.

Jason -

For such small quantities learn to do it by hand if you can't afford the machines. The experience you gain learning to hand temper will pay huge dividends going forward. In the end, machines can only do what you tell them to do. If they don't produce correct results and you don't know what tempering looks and feels like then you are not in a position to know why the machine "failed" to temper properly. 

It's not the machine's fault, actually. They are not artificially intelligent and cannot read your mind or evalaute the chocolate they are being asked to temper. They don't know the external temperature, or humidity, or anything like that. So they can't react to changes in ambient environment, for example, that will affect temper.

Finally - and I really don't want to dissuade you from pursuing your chocolate dreams, at this stage if the difference in price between a Rev 1 and a Rev 2 is straining your budget then wait and save until it's not an issue for you.

:: Clay

Brad:

If you go to the Academy of Chocolate web site you will find the criteria for what constitutes "bean-to-bar." Specifically:

BEST DARK BEAN TO BAR (%)

Open to manufacturers who use cocoa beans (as opposed to cocoa liquor, paste, or couverture) as their raw material in any of the three specifications below.

Please specify on the entry form which best describes your bean to bar product. This is for office information only and will not be disclosed to the judges. [Emphasis in the original.]

• Tree to Bar. Made from beans managed by the producer. This is the end-to-end process of manufacturing owned and controlled by a single business.
• Tree to Factory. Management of cacao at the source with a third party manufacturing the bean to bar process.
• Factory Roast to Conch [sic]. Bar made from beans purchased from a grower or an intermediary. All manufacturing processes i.e. roasting, grinding, refining and conching owned and controlled by a single business.

IMO, these "distinctions" make it possible for virtually everyone to claim to be bean to bar. As I interpret the guidelines, I could make a phone call to ECOM and get a container of beans - sight unseen - delivered to ICAM and have chocolate made and I would qualify.

WRT to Papa Chocolat - if Callebaut sources the beans and someone else makes the chocolate for them then it fits under the Factory Roast definition. That said, I can see how Original Beans, Idilio, and Åkesson fit the definition - they source beans and have the chocolate made for them - Factory Roast again. But it's harder for me to see how some others fit. And I am fairly knowledgeable.

To me, bean-to-bar means – at the very minimum – all stages of the transformation of raw cocoa beans into finished chocolate are performed under the direct supervision and control of the company claiming so. Secondarily, it means that the company actually has to sell product (bars) at retail in a package with their own name on it. 

I have long had a problem with the phrase bean-to-bar because of this malleability and I strongly encourage the Academy of Chocolate to take a long, hard, look at their classification criteria before the next installment of the Awards. This is because, in the long run, the context of the guidelines will get stripped from the award itself when it appears on a box or wrapper and the uninformed consumer will not see the asterisk that a knowledgeable professional might.

:: Clay

Annalynn -

There are not many options for small guitar cutters. One is available through Chef Rubber (www.chefrubber.com). Click on the Search box and type ' guitar ' into the search box on the next page. The mini-guitar plus accessories are listed there.

They are still not cheap, and one difference between this and larger options is that the base is plastic, not metal.

If you are in the business of selling chocolate, products, or services, the way to promote your business to ChocolateLife members is through a member marketplace ad.

Melanie - 

Have you checked in with Union Equipment? They might have something. The FBM enrobers all come with bottomers so I don't think they are an option for you. You might try Hilliard as I know they make pre-bottomers for their belts.

:: Clay

@Lavinia -

The answer is ... it's not that simple. 

First off, whatever powdered sugar you get is probably going to have an anti-caking agent in it, often cornstarch. This will make it unusable for chocolate. If you do find a powdered sugar that is suitable it may still be too coarse (the particles are too big), and you will still be able to feel the sugar crystals as grit on the tongue. Another thing to consider is that adding powdered sugar into chocolate will make it very thick - especially if you add it all at once.

A better process would be to take your own sugar and refine it in a food processor and then grind it into the melted liquor in a grinder/refiner. You can add cocoa butter to get to the fluidity you need. How much will depend on the amount of sugar you add.

Any tempered chocolate that is left over can be poured into a pan to let cool and to use for later remelting and retempering. If you need seed chocolate, pour some of the tempered chocolate into a thin layer - making sure it stays in temper. You can break this up and use it for seed in future batches. The rest of the chocolate can be stored at room temps, just make sure no moisture condenses on the chocolate. In other words, you don't need to put it in the refrigerator or freezer.

Melanie -

I need to ask some questions for clarity. 

You need tunnels that are 12 inches or 24 inches wide, correct? Or 12 inches wide and 24 feet long? Also you are looking for used? You have the tempering machine(s) and enrober(s) already? 

And this is for delivery in the US?

Thanks in advance,
:: Clay

James -

I've known Alberto Franceschi for about five years now, and Domori has used beans grown by Franceschi on the Hacienda San Jose for their origin and varietal bars. So I think that those beans can be used to make very good chocolates. I am not sure which beans you are looking to purchase, but they do know what they are doing.

Getting the export permits could be challenging, but perhaps the beans are already in a warehouse outside Venezuela.

Mariano -

Is this the same request you made a couple of days ago or a different machine?

:: Clay

Sebastian:

I have never heard of Tapatalk. I will take a look into it. I do know that I need to make some coding tweaks to make it usable on mobile browsers - something is messed up and I am looking into it.

Sebastian: I was going to say the same things. I would start with getting the humidity under control to see if that helps (might need to get it down as low as 55 RH, at least that's my experience in some places). If not, then cooling things down is the next step.

Jennifer -

You can get residential chest freezers really quite inexpensively. They do require a little more thinking about how you pack stuff into them, but it's hard to beat the cost per cu ft. The Johnson controllers work with these quite well.

Stephen: The EZTemper is not a tempering machine, but it's a good approach for small production. The EZTemper produces crystallized cocoa butter that seeds the chocolate and tempers it through mixing. You are still working in small batches and have to worry about keeping the temperature in the right range until you've used up the batch. I know some FBM customers who use both: they use the Aura for the chocolate they use a lot of, and use the EZTemper for the chocolates they use in smaller quantities for decorating or special short runs. The two are not mutually exclusive.

I see you are in Olympia. I spent a year at Evergreen and am currently slated to return to campus on 6 October to give a lecture/tasting to a class. I am not sure of my schedule that day and hope to catch up with at least one friend who's still in town. But who knows? Will you be in Seattle at the end of the month? We could meet there as well.

@eg -

Yeah. I can't recommend starting a business in chocolate that is not properly financed from the outset. You may wish to operate like a lean startup but if you don't have the capital to get the right space and the right equipment and finance bean (and other) inventory and have the resources to market your product properly ... wait until you do. It will increase your chances of being successful.

BTW, a back-of-the-envelope calculation says that you should be processing about 1MT of beans per month to be profitable, even as a small, lean startup. If you're planning on doing 300-500kg/mo then what you have is a nice hobby, not a real business.

My .03 (adjusted for inflation),
:: Clay

Sarah -

I have been doing some research and if you want a shiny/pearlescent finish - i.e., the luster part of luster dust - then I think that something like titanium dioxide and/or mica are going to be required ingredients. I don't see any source that does not have these listed as an ingredient. ChefRubber has product categories called Pearl Powder and Liquid Luster but they are both empty.

CR -

This kind of posting is frowned upon here on TheChocolateLife. If you want to post a recipe the entire recipe, and any accompanying photography, MUST be posted here on TheChocolateLife. You should not post "teaser" links whose sole purpose is to drive traffic to your site.

Lisabeth:

I had my first dark-milk many years ago, one of the Slitti Latte-Nero family (they come in a variety of percentages) and I was immediately hooked. Dark milks are my favorite category of chocolates. The flavor intensity of a dark chocolate, the creaminess of a milk chocolate, and they're less sweet than a dark chocolate from the same bean/roast would be because lactose is less sweet than sucrose. I eat a lot of single-origin, two-ingredient chocolate, which requires attention. When I am looking for something to simply enjoy, dark-milks are the first place I think to reach.

People who know my history know my connection to Bonnat so when they introduced the 3, 65% dark-milks I immediately started using them as a tasting flight.

Your list is missing the 49% Felchlin Creole, a great offering from one of the best  small chocolate makers - if not the best - in Switzerland.

I heve never heard of this type of tempering machine. Can you please post a link to it on the manufacturer's web site?

Matt:

What email did you use? (Send me it via private note so I can investigate.) I am surprised you got a bounce.

In any event, the class is NOT full and I will be happy to take a reservation for you.

:: Clay

Freddo, Sebastian -

I get asked the question about depositing thick chocolates (aka 2-ingredient chocolates, or chocolate with little or no added cocoa butter and/or lecithin) all the time. In fact, I - in conjunction with intrepid and stalwart customers - worked with FBM to develop upgrades to some of their continuous machines specifically to handle thick chocolate.

The basics are a heavier-duty motor in conjunction with a gear box at a different ratio to deliver more low-RPM torque driving the temepring auger, plus beefed up bearings to handle the load. These machines also offer the ability to change the speed of the tempering auger (increasing the dwell time in the tempering pipe results in more even spread of crystals through the chocolate) in 1% increments. Finally, through the use of a pneumatic valve that diverts the flow of chocolate, the continuous tempering cycle is never interrupted, as it is when the auger is stopped and started to regulate the flow for depositing. Taken together, this means that the FBM machines handle chocolates that other brands of continuous tempering machines struggle with.

That said, the smallest machine has a tempering capacity of up to 75kg/hr which is quite a bit more than 50kg/day. Assuming 4, 70gr cavities/mold and 2 molds/minute, that's a throughput of about 65kg/hr assuming you have enough molds and can work without interruption. That means you can do an entire week's worth of bar production in a single day rather than spending an hour or three every day molding bars.

I can tell you from experience - as can several users of these machines - that getting the dosing heads right for these high-viscosity chocolates can be a challenge.

FBM does have timed depositors on all of their machines, and we've found that the smaller machines can be used with two-ingredient chocolate, but it can take some finessing with the settings of the machine to get them to work consistently. We have chocolate makers using machines with 4 and 12kg working bowls successfully depositing 2-ingredient chocolate but it takes time and patience to dial in on the correct procedures. Over the past two years we've learned a lot about how to do it and do a pretty good job.

Something like a Savage melter will work but you'd want their measured doser, which has its own challenges with staying warm enough to keep the chocolate fluid ... but not too warm. If you don't use a measured depositor then you need to figure out an efficient way to fill the molds.

You could buy a volumetric depositor with a heated hopper. You want one cylinder per mold cavity for even dosing. The advantage is that these are incredibly accurate and can easily handle high-viscosity products. They work with an existing tempering machine, but the combination (e.g., Savage kettle and depositor with four heads) is going to cost close to $20k. FBM's Unica is in the same price range.

:: Clay

The competition will be accepting submissions until April 24. Judging will be held in the New York City area shortly thereafter. For information on eligibility, how to enter the competition and critical dates. visit the International Chocolate Awards website .  The competition admission fee is USD $65 plus USD $40 for each entry.

And this year there are new categories for micro-batch chocolate makers. The categories were added to recognize the leading role that the U.S. craft chocolate scene has played in this world-wide movement.

The Americas Competition is one of 11 competitions taking place in 2015, with other regional rounds for France, Italy/Mediterranean, Belgium, Scandinavia, Eastern Europe, the United Kingdom, and Canada.

The World's Final judging will be in London in October.

Maricel Presilla, the awards co-founder and grand jury member, says in the four years since starting the Americas competition, the number of entries has continued to grow in number and quality. "The competition showcases the widespread revolutionary changes that have transformed the chocolate industry in the last two decades," Presilla says.

Judging for the Americas round takes place in NYC on April 28th and 29th. If would like to be considered to be a judge, please go to the judge registration page for more information and to sign up.

 international-chocolate-awards_422x2811.png - 69KB

With the subtitle: "Why do specialty shops refuse to carry one of the best-known craft chocolate brands in the country?"

While "hate" is a very strong word that I don't agree with, it certainly has attracted a lot of attention and comment on Slate, Facebook, and other outlets.

Here's the link to the article  and I recommend reading the comments before sharing your thoughts with ChocolateLife members.

 Slate_MastBros_bros.jpg - 79KB

Chocolato -

All For Sale Classifieds have been moved to TheChocolateLife.info. 30-day listings are $5 and 60-day listings are $10.

:: Clay

@peter3

You are right about the math. Theoretical throughput is much higher. It was late and I was tired and dropped a zero. Anyway, most people I know who ask me for advice about belt width say they need 300mm or 400mm belts when they haven't thought through other issues that will determine the actual rate of production -- theoretical max throughput assumes absolutely no breaks in production which is only possible with fully automated lines.

You can buy neodymium magnets fairly cheaply and create your own finger or grate trap by using a bunch of them. The least expensive Eriez grate magnet I could find is over $600.

If you're using any sort of metal/metal grinder you probably also want to pump the chocolate through a magnetic trap to remove any metal particles. These are even more expensive than the grate magnets.

About ten years ago I was involved in a project to develop a software tool to help manage FDA 10k compliance for a Type 1 medical device (a device that comes in physical contact with a patient). It makes HACCP look like child's play. You have to have a written process in place that talks about how you document meetings where any product design decision even gets discussed incidentally. If you decide to change the company you source grub screws from you have to document that so that, if somehow the grub screw gets implicated in a patient safety report, you can figure out the who, why, where, how, and when the decision got made. FOR EVERYTHING.

While it's not necessary to go to these lengths, it makes a good deal of sense to have such a manual and to keep it up to date. It's exactly the sort of thing that inspectors - and insurance companies - love. A good plan could help you reduce insurance premiums.

First step: There is a manual. The first chapter (chapter zero, traditionally) in the manual talks about why there is a manual in the first palce, how to use it, who it covers, how training is done, how the efficacy of training is measured, and more.

In each chapter there is a revision history for the contents of the chapter. Everyone whose work is covered by that chapter has to sign off they they read the chapter, that they received the proper training, and that they understand what it means and how it has an impact on their work. Do not throw away pages that are outdated! There's a section in each chapter for deprecated pages, if there's an issue the inspector will want to see what changed.

One of the chapters covers cleaning procedures. Another avoiding cross-contamination. Another about the process of accepting beans and testing them when they come in. There's a separate chapter that is a compendium of test results (e.g., aW, cut tests on acceptance). Have everyone sign off on the fact that they received the proper training and know what to do. Of course, you need to actually do the training.

Keep the manuals in a prominent place and make sure the inspectors know where they are when they show up - and that they can see how serious you are about these issues.

Keep in mind also that if you are manufacturing chocolate from cocoa beans in the US that the FDA has some specific guidance for inspectors . Whatever you do (at least here in the US) this is basic stuff that you need to make sure you're paying attention to. One particular requirement is the use of magnets to remove metal in the pre-cleaning step, something that is often overlooked.

-- edited for typos and grammar --

Another thing to know is that there is small business exemption to the nutrition labeling requirements. You have to be under $50 million in sales, under 500 employees, and sell fewer than 100,000 units per product annually to qualify. All you need to do is apply, I don't think there is a fee.

I have issues with any group that promotes itself thusly:

As You Sow is a nonprofit organization that promotes environmental and social corporate responsibility through shareholder advocacy, coalition building,  and innovative legal strategies .

Here's more info on their web site and read the full release:

	AsYouSowRelease
	AsYouSow-release.pdf, 410KB ∞

-- edited to add link to web site --

Care to share the link so that others can work with it as well?

Non-profit As You Sow notified the three firms after testing showed that traces of lead and cadmium in some of the companies' products, including ones from the Scharffen Berger (Hershey), Dove (Mars) and See's (Extra Dark Chocolate). 

Allegedly, the products identified contain lead or cadmium above the single-serving safe harbor level for reproductive harm (or maximum daily allowable dose, MADL) and must be labeled as according to guidelines set forth in California's Prop 65. The article goes on to state specifically that the lead and cadmium are naturally-occuring and are not added during manufacturing processes.

As You Sow also notified more than a dozen other companies for allegedly failing to label heavy metal content properly, including Godiva, Ghirardelli, Lindt, Lake Champlain, Moonstruck, Theo, Trader Joe's Whole Foods, and Vosges.

What the suit fails to recognize is that many of the companies they are do not actually manufacture chocolate.

As You Sow asks that "manufacturers remove the heavy metals from their chocolate products altogether." Is there even technology that can do that?

Read the full article in ConfectioneryNews.com.

Hershey follows suit with a "simple ingredients pledge" and raises the bar (pun intended) just days after Nestlé's announcement.

Pledges to stop using artificial vanilla flavoring (vanillin), emulsifier PGPR, and HFCS; go non-GMO, gluten-free, and source milk freem from rBST in their milk chocolate and Kisses - in the US - by the end of 2015. 

Source: ConfectioneryNews.com

Perhaps a more accurate headline would be: Nestle to remove artificial flavours in US chocolate candies . From the BBC News article:

Swiss food giant Nestle will be removing all artificial flavours and colours from its chocolate products in the US, the firm said on Tuesday.

Its US unit has promised to get rid of artificial flavours and government certified colours in more than 250 chocolates by the end of this year.

For example, the centre of its Butterfinger bars will now have annatto, which comes from the seeds found in the fruit from the achiote tree, instead of certified colours Red 40 and Yellow 5, it said in a statement on Tuesday.

"In CRUNCH, natural vanilla flavour will replace artificial vanillin."

There is no indication that they are going to do any work to improve the quality of the chocolate they use.

read the BBC article
read the Nestlé statement

How did your Kickstarter go?

Paul -

I am going to be vendor-neutral here and give you some information you can use to evaluate systems from a general perspective. Because I represent a specific manufacturer, and I don't used an enrober in a production environment, I am not going to offer my opinions of whether a particular belt is "better" than another. My impression, from watching people work, is experienced belt operators can accommodate to the specifics of any belt pretty quickly.

There are some things that would be really helpful to know when trying to answer this question for you. Chief among them is how many (per hour or day) of what kinds of things do you want to enrobe?

One thing to consider is that the bowl size of the continuous temperer is not the determining factor of throughput. If you want to enrobe (say) 250 pieces per hour and each piece requires 10gr of chocolate, then you only need 2.5kg of chocolate per hour. You don't need a machine with a 25kg capacity working bowl that can temper 75+ kilos of chocolate per hour because you are never going to get close to needing (or being able to use) that much chocolate.

Belt width does affect throughput, but only to a certain extent. Very quickly how the work needs to be decorated becomes a more important factor to consider - and that will determine the number of people need to work the belt. For example, if you're doing 35x35x7mm piece and putting individual transfers on each one, you can get -- theoretical maximum -- 4 pieces per row and 20 rows per meter and if the belt is running at 2 meters per minute then you could (theoretically) be enrobing about 1000 pieces per hour. To reach that production you probably need three people working the belt. One person putting pieces on, another person taking pieces off, and a third person decorating the pieces. You'd be consuming about 10kg per hour of chocolate, so a machine with a 7-12kg working bowl capacity (20-45kg per hour of tempered chocolate) is going to be just fine.

If you are going to be having more than one person working the enrober, then the overall size and arrangment of the enrober belt and temperer need to be considered. It's probably better to have something that is larger in footprint than the smallest machine that will meet your needs.

In reality, there's no significant difference between the throughput of a 180mm belt and a 250mm belt unless the size of the pieces you are making demand that you do wider. Also, most cooling tunnels (should you need one) are sized for belts that are 300mm and wider. As I hinted at above, once you get past a certain throughput, getting product on and off the belt becomes more and more of a challenge. Again, if you have a 300mm wide belt then you can roughly double the throughput of the 180mm belt: at 8 pieces per row, 20 rows per meter, and 2 meters per minute belt speed it means that the person (or people) loading the belt are putting down 320 pieces per minute. It takes skilled and dedicated people to work at this pace and the work itself needs to be extremely well organized.

Other things to look for:

If the pre-bottomer is a standard part of the enrober belt, not an option.
If there is a fan built in to blow off excess chocolate.
If there is a net beater to help remove excess chocolate.
If there is a de-tailer to remove chocolate that would form a foot.
If the chocolate veil is "double curtain" which means that there are two streams.
If the height of the curtain veil is adjustable.
If the speed of the belt is fixed or adjustable as a standard feature

HTH,
:: Clay

The proofing box is a great recommendation. I mentioned the tabletop warmers because of the quantity of chocolate involved. These can be used to keep a lot more melted chocolate on hand and I know that some people use them to warm molds as well.

If you have a used restaurant equipment store nearby you can sometimes find these for significantly less than new. Keep in mind that they also make half-size cabinets.

But, and FWIW, the customer service agent at WebRestaurantStore was wrong when s/he said that all of the warmers they sell require water. Here is one that doesn't. Oh, and a 6x18x26in pan (full-size) should hold ~40 liters. That's way more than 30kg given the density of chocolate is greater than water.

Pantoufle -

I would suggest that you look into the idea of doing your own custom blend of commercial couvertures. If you like the basic taste profile of (say) a 70% but you'd like it a little darker and the 85% is too much, then why not add some 85% (or 90% or 100%) to the 70% to get exactly you want? There's no need to accept just what the chocolate companies make and have to sell.

I know several people who take this approach for both dark and milk chocolate and it gets them exactly what they want, rather than relying on finding an exact match in an existing product. I know some people who even mix brands to get to a flavor profile and price point that they like.

You are not likely to get free samples from online shops. Go direct to company and get a sales rep to call on you. They will have samples. Go to trade shows and visit the booths and get samples.

Three other brands to look into that are not mentioned above are: DeZaan, Agostoni, and Kakao Berlin.

--- edited to fix typos ---

Dom -

There are only the ones from CocoaTown and Santha in this size range. From what people tell me, even though the Premier is small, it's better built than the larger ones. If all you are looking for is a test grinder, the Premier may be the way to go. When you're ready for production, save up your money for a grinder with a larger batch capacity.

Good luck on this venture and we look forward to hearing how it all unfolds!