Forum Activity for @Skwerl

Ask TCL: Should You Install a Dehumidifier in Your Workshop?

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

Thanks for the response, Clay.  I appreciate your insight.

• The beans look just fine inside and out save for some occasional light "white dust" surface mold on the shells.
• I don't notice the flavor in the nibs at all, and not during the first part of refining, even after most of the acetic has been driven out.
• No odors present in the room with the refiners, either.
• My hygrometer usually reads in the low 60s for sunny days and WAY higher on rainy ones, naturally.  We usually havce a mix here, so I'd say any one batch of chocolate would happen with an average of 65-70% RH.

The thing that really makes me think it could be humidity-related is that the musty scent is only slightnly noticeable when removing chocolate from the melanger, but it is highly noticeable the next day when I go to clean the chocolate-covered machinery. My guess is that while that residual chocolate is sitting there, now cool, it's happily absorbing moisture and giving the source of the mustiness exactly what it needs.

Ask TCL: Should You Install a Dehumidifier in Your Workshop?

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

I don't think those rotary desiccant devices work very well, and I went poking around and found this video from Technology Connections that goes into it a bit.  Your best bet for efficiency is probably still the old fashioned compressed gas heat pump style. 

Desiccant dehumidifiers are fascinating... but not for everyone

I've been having some musty flavors creep into my chocolate with long times in the melanger, so I'm about to experiment and see if I can tame the humidity a bit (air conditioning is rare in Hawaii!).  I'm hoping that's what's causing the problem rather than a fermentation/storage defect.

Odd mealy cocoa butter- Has this bee doctored?

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

Hey, folks.  I received a shipment of cocoa butter from a new vendor and I've never seen a texture like this.  It's a mealy aggregation of a bunch of little spheres.  I thought perhaps it had just cooled in a weird way, but upon melting and cooling, it forms the same texture.  I noticed that even the film left in a pan I melted some in had retracted into little balls overnight.

I'm thinking maybe this has been cut with another fat, but perhaps this is just a type of cocoa butter I've never seen before.  When partially melted (see photo), there appears to be clear continuous and dispersed phases, which seems to support that.  The continuous phase seeems to melt at a slightly lower temperature.  Any thoughts?

Thank you,
Josh