Adding melted chocolate to tempered chocolate
Posted in: Tasting Notes
Thank Brad
Which machine do you find the best?
Forum Activity for @Louise O' Brien
Posted in: Tasting Notes
Adding melted chocolate to tempered chocolate
Posted in: Tasting Notes
Thanks All. I tried this today and the temper held just fine. Keeping dark chocolate melted at 90 degrees in the Bakon, I was able to add an equal amount of melted chocolate to my tempered chocolate with no problem. Thanks again for the help, John
Adding melted chocolate to tempered chocolate
Posted in: Tasting Notes
We have several - Savage Bros, Pavoni, Hilliards, and ACMC
The process works for all of them, as the machine's primary function is to agitate the chocolate.
Cheers
Adding melted chocolate to tempered chocolate
Posted in: Tasting Notes
Brad
What machine do you use?
Louise.
Adding melted chocolate to tempered chocolate
Posted in: Tasting Notes
My staff do this exact thing regularly. It's actually pretty simple.
Let's say you're down to 5lbs of well tempered chocolate, and you need to refill, but you don't want to retemper everything.
Chocolate A = working chocolate
Chocolate B = new chocolate.
Heat B to at least 120 degrees F and stir well to ensure any crystals are fully melted.
Now Cool B to 90 degrees f, and add it to A.
Stir lots for a couple of minutes for the crystals to propogate.
That's it! Super easy. You can add the same quantity of B to A as long as you don't change the temperature of the final product, and as long as A is properly tempered. In fact it even helps if A is over crystalized a bit.
Cheers
Brad
Adding melted chocolate to tempered chocolate
Posted in: Tasting Notes
Assuming that you are not working at the warmest of the range, for ex you can comfortably work with good dark at 29 C or at 31.5 C, deduct a degree for milks and whites. If you are working with dark at lets say 30-30.5 in a 67 degree room you should at the very least be able to add 2 lb of 40 C melted chocolate for every 10 that you have in. Give it an extra good stir for 7-8 seconds and check to make sure that it did not leave the acceptable working temperature range. Ultimately, it is going to take a little trial and error and then you should have no problem.
Adding melted chocolate to tempered chocolate
Posted in: Tasting Notes
Assuming your block chocolate is already in temper, the easiest thing to do is melt the already tempered chocolate carefully so as not to 'break' its temper - that is, melt it and maintain it at about 90F, then add it to your other batch of tempered chocolate. an accurate thermometer is a very useful tool for chocolate work.
Alternatively, if you melt it and break it's temper, you'll still be able to add it to your other batch of tempered chocolate, but in much smaller quantities as adding untempered chocolate essentially 'dilutes' the temper, and will require time for it to regain it's temper.
Adding melted chocolate to tempered chocolate
Posted in: Tasting Notes
Hello All. I have a Bakon mini enrober that I'm having issues with and I also use a chocovision delta. At this point I'd at least like to be able to use the Bakon as a Melter and add that melted chocolate to my tempered chocovision machine, as needed. At what temperature should I keep the Bakon chocolate as I'm adding it to the Delta machine, and should I only add a certain amount at a time. Thanks for the help, John
updated by @John Duxbury: 04/09/15 04:22:51
Shelf stable semi sweet chocolate agave sauce?
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques
Thank you for your comments. I was with the same thinking that the shelf life should be along the same line as the agave I was using.
I am melting the chocolate and then putting it in airtight jars. I saw something about heating the jars in an oven for a certain amount of time to really clean them. Is that suggested? Also if I am putting hot chocolate/agave mixture into a jar and sealing immediately, won't condensation occur?
Thank you for your advice and suggestions.
Shelf stable semi sweet chocolate agave sauce?
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques
I would strongly guess that it will have a long shelf life. As Ruth said, one way to know for sure is to test the water activity and if that's low enough, no microbes will be able to grow in your sauce. Some more thoughts:
The only ingredient you add that really contains water is the agave syrup, so I expect the final product to be at least similarly long lasting than the agave syrup you use, at least in terms of 'spoilage' (the water activity tells you nothing about product deterioration through oxidation or sugar crystallization). The salt you add also helps to increase shelf life. I doubt that you need to add more things to make it stable. More crucial might be the way you process it (Do you heat or cook it during processing? Is it kept in airtight jars?).
Shelf stable semi sweet chocolate agave sauce?
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques
You can get the product tested at most State Agriculture Colleges, or buy your own meter. It isn't a matter of water in the recipe, but available moisture for the bacteria and mold to live on.
Shelf stable semi sweet chocolate agave sauce?
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques
Thank you Ruth. Do you know the most economical way to get that done? Where would water be found in those ingredients?
Shelf stable semi sweet chocolate agave sauce?
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques
Get the water activity checked, then you will know.
Shelf stable semi sweet chocolate agave sauce?
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques
I am jarring a dark chocolate semi sweet sauce and the ingredients are semi sweet chocolate, agave syrup, and sea salt. Will this be shelf stable? Is there something I can add or do to make it more shelf stable?
Any suggestions or ideas are most appreciated.
Thank you,
Kelly
updated by @Kelly Marley: 04/11/25 09:27:36
In need of a starting roast profile for these 3 test origins for my company.
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques
Thank you so much Tom for this!
In need of a starting roast profile for these 3 test origins for my company.
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques
Tom provided some good advice.
I personally go by smell.
I start by roasting a small amount at 170c until they begin to smell burnt. That point in time is my max threshold.
Then I start again with another batch at the same temperature. The beans start smelling chocolatey, then the smell gets acidic (vinegary), and then the acidity slowly tapers off and a nice mellow chocolate smell begins to become prominent. I tend to track the time and stop the roast somewhere between the decline of the acidity, and the point in time where I have recorded them as burnt.
The longer they are in the oven, I find the fewer delicate fruity/floral notes remain. Personally i try and retain some of the fruitiness.
Cheers
Brad
In need of a starting roast profile for these 3 test origins for my company.
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques
This is how i do it and it works very well. Pre heat oven to 170 degC with a high edge baking tin inside. Pour beans into tin so the beans sit in a layer about two beans thick (i have a tray that takes 800g to 1kg so this is the roast scale i work on and hence the times i mention will be based on this batch size). After 5 min at 170 degC, turn oven down to 150 degC and stir the beans every 5 min. After 15 min at 150 degC i taste the beans every five minutes from that point when i stir them until i think they are done. The way i do this is to select two beans one big, one small and shell them, then pop them in my mouth with about half a teaspoonfull of sugar. Chew this to a paste in your mouth and it will give you a rough approximation of what your choc will taste like at that roasting time. As for specific times for those origins well that depends on your taste, a lot of people like a light roasted Madagascar, but i like a darker roast and this can translate to an extra ten min roasting. As a guide though the lightest roast i have done was with some Samoan beans and this was only 20 min at the 150 degC stage and longest was 45 min at the 150 degC stage for a batch of Aussie beans. Generally you will find that bitterness will increase as you roast and astringency will decrease, some can get bitter very quickly like the Samoan which is why the roast was so short. So it is about balancing these two parameters with that of the choc flavour formation, everyone has a different opinion. Good luck, you should be fine.
In need of a starting roast profile for these 3 test origins for my company.
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques
So I run a small business making chocolate bars, and I have some samples of some beans that I was just hoping someone could give me a starting roast profile for so I can get it as close to the correct taste as possible as I only have enough sample beans for 1 batch each 
.
The origins are as follows:
Arriba Nacional from Camino, Verde Ecuador
Trinitario from Gran Couva, Trinindad
and lastly a variety from Sambirano, Madigascar
All are very high quality beans and I am very excited to taste the end product. I have not dealt with these types of beans yet and am looking forward to the responses I get on this subject!
Also, I will be roasting in my home oven for now until I get a proper roaster, just so you know all of the details.
Thank you so much!
updated by @Steven Shipler: 04/11/25 09:27:36
Problematic Baffle with Chocovision?
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques
Hi Maggie
i have been having same issues with rev delta , resulting in batches of chocolate returning to me because of bloom, i contacted chocovision by email, got prompt reply to change baffle , like you i checked chocolate with a thermometer and got different reading then on the display.
mick
kilbeggan chocolate
Problematic Baffle with Chocovision?
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques
Hi Ian!So far so good with the newest baffle ( going about a month strong). We love your machines, just can't figure out why at times our baffle breaks :/ my email is baskets@nibblesbits.comThank you!!
Problematic Baffle with Chocovision?
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques
Hello Maggie:
I work at ChocoVision; can I contact you? Please email me your information to ian@chocovision.com.
Thank you
Ian
Problematic Baffle with Chocovision?
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques
Thanks Clay!
I never thought about the water we are using. I will check that out first thing tomorrow. It didn't appear to be corroded, as I am a bit OCD with cleaning, but again I will check.
I did learn hand tempering through Peter's Chocolate courses and before our machines arrived, did practice that way. You think we go back to that? I am just worried about the time.
Maggie
Problematic Baffle with Chocovision?
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques
Maggie -
A couple of things suggest themselves to me:
1) Try blow drying (low temp setting) both the sensor probe and the connector pins on the baffle immediately after washing.
2) Check the connector pins on the baffle. Do they look at all corroded? I would get your water tested to see what's in it, and then use a very gentle cleaner as well as maybe a pH neutral bottled water (just on the connector) to see if that solves the problems. I would also be very careful about getting water into the holes where the baffle connector pins make contact. They may be corroding, too.
An external thermometer is not the answer here as the machine is not displaying the right temperatures. You'd need to run the machine completely manually, which means -- for the quantity of chocolate you mention -- that it'd be faster and easier to hand-temper. You should probably know how to hand-temper anyway if you don't already because that will help you diagnose what is going wrong.
Problematic Baffle with Chocovision?
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques
Hi All!
I purchased my first Chocovision Rev X3120 back in August of 2013. Since then, we have gone through 4 baffles...first our problem was washing it in too warm of water. We now wash it in very luke warm water. Because I am a gourmet gift basket store primarily, we are only using about 30-50lbs of chocolate per week during off season. Chocovision has been very good about replacing the baffle, but in the mean time, right before the 'death' of our baffle, our chocolate is coming out atrocious (terrible blooming), due to the baffle not reading the temperature correctly. I am now going to start using a thermometer as well, to double check. :/
Is this a common problem with Chocovision? Or is there something we may be overseeing? Chocovision can't figure it out. Please help, so I don't waste anymore product!
Thanks all!
Maggie
updated by @Maggie Calpin: 04/11/25 09:27:36
Introduction with a few questions
Posted in: Allow Me to Introduce Myself
I've never heard of thermoforming. I will look into this. Thank you.
Introduction with a few questions
Posted in: Allow Me to Introduce Myself
Awesome. I will look into this online Ecole School. I'm very interested on both sides of consumer and business. Thank you for the response.
Introduction with a few questions
Posted in: Allow Me to Introduce Myself
Thank you for your response. Very much appreciated.
Introduction with a few questions
Posted in: Allow Me to Introduce Myself
Thank you for your response. Very much appreciated.
Introduction with a few questions
Posted in: Allow Me to Introduce Myself
well, I'm from argentina, so I can't help you that much, but about the molds, polycarbonate molds needs an inyection die, that costs a lot of money to do, so if you are not going to make a lot of molds, really a lot, I don't think it would be cost efficient.
anyways you should do a 3d model of the chocolate, and then it will help for whatever case.
I recommend thermoforming.. which is a cheaper method and it's good too.
I'm sure you could find a confectioner or a chocolate factory that would do the job.. even the mold stuff..
Good luck!
Introduction with a few questions
Posted in: Allow Me to Introduce Myself
Hi Hong,
I am on the other side of chocolate the consumer side and have tasted many dark chocolate bars a long the way
You may wish to check out the online Ecole School for a start. They also have the business side.
I t depends what you wish to go into bars or confections but it doesn't happen over night and you may also want to work for a chocolate maker or retail shop to see if this is what you really want to get into.
I work in a chocolate area of a super market here in NYC.
Introduction with a few questions
Posted in: Allow Me to Introduce Myself
Take a look at the micelli molds. They are a sponsor of the chocolate life. http://www.thechocolatelife.com/group/classifiedsforsaleorwanted/page/micelli-artisan-mold-program As far as copacking goes just use the search link on this site.
Larry
Introduction with a few questions
Posted in: Allow Me to Introduce Myself
Hi Mr. Le,
I cannot say that I am a chocolatier like others on this forum, but my family has been in the chocolate/confectionery business for over 65 years. To have a custom mold made, you could probably contact Tomric at www.tomric.com . If you hope to have someone else make your chocolate bars, I have no idea who you could call. If you want to make your own, I can't think of anything you would need other than a tempering machine, the molds and the wrappers. Don't know what a copacker is, and costs and minimums will depend on who you are buying from, best to contact those companies. For boxes or wraps for your bars, you can contact ModPac. Their stuff is very basic, and probably good to start with.
Introduction with a few questions
Posted in: Allow Me to Introduce Myself
Hi, my name is Hong Le from Los Angeles. I've been working as a web programmer in the internet sector for half of my life. I figure it's about time I try something new and why not get into something that I'm passionate about. I love chocolate and I love business. I hope to meet a lot of interesting people and mentors.
Jumping straight into my questions, here goes...
- I'd like to build a chocolate business but I have no idea where to even begin. I have a mold in mind but have no idea how to produce this mold. According to my research so far, I think I'm looking to produce a polycarbonate mold. Can anyone assist with this?
- Are there any chocolate companies (not sure what they're called) that can help churn out chocolates in my custom mold on a mass scale?
- I recently learned the term copacker. Are there any chocolate copackers that anyone recommends?
- I have no idea about costs and minimums are when it comes to any of the processes so if anyone is knowledgeable in this, can you shine any light on this?
If I'm leaving anything out, please let me know also. Any advice is greatly appreciated. I hope to hear back from anyone and thanks for allowing me to be apart of this community.
updated by @Hong L: 04/15/15 23:39:32
Seeking answers….
Posted in: Make Mine Raw ... (Read-Only)
So is Haiti (in terms of being an unusual case!), since Haiti was part of Hispaniola (DR+Haiti). Most of the beans from Haiti is "criollo". Ask the French, they have come here big time!
Seeking answers….
Posted in: Make Mine Raw ... (Read-Only)
Miguel -
The DR is an unusual case. Not many people know that most ships returning from the New World to Spain stopped in the DR before crossing the Atlantic. Thus, the DR actually has one of the highest instances of genetic diversity in cacao outside of a gene bank and at the place of origin, which appears to be in the Upper Amazon River basin along the modern-day borders of Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Brazil.
This diversity works against the notion that 90% of the DR's production is criollos and from personal inspection on visits I would say that true "pure" criollo production is probably on a par with Venezuela and other origins - not so much. The DR grows about 5% of the world's cocoa - but about 70% of the world's organically certified cocoa. It could not reach those levels of production if 90% of it was criollo.
There are dozens if not hundreds of different varieties of cacao in the DR. For classification for export purposes they are divided into two classes (so we don't confuse them with varieties) - and Miguel is right that they are Hispaniola and Sanchez and for the reasons specified.
CONACADO is one of the, if not the, largest independent co-ops on the island. Other sources include Rizek Cacao (which handles the beans coming from Hacienda Elvesia, one of the better known growers on the island) as well as the Roig family. You may also hear names like La Red.
The DR is a great origin for cacao and by working with the various families, growers, and co-ops you will see the depth and breadth of what is on offer. I heartily recommend visiting and seeing for yourself.
Seeking answers….
Posted in: Make Mine Raw ... (Read-Only)
Hi Mark, what I understand is that the Criollo type of cacao was found at first in America, so it is around 90% of total DR production. If you start to look for DR cacao products you might find two varieties:
- Hispaniola (fermented)
- Sanchez (unfermented)
I have direct contact with a very experienced man called Angel Salvador, he is Manager at BIOCAFCAO and also director in CONACADO. If you need me to get you in touch with him just send me a private message. He could get you anything from beans to butter, liquor or powder.
Seeking answers….
Posted in: Make Mine Raw ... (Read-Only)
Hi Miguel, to be honest I do not know anything about the DR source. What I think I am looking for is a National variety, Criollo, raw. It can be powder or paste. The more I read this blog, and follow links, the more I realize it is complicated!
I would be interested in the leads, thank you!
Mack
Seeking answers….
Posted in: Make Mine Raw ... (Read-Only)
Hello Mack, If you are interested in paste (cacao liquor) from Dominican Republic I think I could get you one or two leads, just contact me.
Seeking answers….
Posted in: Make Mine Raw ... (Read-Only)
Wow, this is such good information, thank you Clay. You took a lot of time and energy to write educate me, and I not only appreciate this, I also need it. I can see I have a steep learning curve ahead of me, which is fine, I look forwards to learning.
Its midnight, and I just found a few replies in my junk folder, and pulled them out. I will follow up on the links tomorrow.
Once again, thank you!
Seeking answers….
Posted in: Make Mine Raw ... (Read-Only)
Mack -
What Sebastian is referring to is the fact that even if the package says it's "raw" the chances are exceedingly high that at some point between the time the pod is harvested and the paste is finished, that the cacao has been subjected to temperatures exceeding (104F, 110F, 118F - pick your max temp as there is not universal agreement) for an extended period of time. One place that's suspect that is usually not checked is the instantaneous shear temperature under the grinding mechanism.
One area Sebastian is alluding to is that "raw" chocolate almost certainly has a much heavier microbial load due to the fact that it's never been subjected to temperatures that can kill micro-organisms that have the potential to make people really sick.
Here is one of the more popular articles on raw cacao on TheChocolateLife. The author, Ben Ripple, of Big Tree Farms, is a supplier of "raw" cacao.
You should not expect to purchase raw cacao from a farmer directly. Prices are high(er) because this is a niche market and that will automatically lead to higher prices.
Simplest kind of wrapping is flow-wrap. A decent machine will cost at least $20k. If you want to wrap with foil - then it will cost a lot more. Even if you buy a good used machine for cheap, making it work in production can cost thousands.
Finally, there is no such thing as Criollo Arriba - at least in the sense that you're using high-quality Criollo beans. Arriba is a name given to the typical flavor of Nacional beans from Ecuador. Nacional is a member of the Upper Amazon Forastero grouping. However, if the seller means "criollo" in the linguistic sense - it's Spanish for local, as in comida tipica y criolla, typical native food - then all that means is Arriba beans that are grown here (presumably Ecuador).
Seeking answers….
Posted in: Make Mine Raw ... (Read-Only)
Yes i know they are saying it's raw - i'd urge you to read the forums as it's been thoroughly covered. If there are still questions after doing so, we can cover any new ground.