Depends a bit on your factory, i suppose. Generally speaking I like acid brick for floors and dairy tile for walls. It's very easy to clean, can support a lot of pressure if you've got heavy equipment, and is pretty durable should you drop something on it.
We are currently looking to replace the flooring in our factory - now the question I have, is what is the best flooring for a chocolate factory?
Tiles? Vinyl?
Any advice on what is durable, and is easy to keep clean would be much appreciated.
Please send all emails to "thechocolateyogi@gmail.com" or try Nathaniel@cacaoyogi.com 
your email is not working> I tried and it was returned, left a message maybe you can write me at beliciousbeth@gmail.com? I am interested in powder paste,and butter, raw and roasted. thanks, Beth
I need 500 lbs in the next few weeks, what can you do for me, please quote, send info on farmer, pictures, etc. rafoley@qzina.com
we're on it Antonino!
Dear Nathaniel,
could you send me an email to antonino@cocoafair.com and we can discuss quantities, delivery time and prices?
Greetings Chocolate connoisseurs,
Just letting you all know that I am a direct source for (certified organic) 100% Arriba Nacional Cacao sourced from these the pristine high elevations of these regions: Country of Origin: Ecuador (Vinces, Manabi, Esmeraldas). Grown in high elevations and irrigated by all natural springs, glacier melt waters, and natural rain fall, these trees span from 30-80+ years old. Grown in these highly mineralized volcanic soils, we bring our cacao (pods) down by donkey back from the mountains to small collection centers then transport to process in our facility near Guayaquil. We have the following cacao products :
Cacao Beans, Peeled Beans, Butter, Nibs, Paste and Powder.
The cacao is gently washed with a mild ozone treatment to eliminate any negative bacteria, fungus, coliforms, etc. The first stage is the beans - they are fermented for around 3 days to bring out the natural, rich and complex flavor and then a portion are hand peeled when "wet." The remaining are then sun dried. After they are sun dried a portion is offered in their whole form with peel and then the remaining go to be winnowed or crushed/peeled to generate the nib form of cacao (the outer skins are blown off after winnowing). From the nib they are then stone ground to generate the paste which is then poured into moulds and then solidified. While still in a ground state the cacao is then pressed for the cacao mass and oil. The oil is portioned out and solidified for the cacao butter. The remaining is cacao mass that is milled into cacao powder. There is temperature monitoring at all states of the processing to ensure its Raw state. All of the cacao is certified organic and certified Kosher by Earth Kosher.
We do offer lightly roasted selections for certain situations as well.
As you all know, true Arriba Nacional is Ecuador's pride and joy heritage, heirloom variety in which the recent "infestation" of CCN-51 and other hybridized varieties has been making it in the cut for most if not all of the cacao exported from Ecuador on larger scale operations no matter what the claims may be. The demand for Arriba Nacional helps preserve Ecuador's heritige otherwise getting drowned out by CCN-51's mass production style farming operations that threaten the highest quality, best tasting cacao on the planet. This not even mentioning the use detrimental farming techniques not doing anyone a favor (except the $$ makers) including the land itself to the end user. (Sacrificing quality for quantity in this game)
FYI: CCN-51 are trees grown usually in open sun and mono cropped with no thriving ecosystem surrounding them akin to traditional shade jungle grown cacao (like our Arriba Nacional- full thriving eco-systems in wild) CCN-51 is grown because you can get a higher price for this varieties higher oil content and is a high yielding plant. This originally geared towards the cosmetics industry is now exported as Ecuadorian cacao used in many finished chocolate products, unless you are getting it from us- the only exporter from Ecuador with True Arriba Nacional.
Your dollars demanding this variety helps local people earn wages far beyond the normal pay rates out there, for we have our own "sense certification" process that ensures we pay our workers wages far exceeding normal jobs they would have there. We feel it is integral for our end product that everyone along the way is completely taken care of for the success of our company and desire to preserve and make accessible the variety (Arriba Nacional) that chocolate enthusiasts have sought after for years ever since it was discovered by the first European chocolate makers that found Arriba's flavor profile to be top in the world.
Our trees are essentially wild, and are *certified organic* and we source our cacao to reach our high standards *by the pod* to ensure we truly have Arriba Nacional. NO aggregate sourcing chucking CCN-51 in our mix and passing it under another name. We have true Arriba Nacional, and that is 100% guaranteed by only accepting pods, and not beans which are difficult to truly judge by looks alone, whereas the pods are clean indicators of the variety.
Our warehouse is in Oakland, CA so if your in North America it is very easy to connect you. If in other areas of the world, we can likely ship it directly from Ecuador with special arrangements.
Contact Ordering Info:
Nathaniel-direct: 925-395-4933 or email at: thechocolateyogi@gmail.com
To receive more information regarding the products I am offering. I am capable of doing all types of quantities from 100lbs of beans, paste, butter, or powder to orders exceeding 1-ton at a time or more. Let me know what your needs are and I will take care of you.
Thanks Davy. I think using it in a filling is the best idea. Here is the recipe I used to make the 50ml of gluhwein I needed.
50ml dry red wine, I used a good cabernet
t cinnamon
t cloves
all spice
1 orange rind
1 slice of lemon
Why don't you make a cake or something and use this chocolate as topping, or use it in a cream ganache between the layers of the cake?
What recipe did you use? I love gluhwein, so I believe you as you say it a great taste :)
Hi, I was making someGlhwein truffles using Glhwein I made myself. Sadly it was one of my total disasters. I drained the fat off and stored the remaining glob of chocolate in the fridge. Today I thought I will grate it and use it to make something for ourselves. It turned out exceptionally tasty when I grated it. Now I sit will all the lovely grated chocolate that I do not want to waste by using it as chocolate chips, it's just too tasty you all the lovely Christmas tastes coming through and it is smooth, not at all grainy.
So, any ideas what I can do with it. I thought of the possibility of using it in a cassata-like ice cream. Any better ideas? It sitting there in my fridge and I do not want it to go to waste.
Brian - I think this is a really excellent idea and a way to incorporate the cocoa-infused vodka in the same beverage! Not a Black Russian ... what might a good name be?
mildly alcoholic cacao smoothie? could be nice for the beach (its summer here). muddle the nibs with mint for a mint chip martini? add them to any kahlua or baileys based drink?
these are all wild guesses obviously.
whats your process for the cacao/vodka, just soak them in there? how long? what temp? i love vodka and have lots of cacao, i might start my vodka as soon as tomorrow.
brian
I've been thinking about this, too, and playing around with grinding them up to a very fine, smooth, paste (they're pretty soft) and adding them cake/brownie batter. I haven't made any in a while - but it's on my list for something to do the next time I make a batch.
and the squirrels that eat them. And the boas that eat the squirrels.
grow them all the time here - keep it in a bright (indirect sunlight seems to work the best), very warm (85+ F), very humid place. Unfortunately, where I live, there's winter, and the only place in the house that meets those requirements is the bathroom usually. Water every 2-3 days (watering frequency/amount is the trickiest part for me, as it's very easy to overwater). In the summers, the trees thrive outside, but watch the night time drops in temperature. Japanese beetles also see cocoa as a special treat.
If you manage to keep it alive for a few years, you can hand pollinate. The largest one i've managed to eek out has been about 6' tall (and i've got a very, very black thumb..)
Growing a Cocoa tree indoor seems quite a cool thing to do, does any one have any link/direction on "how to grow a cocoa tree at home"? ... Thanks
NIno
Davy:
If you can grow cacao in New York City, you can grow it in Belgium. Indoors, under a daylight grow lamp (12 hours/day, regular cycles). You will probably want to start out on top of a heating mat, too. This will keep the tree warm and if you put a tray on top of the mat and put water in the tray the warmthwill help keep the moisture level up, too.
One reason you won't get pods is no pollinating insects, not just climate. I have seen pods on the trees at the NY Botanical gardens - never more than one or two. But they keep the ground under the tree completely clean of leaf litter and don't like many kinds of insect in the greenhouses, so no pollinators.
Where do you live?
I know you'll need a good climate for producing the pods, but the tree on its own, any chanse it will grow in Belgium? :)
I've got a couple potted cacao trees on my kitchen table. I guess I could move them into my bedroom, but I don't think that's what you're going for.
I was just thinking about life in the campo. Just wondering how many of us have slept within a 100m from a cacao tree? I am getting pretty close to 1000 days. How about you?
Hi everyone,
I'm new to chocolate makingso forgive my ignorance on the subject. I'm trying to learn the sciencebehind tempering, beta crystal formation, temperatures, seed chocolate, etc.
I'm in the process of buying a continuous tempering machine but I've found a few sites that state you can avoid re-tempering chocolatesince most chocolateis alreadytempered and as long as you don't exceed 90 F and melt slowly you can maintainthe original temper.
I'm planning on doing quite a bit of molding and I am curious if this is a viable option with a temperature controlled melter.I assume it's not thiseasybut tempering machines are quite expensive so I thought I'd askbefore purchasing.
Thanksin advancefor any assistance/advice.
Scarcity and uniqueness can also drive premiums. There are plenty of absolutely wonderful fine flavor cocoas out there that have amazing flavor profiles that people would (and do) pay premiums for. One of the Asian submissions this year to the aforementioned competition tasted like caramalized pears - now, i've been in cocoa for a long time, and this is the first time I've seen a cocoa that tasted like that. It's one of the reasons I've stayed in it, no matter how much one knows, it seems in cocoa there's always something new to experience and learn!
Most regions are heterozygous collections of multiple clonal varieties to begin with, primarily a function of their disease resistance, productivity, or just dumb blind happenstance with not much thought given to why that particular tree was planted. There are many, many clones to choose from, and numerous ways to approach planting materials - you can plant a new tree, you can side graft, you can shoot graft, etc. Your planting material absolutely, unequivocally influences the flavors you can get from your cocoa. Where it's grown and the agronomics at play also can have a huge impact on your flavors (soil nutrition, composition, elevation, climactics, etc). As I'm sure you're aware, by altering the fermentation and drying conditions, you can get a 100 different flavors from the same beans, so obviously there's much that can be done here as well.
Oftentimes, cocoa buyers are buying from 4000 miles away, and may rarely have 'boots on the ground' to know exactly what's occurring, regardless of what they think they're buying and what they think is happening 8-) Hence I'm guessing why you reference your experience in Papua. There are lots of reasons a corporation may have for identifying specific locations, of which flavor may be only one element.
Interestingly, on the wine - I enjoy wine. I'd say given my work in chocolate, my taster is a bit more developed than your average person. Last year, I had the experience of having a $25,000 bottle of wine. Now, it was good, to be sure, but I'm not sure it was that much better than a $50 bottle - I've had some pretty darn good $50 bottles. It could be that for me, in wine, my taster isn't sufficiently developed to appreciate that level of sophistication; if that's the case, the wine is $24,950 too expensive for me - there may be those out there who experience the same wine very, very differently than i do, and appreciate it much more - for them, the price may be justified. I find that to be the case for me with cocoa quite often - i 'see' things in cocoa that others simply don't pick up on, just because I've been doing it for so long and I'm so familiar with it. Generally speaking, those cocoa's that I love the most, I find that the general population has very little interest in, as they're too different from what they've come to expect as 'chocolate' as defined by their mainstream experiences.
However, it could also be that the wine's really meant to be a $50 bottle, and what we're seeing here is the power of marketing. Either way, the fact someone bought it reflects there's a value proposition there, be it on the merits of the intrinsic properties of the wine (it's flavor), or the extrinsics (marketing panache)
Thank you so much for this.
I don't think there is a danger of mainstream mild WA cocoas being lost to flavour. Take out Cameroon and the minor producers and we have basically CI, Ghana and Nigeria and 60% of world production. If that became flavour it would then be bulk flavour and consequently too mainstream to be unique. The bulk boys could not/would not pay a premium for such big quantities! (They might charge for a resulting product but certainly would not pay!!)
I agree on Gourmet. For me it is a tag people give themselves for their own ego trips and to prove they are "superior" to mere mortals like me with disturbingly underdeveloped taste buds and a dastardly poor knowledge of the 'finer' aspects of life, or, they give to their products to charge inflated prices. (I have a similar opinion of wine and wine connoisseurs who are really tripping most of the time.)
However, would you say that where planting materials, post harvest practices, etc are givens in that the trees are where they are in a given soil with a given climate (albeit variable season on season) and customary fermenting and drying systems, that a (unique) flavour can more usually be developed during the roasting? Is this the only time during processing?
I recall from PNG when I lived there that Rowntree went great lengths to identify and approve particular plantations and would buy by "plantation mark" only. (The fact that we used to buy in from other plantations to increase our supplies to them is purely incidental!!) However, my point is, would it be necessary to go to these lengths to identify good sources of WA flavour cocoa sources?
Are there other fora around the world where cocoas compete for the same kudos?
No new glasses required - you changed it to 14!!
In this years Cocoa of Excellence competition in Paris, 14 of the 50 cocoa's that were judged were from W. Africa. Now, many, many more were submitted, but only 50 get entered. Most of them were trying to deliver something other than conventional West African flavor profile, and many did just that. I tasted each and every one of them - some were better than others. However, there's currently a very vivid fine flavor profile that exists in many W. African countries already, predominately appealing to consumers in Europe and Japan - I'd hate to see the entirety of W. African flavors shift to something else (not that I think there's any danger of that happening, however the breadth of flavors across the world i think is quite marvelous, and to see them shrink would be less than ideal).
"Gourmet" means different things to different people. For some, "gourmet" is nothing than fancy packaging. For others, it has more to do with *absence* of flavors to give them a blank pallet to work from to allow their other ingredients room to shine. Yet others, it's defined more by the physical handling characteristics of the the chocolate (low viscosity). For some - it's very much defined by a unique flavor. W. African cocoas can deliver on all of these. The last one is probably the hardest to break into, as for many who are peripherally involved with cocoa/chocolate (even for those who believe they are experts, often times), there may be a perception gap equating W. African with bulk commodity and nothing special. Of course, that may be true 90% of the time depending on how you define your parameters; however it's also quite possible to make quite a range of products by manipulating your growing materials, the post harvest practices, and of course the chocolate production process/formulation itself.
Edit - sorry, i miscounted - i'd originally indicated 10/50 cocoa submissions were from W. African countries - upon recounting, it's 14. Time for new glasses.
Is there a legitimate role for the mild West African cocoas in the Gourmet Chocolate industry?
http://www.musee-du-chocolat.com/
Has anyone been to this museum? Is it worth making an effort to go and visit? Is it appropriate for the experienced Chocophile, or only the novice?
Any feedback and thoughts and tips would be appreciated!
Best wishes,
Sunita de Tourreil
The Chocolate Garage
Palo Alto, CA 94301
Mark;
Thank you so much for taking your time to be so thorough in your answer. I will try and digest everthing you said and modify my technique accordingly.
Matt
The temperature you cook to will determine flavor and color. Once over 300F you are down under 3% moisture.
Doctor solids are anything dissolved in the water that isn't sucrose. This typically includes glucose syrups, invert syrup, salts, proteins, etc. They affect cook temperatures, browning rate, inversion, but are primarily used to controlsucrose crystallization, and give final desired texture and shelf life.
The added water affects more caramelization, not burning.
Rate of cooling primarily affects caramelization.
Humidity is a big factor. Once the toffee cools, it will begin to absorb moisture from the air. Needs to be below 45%RH, but below 35%RH is ideal. The sugar is in its amorphous, or glass, form rather than crystal, or solid.
Boiling the sugar and butter first is common practice. Add the sugar while stirring, and once all in, the sugar should be all in solution about the temperature it begins a full rolling boil, somewhere near 225-230F depending on the amount of water you use. A rule of thumb is the water should be a third the weight of the sucrose. Once boiling wash any crystals off the side of the pot, andyou can remove from heatto check clarity on the side of a metal spatula, just note the difference between crystals and bubbles, you can feel the crystals. You may need to wash down the sides a few times through the cook.
Reducing the heatas you near the finish helpsprevent burning.
Do I need to always cook to "at least 310 degrees", or only if I add water if things begin to separate?
The batches tried yesterday still tended to have that terrible "fudge like texture", unless they burned, being darker and stickier. Since you're sayingadding water can increase the chance of burning due to longer cook times, is there anything else I should try first?
What do you mean "doctor solids"?
Are you saying that above 255 degrees (if the syrup is properly "supersaturated") and if at a low enough temperature, I needn't stir the mixture at all?
As I seem to continue to have problems, I could only come up with 3 possible things which I didn't know how much they did or didn't affect things.
1. I use unsalted butter--does this make much difference (realizing that salt lowers the boiling temperature of water)?
2. I am placing the toffee into a sheet metal pan to cool on top of the wooden table (I don't have room for our marble slab at present)--I didn't know if perhaps not cooling quickly enough created additional problems?
3. Humidity seems to affect the outcome--I didn't know the significance of this, nor any adequate work-arounds.
Ruth stated that she brought the water and butter to a boil and then began to stir in the sugar. If that is the case, can the sugar be "completely dissolved in the solution" before boiling?
I know I'm having quite the fits with toffee and your help (as also Ruth's) is greatly appreciated.
Matt
Thanks Mark. I've always wondered why it did that. I never have a problem in the large batches in a copper kettle over an open flame, but have had a problem using an induction burner.
Make sure that when you start boiling the sugar that all of it is completly in solution. Wash down the sides with a brush and water, but make sure it's all dissolved. The reason it seems to separate at about 250 - 255F is that that's the point that the saturation and boiling curves intersect. If you still have crystals there, especially not using any doctor solids, the sugar will continue to crystalize out to thesaturation point of the curve, giving you the fudge like texture. Adding water can help redissolve but the additional time held hot will increase your inversion level,with enoughresulting in a stickier, darker piece with increased bitterness from the new compounds formed. Also once above the above temperatures, since the syrup is supersaturated, minimal shear will help prevent crystallization. I typically don't stirr at all, using reduced heat to prevent burning.
