I noticed that some people were referring to auctions where used bean to bar equipment might be purchased. Can anybody list those sites. I see people buying those antique melangeurs and having them refurbished, but where are they buying them from?

Thanks Solis, I'll be talking to them over the next 48 hours. All the best.

Tomric, ditto. They are light weight, but you would have to spend thousands to get them in hard plastic.

Will do Brian, just finalising an outline of what I require and then I'll send it over to you. Thanks for the interest. Speak soon. Clayton

Clayton.

If you need help with Tomric feel free to contact me directly.

Brian Donaghy

bdonaghy@tomric.com

Greatly appreciated cheebs. Thanks for the heads up.

www.tomric.com

Hey guys, I'm pretty new to the chocolate caper and was wondering if anyone has any experience/knowledge regarding where is the best place to get customised molds made? I'm located in Australia but am more than happy to use a provider in the US or Europe.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Our new website is coming together ... and we welcome comments and suggestions ... www.mexican-chocolate.com . Thanks!

Hi Andy,

i'm having the same issue here in SA but i know few factories that produce papers.

My enrober is arriving any time soon from Italy, but then the problem starts with the paper...

Could you please let me know what are the paper specs in general for enrobers?

Thanks in advance

Nino

20 cm is about 7.8 in, which is about 1.8in too large. These are 6" wide (15cm).

Nothing's ever easy, hehe.

Andy-

What's the size of the rolls? Tomric Systems ( www.tomric.com )sells a 20 cm roll designed for the Selmi equipment but should work on any appropriately sized enrobber.

Brian Donaghy

Nice. I wonder if I found a roll of something too large I could get them to cut it down to size for a nominal charge instead of having them source a large amount. I'll do some further research and report my findings, and if I come back to square one, well we'll be having a large paper buy soon hehe!

I just remembered--they are called paper converters.

Here are three in NC

Any paper salesman for print shops etc. can get to a supplier. They just get it on large rolls and cut it down and rewind it. That is why they need the large numbers. When I found out the amount needed, I too thought I would just keep buying from Canada. I go through about the same amount as you. When I bought the machine, I had them fill up the extra space in the crate with rolls.

Wow, 30 rolls? Goodness. I'm cutting through 1 every 2 months currently.

When you say your paper guy, who are these paper people? I'm at a loss for who to even look up locally, even if they source it far out. I feel though if I'm sourcing it from Seattle that's just as far as Canada at this point. Each state has paper producers, this shouldn't be rocket science to get on a local level you'd think.

Definitely a group buy consideration, spending $1500 +/- for a 3 year supply seems a bit extraneous. hehe. Like to continue to look local first though.

Andy, I had my paper guy source it from Seattle. They needed to know the spool type so I took a photo and showed them. They sent (at no charge) 6 rolls as a test. The paper was a little too shiny and thin. They said they can do other papers if I send in a sample. The cost was a bit cheaper, but you had to order like 30 rolls at a time. If several of us got together, it would be doable. I know 5 people just bought Perfects and might be interested in a group buy of paper.

I tried to bring this older thread back to life , but was unable to. I've had a heck of a time finding a paper supplier. My search queries must just be off, most people don't talk about custom paper spindles or cases-- and the person mentioned in the old thread I can't find hide nor hair of.

I'd like to stop ordering what I consider parchment paper on a 6" spool from Canada to the Carolina's. The freight and distance make it unreasonable on cost. (Enro2 Perfect owner here)

Anyone have some further ideas on where to source spools for their enrober?

Hi Sebastian,

I wasn't sure if a simple calculation of percentage by weight would work. I am making these using a "water ganache" where the only liquid is the wine with only enough butter (about 10%) to hold it together. The result isa little over25% wine by weight, so in theory that would give me about 3%ABV, well within the limits of the Liquor commision.

Thanks for your help.

well, sure.... your vintner should be able to tell you the alcohol content of the wine they want you to use - let's say it's 12%.

Put together an excel spreadsheet, and list your ingredients for your truffle. Weigh your centers both before and after dipping (shell moulding, whatever) 10x to get an average of the amount of chocolate shell. If the wine in your finished chocolate works out to be, say 10% (that's awfully high, but the math is easier), and the alcohol of the wine is 12% - your ABV of the chocolate = 1.2% - and that's going to be on the high end, assuming no alcohol boiled off during the ganache preparation (better to estimate high with the liquor control board involved).

I have been asked by a local winery to develop chocolates with some of their wines. I have developed some recipes I like using a ganache of chocolate, butter and wine (unreduced), however the Liquor Commision has told me the finished product has to have an alcohol by volume of less than 6%. Is there a way to determine what ABV is without sending the chocolates off for analytical testing?

Thanks

Hey Everyone! I make old school chocolates, Cream centers (fondant). I love the flavor of Boston Buttercreams. If any of you have tasted it then you know what I mean. I have had difficulty matching the flavor of some of my favorite shop's and was wondering if any of you have a good recipe for BOSTON BUTTER CREAMS. I would be very grateful. Thanks!!

Thanks Greg! That really helps. If I can cut the flavors back even to 6, that would make a huge difference in cost, labor, everything!

If it were me, I'd offer 200 pieces and at most 4 flavors. My very first order was for 100 pieces and I did 6 flavors. It's a huge waste of time, and way too much of a hassle. If you have any upcoming shows or markets you could always freeze the extras and save them for then. Just make sure you use the right freezing technique.

For an order of 100 I would probably stay very close to my retail price. I wouldn't discount until the order was over $500, but that's up to you.

Hi - I am essentially a hobbyist that is just starting to do some small sales here and there for private parties. I just got a request for a corporate party: Truffles for 100 people, preferably about 12 flavors.

The first question is how many. I figured I would determine that once I had more specifics about the party, but my guess is between 200 and 300. I will take any feedback you have for me on whether or not my estimate is correct.

Secondly, how much should I charge? Generally I charge $1.50 a truffle. For larger orders it seems like the cost per piece should diminish, but I am not sure how far. Also to be honest, doing that many flavors will really stretch me considering that my smallest batch size is 36, and I don't really have an available audience to sell the extras too. With that in mind it makes sense for me to charge more, but I don't want to price myself out of the game. Should I request limiting the number of flavors to make it more economical for myself? Charge more for the variety? Give the customer what she wants despite the personal cost knowing I could see other benefits (future sales)?

Thoughts?

hi thank you for yhour answers. it is a little difficult to get a revolation for me since i live in israel and it is a little complicated since there is no chcocovision representative and to ship it overseas makes it more expensensive than to buy a pavoni mini temper. Do you know the pavoni mini temper ?is itsomething more or less equal to the revolation ? according to what i have seen the Pavoni's representative shop and what i see on site for the revolation it seems very similar the big revolation can temper more than the pavoni but the pavoni (3kg) is more what i need. I think thqt it was Brad that told me he has some problem with the Pavoni but i am very far from the time his machines works (8 hours a day).

Edward it sounds like they do it by hand now, they're looking to gain some efficiency and you can't grow effectively by continuing to do a hand temper.While you can enjoy the extra labor of tempering by hand, if you are small shop owner you've got plenty to do and a lot of it is not needed to be working your temperatures.

As well, how on earth do you hold temper for 3 to 4 days? Overcrystallizationoccurs naturally, you have to break it at some point. Do you not sleep either? hehe!

Anyhow, we've really had the pleasure of working with many of Chocovision's equipment. The smaller grade is a bit louder but what kitchen isn't. The Delta is a great machine as well and we've enjoyed its company for over a year now.

IMHO you should be tempering by hand.

Now, in my shop, I have two 20 kg (45 lb) and one 7 kg (15 lb) melters. I am the chief tempererer, as well as chief bottle washer.

Tempering is essential, and it should be mastered. It can't be mastered if you rely on a machine every day.

BTW, my couverture holds it's temper for 3 or 4 days in the melter

Hi to everybody ! i have decided that if i want to survive with my little shop i have to expand a litle and for that i need a tempereuse but i am confused about what machine to buy. I tend to buy the pavoni minin temperer because it seems easy to work with but i have already bought 2 melting machines that were supposed to be temperer therefore i want to have some tips. I don't need a temperer of more than 3 to 5 kilos but i need to have tempererd chocolate for as long as i need during the day. On the other hand i don't want a temperer working with the seeding method, so what would you recommend ? is there anything else than the pavoni for what i need ? i hope i will receive some insight because i am going to buy the machine and i don't know which one to buy

http://www.djsent.com/products.html?c_id=28

DJS in Markham make them.

In the past few years I have had moderate success with panning choc. hazelnuts, and have been happy with the D+R panning bowl. My sales are growing and the D+R is getting too small as well as developing problems.

The first problem was the shaft snapped off from the thick steel plate. This happened during a production run, and I needed the thing fixed FAST! I found a very competent welder who got it back to me within a day. However when the shaft snapped off, it dented the bowl a bit. Now the bowl has developed cracks where it was spot-welded to the shaft plate. It goes without saying that the warranty is long expired.

Does anyone know of a source for small (5-10 kg capacity) panning machines? I am in Vancouver, Canada.

Thanks Edward.

Very nice equipment!

I have only used a panning device with chocolate, and the ambient temp. should be around 13-14 Celcius.

The temp inside the bowl really doesn't matter much, but for chocolate work, cool air should be blown in during running

Regards,

Edward

I would be grateful if someone could help me with the following questions:

1. What is the ideal room temperature during the process?

2. What is the temperature in the kettle in different stages?

In the picture is a small panning machine that I constructed, capacity 2 kg.

Thank you so much

I'm sure that there are others here with more experience in this than I, but you could start here I suppose: http://www.chocotransfersheets.com

Thanks Michael. Do you know where to source the white ink?

The image is a little small, but I assume a custom transfer sheet would do the job quite nicely.

Hello,

I am new to chocolate.

Does anyone know how white printing on chocolate is achieved as in the picture? I am trying to source white ink but it is proving difficult.

Hope someone can help.

Anna

You could try http://www.glerup.com/gleruprevere/

Josh