Forum Activity for @Chocotoymaker

I use this guy

Jerry Hartje
National Sales Manager
Artistic Carton Co.
1975 Big Timber Road
Elgin, IL 60123
(c) 847-409-4138

Go to http://www.aspecialtybox.com/ ...they also have some wonderful options. Little more pricey than Nashville and Modpac, but looks it too.

Good Luck!

Hi

I had visited Nashville Wraps and did not find what I want, I just emailed Modpac, thanks for the tip !

Stephane

Have you tried Nashville Wraps or Modpac?

Hi

I am looking for a supplier for bar packaging.. I found chocolat-chocolat in montreal but they do not have what I need.. ideally I would like to find a pillow box with a window that would allow me to insert a 100g bar with some toppings on it, all that I found allowed no room, the fit was too tight.

any ideas ? I would not want to go all the way to china, i do not need too many right now.

thank you !

Stephane

I thought this might be of interest to some of you. I have alway purported this was the case. How can it be that a great civilization that built the pyramids and charted the stars, ate and drank bitter gruel! Montezuma served Cortez and his men 500 dishes on his arrive toTeotihuacn. The word mole is used in combination with many mayan word meaning sauce of some kind, like guacamole.

Experts: Mayas may have used chocolate as spice
By MARK STEVENSON
Associated Press
MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Archaeologists say they have found traces of 2,500-year-old chocolate on a plate in the Yucatan peninsula, the first time they have found ancient chocolate residue on a plate rather than a cup, suggesting it may have been used as a condiment or sauce with solid food.
Experts have long thought cacao beans and pods were mainly used in pre-Hispanic cultures as a beverage, made either by crushing the beans and mixing them with liquids or fermenting the pulp that surrounds the beans in the pod. Such a drink was believed to have been reserved for the elite.
But the discovery announced this week by Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History expands the envelope of how chocolate may have been used in ancient Mexico.
It would also suggest that there may be ancient roots for traditional dishes eaten in today's Mexico, such as mole, the chocolate-based sauce often served with meats.
"This is the first time it has been found on a plate used for serving food," archaeologist Tomas Gallareta said. "It is unlikely that it was ground there (on the plate), because for that they probably used metates (grinding stones)."
The traces of chemical substances considered "markers" for chocolate were found on fragments of plates uncovered at the Paso del Macho archaeological site in Yucatan in 2001.
The fragments were later subjected to tests with the help of experts at Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi, as part of a joint project. The tests revealed a "ratio of theobromine and caffeine compounds that provide a strong indicator of cacao usage," according to a statement by the university.
"These are certainly interesting results," John S. Henderson, a Cornell University professor of Anthropology and one of the foremost experts on ancient chocolate, said in an email Thursday.
Henderson, who was not involved in the Paso del Macho project, wrote that "the presence of cacao residues on plates is even more interesting ... the important thing is that it was on flat serving vessels and so presented or served in some other way than as a beverage."
"I think their inference that cacao was being used in a sauce is likely correct, though I can imagine other possibilities," he added, citing possibilities like "addition to a beverage (cacao-based or other) as a condiment or garnish."
The plate fragments date to about 500 B.C., and are not the oldest chocolate traces found in Mexico. Beverage vessels found in excavations of Gulf coast sites of the Olmec culture, to the west of the Yucatan, and other sites in Chiapas, to the south, have yielded traces around 1,000 years older.
But it does extend the roots of Mexican cuisine, and the importance of chocolate, further back into the past.
"This indicates that the pre-Hispanic Maya may have eaten foods with cacao sauce, similar to mole," the anthropology institute said in a statement.

Darlene:

First off, chocolate doesn't have any water in it, so you're not letting it dry, you're letting it cool down so that the proper crystals form in the cocoa butter. If you're working in a room that's 68F you don't necessarily need to go a lot cooler. I would start out thinking about the Rev 1 - and for that I need to know if the marbling effect you refer to is new, or is something that's always been an issue.

How long do you wait to start pouring after the Rev 1 beeps at you and tells you it's ready?

So Clay,, Would you say I need the proper refrigerator..I am still having this problem.

Thank You

After tempering? Ive noticed it depends on the climate you have where youre working, I like to leave it at room temp until the edges start to pre-crystallize, and then put it in the fridge. But if the day is slightly hot I put right in the fridge

I am using Felchlin and pouring into molds but my last batch was marbleing,I have a REV 1 to start out with but was letting my suckers air dry in room tempature almost 68 degrees , is that too warm? WOW it sooo hard to start all over! Lesson learned.

Thank you,Clay.

Darlene:

When you say you are working with ... what are you making? Most chocolate products can benefit from being but in a cool (not cold) place after pouring to ensure proper crystallization, however most refrigerators are set way too cold.

Ideally, your working environment is between 60-68F. Crystallization can be done effectively at about 55F, but it's important to have sufficient air flow to remove the latent heat of crystallization. Most refrigerators are set at about 39F and don't have nearly enough air flow.

I am working with the medium dark chocolate..and wanted to know if it is always is supose to be placed in the refrigerator after pouring..I need some suggestions.

Thank you

I have a business that prints on chocolate. There are several of us in the US. Our current chocolate provider is on the brink of going out of business and we are looking for an alternate supplier. This is a very specific formula of chocolate with a royal icing on top which is what we print on. There would be about 6 to 8 different chocolate sizes. The current supplier is in NY so we are looking for someone that is more centrally located. The orders would probably be in the thousands per month. The icing would need to be manually applied. We have the specs for everything and should be pretty easy to do.

Let me know if you are interested or know of a shop that would be interested. You can check out the final products. We are looking for someone to do just a subset of the products on the website. www.ImagesPrintedOnChocolate.com

For chocolate bon bons that use peanut butter or praline paste there should be more nut paste than chocolate for a smoother mouth feel. Also, you might want to explore the idea of using cocoa butter to crystallize the chocolate in your filling recipe. When you crystallize the chocolate and then quickly work in the nut paste, you trap the oils of the nut paste from migrating all over the place. I hope this makes sense. Good luck!

Hi Christine, Two things, first off from what I've learned and read, if you completely seal the truffle in chocolate it should be air tight and be good for a month or more. Also if you want to extend the shelf life you could add a small amount of invertase to it and this should help as well.

The ganache is an oil in water emulsion. So the water/syrup phase has a lot to do with texture. Peanut butter loves to suck up moisture, and so will have a dramatic effect on texture in no time. This is why nut pastes are made into pralines where there is no water.

The oil in the peanut butter when blended with chocolate will be enough to soften the texture you look for. A basic praline is 1:1 nuts:sugar, ground, and refined. There are French, German, and other types mostly differing in if the sugar is caramelized, boiled, or just used without any heat. Then added with chocolate for gianduja. Nice soft texture, smoothness depending on how well the praline is refined. You should need no added oils.

I know that people only consider a truffle a truffle if it's made with cream. I have no idea how the truffles that are in boxes for ages in stores are made.

I use organic, tasteless coconut oil for meltaways. Maybe it would give truffles a longer shelf life. You wouldn't have the bulk of the cream, but you would have centers that melt in your mouth. I'm just throwing this out there. I have no idea if it would work. I don't do much with truffles.

Hello Everyone..

I need help in this matter...I make my ganache, I add more chocolate than cream and butter to it, because Im trying to increase its shelf life, as I have mentioned before I will be selling at different selling point where I cannot control the temperature. If I use creamy ganache I think the chocolate wont last more than a week or a week and half, correct me on that one if Im wrong.

So my question is: when I put my inclusions to my ganache, I will be more sepcific, I add peanut butter to the ganache and then pipe it in the chocolate bonbons...when I tried the chocolate and took a bite, the feel of the ganache was crumbly and hard, not silky smooth, yummy tase...any advice??? please help! What am I doing wrong?

thank you so much for your help i definitly do as you say and i will look for the bergamot oil!

The thing about tea is that the flavor characteristics we tend to like (essential oils, etc) come out first during an infusion. The things we tend not to like (tannins, etc) come out later. Tannins typically result in a "bitter" or "astringent" taste. It's a "chewy" sensation toward the back of your mouth. Whether we're talking about tea, coffee or wine, a little tannin can be very good. A lot almost never is.
If you are experiencing this in your ganache, the most likely reason is not any type of reaction with the cream. Rather, you are most likely over-infusing your tea into the cream. Generally speaking, there are three ways to pull back on this. First, infuse the tea in cream for less time. If there's any way to infuse the tea for a shorter period of time and still get the final flavor you want, this is the way to go. Second, lower temperatures. Heat brings out the tannins. Turn the heat down. Third, surface area. Some teas have large leaves, some have small. The smaller the leaves, the faster the tea will infuse and the faster those tannins will rush into your cream.
As a side note, Earl Grey gets its distinctive flavor from oil of bergamot. If you add this oil directly rather than infusing tea into the cream you might have more luck, along with more control over the flavor profile of the final ganache. Just a thought.

I think the idea of cold infusion is an excellent idea. My method for cold infusing tea is to let it steep in the cream overnight. The next day I put the mixture into a sauce pot and heat the liquid and tea leaves until warm. I immediately strain. Heating the tea mixture up releases a lot of the infused cream that is trapped in the tea leaves. This method works for me and I never have that over extracted bitter taste. I encourage you to experiment and discover which method works for you. Good luck!

thank you very much for your suggestion i will try it

Try making a cold infusion. Just put your tea and cream in a jar and leave in the fridge for 24-36 hours. DO NOT SQUEEZE THE TEA when done, just let it drain. Use as you would use any normal cream. Use a little more than you would need to compensate for what will be absorbed by the tea.

hi

i want to make an Earl Grey ganache. I had some bad experience with it : after a few days the interior turned bitter and i don't know why, is there any reaction between cream and tea? may i infuse it too long ? i would like to have some insights. thank you

Are you talking about your ganache core or the shell?

I always enjoy when people say you can'trefrigerateor freeze your chocolate. Sure you can. It just takes care and recipe testing. We work in stages and all our cores are prepped ahead of time. Cores whether spherical or square are refigerated, we at times might freeze blocks of ganache if we're not ready to work through it yet. We focus on bulk enrobing runs, once readywe return to room temperature before the run.

Now at that point you have to think about chocolates contraction/expansion and freezing enrobed chocolates will more than likely crack in the flux. We treat our chocolates well and keep them at about 65'-68' from here on out.

So again, where is your grain, just the shell or in the core or in both? What kind of ganache are you making? A water, cream, syrup? Is it consistent across your infusions? What kind of infusion? Is it a pre-extracted infusion or an oil?

So much multivariate testing. :D Always be testing.

Chocolate stores best at around mid to high 50*F. Refrigerators are generally colder than this but the larger concern is that they are moist environments.With that being said, you can store your chocolate in a refrigerator in a well sealed plastic container with a couple of layers of paper towel around the chocolate to absorb any moisture. Bring the chocolate in the container up to room temperature before opening it to keep the cold chocolate from pulling moisture from the air and forming condensation. This is quite a bit of hassle and risk forcommercialproduction in my opinion.

If warm chocolate in the mold or chocolate that has been inadequatelytempered -- as I mentioned earlier -- is placed in a cold environment it will start to pull the sugar in the chocolate itself to the surface (sugar bloom) obviously quicker in the former case.

Ok, I'm new here and this makes me curious. When Adam and George say chocolate should never be in the refrigerator, does that mean finished chocolates or bulk chocolate (callets, etc.)?

George is correct, refrigerators are generally too cold for storing chocolate. A grainy texture may also develop in time when there is a wide variation in temperature between the chocolate (too hot) and the mold (too cold).

There are two types of bloom, sugar bloom and fat bloom. It sounds like it's sugar bloom. Chocolate should NEVER be in the fridge.

Hey Members

I've been making good headway with my chocolateexceptthat after a couple of weeks in the fridge it gets grainy.. nodiscolorationto suggest bloom n it still tastes great but themouth feelis like chocolate coated castor sugar n this happens after a couple of weeks

any ideas n inputs are greatly appreciated

Regards

Chirag Bhatia

The film we used was from a company called Solar Gard. We had 4 32"x 32" windows and 2 doors tinted. We ended up going with a film that was slightly tinted but not too dark so you cant see in. During the day there are times when the sun is shining on the windows and it is hard to see in. So far we did not have any more damage to products in the store. The only damage we had were some chocolate pretzels in the window display melting.

I ended up getting my windows and doors tinted soon after
I posted. I paid about $500 for the tint and installation. So far
I have not had any problems since we had the windows tinted.

Nope. Strata is very picky about that, and it is expensive to install and darkens the room dramatically. Also, if the window ever needs to be replaced, new film has to be installed.

No, I'm happy with my el-cheapo Ikea blinds

This is what I did in our retail store... not through this company, but you get the idea... I paid $1200 to cover the front of my store (two 8x8 blinds) and had photographs printed on the blinds. one is of caramel apples and the other of dipped strawberries. so... when the sun is shining directly into my store and I have to lower the blinds.... (always in the early morning winter months.... i don't have to lower blinds in the summer because we have an awning that protects the windows....) I am still advertising products that I sell daily....

I have my employees lower them at night and then i roll them up at about 10 am sept oct nov.... 11am dec jan feb mar.... 10am apr may jun july and august they don't need to be lowered. It all depends on how the sun hits the front of your store.

morning sun is intense and damaging but i don't think i would want those shades down in the afternoon.... note to those opening new locations..... this is something you never think of when you are opening a new store.... "When does the sun hit my window?" Shades down often says CLOSED to your customers..... you want those shades down as little as possible.

even if there is snow on the ground outside, the sun can melt chocolate through the window. if the shades are down, the doors are open..... i don't care how cold it gets....

I hope this helps.... check out the link for an idea....

http://www.blindsgalore.com/WindowProduct.asp?id=709416&ph=36&pw=24&utm_medium=shoppingfeed&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=googleshoppingfeed&gclid=CIrX_qmY_bICFQjZQgodvnYAyQ

Tinting can get expensive, depending on the film, the size of windows, if you have it done or do it yourself, and how much sun you want to block out. (the darker the film, the more expensive) If you work in a Strata bldg, or have a land lord looking for any kind of excuse, it's best not done. And if the a window ever needs replacing you have to re-apply all over again

Blinds are your best option. I have the finest blinds Ikea has--at $20.00 a pop. This is the gauzy type of open mesh material that actually looks classy, and you can roll it up or down as you wish. Venetian blinds are another option, but are a dust magnet, bamboo is another option

I am having trouble with the sun shining/glaring into my store and causing some of the chocolates to bloom. The sun does not shine directly in but when cars park in front of the store the glare from them makes our chocolates bloom. I am looking into getting our windows tinted but I don't want to get them tinted too dark as I want people to be able to look in. I am looking for advice on how to solve this problem.

Thanks,

Jeff

Hi All,

I live in Mexico, lucky me and love every moment of it. Recently I have started making my chocolates at home, using organic cacao powder and butter brought from my last shopping in Whole Foods. Does anybody knows where can I buy in Mexico the Mexican organic cacao, butter and chocolate nibs? Would appreciate any contact information.

Beata Prazmowska

Mexico

Chazz,

I get 70% fair trade organic chocolate from Ciranda ( it is labeled CocoaRica), and 32% fair trade milk chocolate from Puratos. Both are Peruvian in origin. You need to buy it in 2,000 pound pallets from these suppliers. Sweet Earth Chocolates carries a variety of intensities of chocolate, and can be purchased in smaller quantities (for considerably more per pound). All of these are in wafers of various sixes.

Best wishes,

Dale

Thanks Gene, I'll try them.

For years, I've used the organic Callebaut chocolates for my chocolate truffles. I had set my mind to switch to the new Valrhona Andoa line of organic and fair traded chocolates, only to learn that they are in dispute with the FDA over the "organic" status of the soy lecithin. Valrhona is now prohibited from selling the Andoa line as organic until the issue is resolved.

Does anyone have any good leads as to a high quality, organic chocolate, preferably in discos form, and bulk (kilos)? I suppose that I could always go back to Callebaut, however I prefer the fair traded status to compliment the organic status. I use dark in the 70% + range and milk in the 30% + range. Any leads? Thanks.

Hello again

I`ve finally found chocolate supplier of private label chocolates so very soon I`ll be the exclusive representative for the international trade. If anyone needs private label good quality chocolate in bulk, send me an email here.

Best regards!

Hello,

We have few shops for chocolates in Bulgaria(Eastern Europe).We would like to expand ourbusiness. We are looking for a Chocolate Bar manufacturer to produce chocolate squares for us.

Can anyone assist in finding a small/medium size company interested in manufacturing them? Ideally we are looking at anything between single serve 12gram up to 16 gramsquare bars(3x3 cm or 4x4 cm). Like Neapolitana chocolates but bigger. Initial trial run will be between 10 000-20 000 units with future orders from 20 000 -30 000 units on a monthly base. Need not be labeled at the trial stage, just foil packaging is fine for the initial run.

Target market is the Eastern Europe.

Will be better if the manufacturer is from EU, but anysuggestionsare welcome.

I appreciate any leads or questions from interested manufacturers.

Regards,

Darina