Hi Sarah,
I enjoy reading your blog! I was just wondering what you ended up getting as I am in the market for an air compressor too. I am just starting out working with cocoa butter and an airbrush so I feel a little lost as to what to buy. Thanks!
Hi ALL!
I'm tired of blowing through cans of compressed air and have come to the conclusion that it's no longer cost effective. I just wanted to know if anyone has any recommendations for air compressor's. Who has compressors, what type and what are it's pros and cons?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Sarah
I just listened to the "Chocoholic" song, but as you said, it is quite "dark".I love it! It's so cute and catchy and I would totally buy it on Itunes. Thanks for sharing, I'll be sure to spread it around too.
This girl- Annelise LeCheminant also has a chocolate song, "Chocoholic". Much darker. Here's her myspace link. http://www.myspace.com/anneliselecheminant
I like it! It has a very nice 50s sound to it. I don't why but all the songs from that time period are quite pleasant. Thanks for the link.
I think of giving money to the girl to help her record her song. What did you think of it? I like her concept of having a love affair with chocolate
I think she also has a nice voice
Fucking Perfect (Cover) - Pink (not my favorite song)
Tim Maia, the Brazilian godfather of soul, has a great song about (and titled) Chocolate:
I love chocolate! So much so, that I went on to see if there were any songs written about it. I found one girl, which I think has written one worthy of the chocolate ANTHEM. Before I offer her to record it I wanted to check what people thought of it:
Chocolate
What do you think of it
Hi Pamela i am very intrsted please tell me more about this machine
what makeis it
where are you can you send me some pictures how big is the cooling tunel
We have an enrober for sale. it's for the selmi tempering machines. Let us know if you're interested.
Thank you, ~ Pamela
Benny,
The web address for the manufacturer and an extensive listing of capabilities is listed in my ad in the "classified" section of this website. Basically, an enrobing line is a conveyor belt that goes over a tank of tempered chocolate. You put chocolate centers on one end, and they go over the tank while a curtain of chocolate pours over them (coating/enrobing them). There are many additional features (bottom-coating of the pieces, a blower and vibrating belt that removes excess chocolate, and a "detailer" that wipes excess chocolate from the bottom of the pieces). The chocolates come off the other end of the conveyor and end up on a paper-covered take-off table (where they can be decorated, etc.). Hope that this helps.
Dale
I'm looking to buy a seconed hand chocolate coating system or Enrober within USA . I would really apriciat it if any body knows of one or could help me.
Thanks
Hi every body , I'm prety new on this sit . I really enjoy reading and learning from everybody's experiance in different filds of chocolate.
I recently heard about this chocolate filled liquied truffles that is made with a process called Liqueur Praline or known as LIMOBA process and i was fascinated by it and would like to try making it in my kitchen , but don't know how to !!
Dose any one know how to go about this process and could help me!!??
Well, I tried something the other day. And it didn't turn out quite as planned. Pretty simple but, I'm no chef so.
I used cocoa powder, sweet n low, and skim milk, in a sauce pan. Only warmed it up, should have heated more, and then poured it into a pan. Well I put it in the freezer to hopefully speed up the hardening process but, it never really hardened. It's more of a hard fudge.
Any ideas what I should do to actually make the chocolate harden like a chocolate bar?
Maybe heat it more, since I only warmed it?
I know this is crazy but, I love chocolate, and still being on my diet, I need to perfect the perfect homemade low cal chocolate =D
Dear Chocolate lovers!
I am a chocolatier from Belgium.
I am considering buying second hand equipment and would like to get your advises and recommendations on the models I found. First precision, I want to start slowly..but surely a small bean to bar process.
So, here are the machines :
First one is a BONNET 3 cylinders refiner
Second is a lab-size conche made by Petzholdt
WHo knows how these conche works?
Thank you in advance for your kind collaboration
Benoit
The great seal with the pyramid on it was not designed by masons. There was one mason on the committee of 14 (Franklin), but he didnt have much influence on the final design, just the first rejected designs.
There are a few lodges in the country that have tried to use this symbol for their lodge logo and what not, but that is very far and few between and is only recent. The dollar bill was designed LONG before these few lodges decided to use it. Also, there are millions of masons around the world, but I bet that you wont find any lodges in other countries using that symbol, because its a symbol specifically designed by the united states, so freemasons in other countries wouldnt adopt that symbol.
The pyramid on the dollar has 13 steps, to represent the 13 original american colonies, and the top was not finished because the country was still supposed to grow (which it has since, quite a bit lol) and the eye is to mean God's watching over the american people. the numbers at the bottom equal 1776, when our country was "born" and thats it. The pyramids have been admired by pretty much every nation of the world since they were built due to their strength and durability, and they will continue to be symbols for many cultures to come.
However!!!... all things are always open to speculation (:
Thanks for the reply, you are right, after closer examining its a triangle, what has made this confusing is the dollar bill that has a pyramid.
Awe man I just had a huge post in here and I went to add something to it and accidently deleted it!!! Did you get a chance to read it? If not, I will retype the short and sweet version:
I was wondering if you had already started the pyramid work, because the pyramid is not actually a symbol in freemasonry. I have been a mason for a while and am very involved in masonic work, and we dont use the pyramid in any of our stuff. This is just a myth (usually created by some crazy conspiracy site) that has been hyped up by all these TV specials about masons.
We do, however, have a LOT of other symbols that we use and I would love to send you pictures of the most prominent ones to see if you could use one.
Also, your mayan style treats sound amazing!!! your making my mouth water!
Cardamon and orange (blossoms) are rather Egyptian. Well, maybe arabic in general.
Or safron. Or cumin (suprisingly great with chocolate). Or kind of Ras el hanout - a mixture of hot and fragrant spices including cardamon, chili, cloves etc. Marzipan is also arabic enough... Roses - as well!
Hi, Ive been asked my the Icelandic Freemasonry to make a special confection for their gala evening.
Ive been thinking about this, and I decided to go with a pyramid shaped praline mold. As the Pyramid is a symbol in freemasonry.
But here comes the headache. Filling.
Im all about connecting things, and i was thinking going some sort of aztec/mayan way, delicate spice, cardamon and orange ganache.
Then I though, what could I make to connect the praline more to egypt, does any one have ideas about Egyptian flavoring and spices.
Thanks
Hilmir.
Mariano:
A device like the Robot Coupe might make a good pre-grinder but it's not going to work for the extended periods of time necessary for flavor development and particle size reduction in making chocolate.
I agree with you about making pralins and grinding nuts and they are also good for ganaches as long as you're careful to make sure that the ganache covers the blades.
Robot Coupes may be expensive but they are versatile multi-taskers and well worth every penny.
:: Clay
Hi Joseph,
I want to clarify a few things.
Perfect+ is made for grinding grains and lentils where each batch of grinding is under 30 minutes. For grinding cocoa nibs into chocolate liquor, it takes more than 24 hours and sometimes even 48 hours depending on the process and the material used. We give only 90 day warranty for Perfect+ for chocolate grinding. also the price is $399.99 (F.O.B. Atlanta).
We developed ECGC-12 SS mini Grindeur because our customers wanted machines without the belts. also this unit is completely made of Stainless steel for hygiene and durability.
Regarding the pregrinder other pregrinders in the market have too many parts and the cleaning is harder. In CocoaT mini Pregrinder, it takes less than 30 seconds to grind one cup of cocoa nibs. Cleaning is very easy. Price is just $149.99 within Continental USA for 110V machine. In addition to cocoa nibs, it can also chop the nuts, grind the nuts into nut butters, grind coconut into coconut paste and more.
I have put a small video on youtube -cocoaT pregrinder.AVI - demonstrating the cocoa nibs grinding.
Andal/Duffy,
I am not sure which one Duffy used but I am certain that it was not from thecommercialrange. Therefore the most it could have cost was the Perfect + for $399 CIF. You are quoting $1230 which is over 3x as much. I understand that the perfect is not designed to run for long periods of time and you have made several chocolate improvements like the removal of the belt but the difference in price is immense. Also the Perfect has a 2 year warranty. Could you send images and an exact spec highlighting the differences. I have heard about people having to replace the santha belt and value Duffy's recommendation but the price is making the decision difficult. It is nearly as much as the cheapest commercial wet grinder.
Duffy you mention the champion juicer and this was the machine that I had been recommended to use when using smaller wet-grinders. Andal you are obviuously trying to promote Inno products which is understandable but the pre-grinder just looks like a food processor. It does not separate the scrub from the licour. Is it powerful enough to pulverise the scrub?
Thanks again guys for your information and advice,
Joseph
Hi Joseph,
The ECGC-12 SS melanger has not been sold yet. We have used the machine for testing purposes and demonstration purposes.
The refurbished motors are for 110V users. For 220V unit, we can send it with the new gear motor and the unit will carry a limited one year warranty against any manufacturing defect. The C.I.F. Price for the ECGC-12 SS mini Grindeur will be $1230 (we accept funds in US$).
ECGC-12 SS mini Grindeur grinds the cocoa nibs. Some customers warm the cocoa nibs in the oven slightly and then add it to the mini Grindeur.
If you pregrind it in the mini pregrinder (which powders the cocoa nibs), the grinding time in the mini Grindeur is significantly reduced.
Please let us know if you need more information.
Andal BaluHi Joseph,
That grinder isn't the one I have but looks like a development of it - the footprint is about the same, anyway. I always used a "Champion" juicer to pre-grind the nibs following advice from the "Chocolate Alchemy" web-site but haven't tested it just with nibs. No reason that I can see that it wouldn't cope - if you introduce them slowly and carefully. Wait until the first handful has turned into liquid before you add more.
I'm in NE Lincs if you want to see either of my grinders working.
Duffy
Thanks Duffy and Andal for helping me get the information that I requested. I am a new user to this site and the atmosphere and support are fantastic.
Has any one used theECGC-12 SS melanger? This is new so I do not imagine this was the one that you used Duffy?
Andal what is the deal with therefurbished motors does this still have a warranty? How much would that be in pounds to ship to the U.K including postage?
Thanks again for your time guys,
Joseph
Hi Nat,
We are working on adding all these products in our website.
In the meantime, I have given some details on these products. If you need any specific information, please feel free to contact us.
CocoaT Cracker is ideal to crack the cocoa beans. CocoaT Crackers come in two models - Manual hand crank model and powered model. Both the models have stainless steel rollers.
CocoaT power cracker can crack 30 lbs of cocoa nibs in an hour. Stainless steel hopper. Cost $799.99 + S&H.
CocoaT manual cracker costs $249.99 + S&H.
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CocoaT Mini PREGRINDER
Want to enjoy the experience of making your own chocolate from the comfort of your home? How about making fresh cocoa powder, nut butters, or coconut butter in minutes? The CocoaT Mini Pregrinder is ideal for bringing your cocoa fantasies to life and creating your own unique recipes. Our machine is perfect for making chocolate components like nut pastes, cocoa powder, coconut butter, and many more!
CocoaT Mini Pregrinder fulfills your chocolate cravings. Two stainless steel jars are designed to handle any volume from a teaspoon to a cup of ingredients. Highly efficient and durable grinding blades grind and pulverize the ingredients in a jiffy.
The piano-key style buttons provide the user with ease and the flexibility to vary operating speeds efficiently and effectively. A handy compartment at the back of the unit stores the wire cord and keeps the area clutter-free. As a safety measure, the unit will start only if the jars are locked in position.
Specifications:
Motor - 550W, 110V
Jars - Stainless steel
Motor housing - ABS Plastic
Speeds - 3 plus a pulse
Foot Print - 12 x 6
Weight - 10 lbs with box
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CocoaT Roasters are ideal for roasting cocoa beans, the precursors of the best chocolate. Roasting at right temperature for the right duration results in better quality nibs and in turn better tasting chocolate. All CocoaT roasters are equipped with removable stainless steel roasting baskets.
Our CocoaT Roasters are equipped with temperature control. Cocoa beans are constantly tumbled at a slow speed for even roasting.
We have three different models to handle different volumes for small scale roasting.
Our CocoaT mini roasters can roast 2 lbs of cocoa beans. The unit comes with fixed temperature setting. The CocoaT mini roaster has a timer. Cost - $249.99 (F.O.B. Atlanta)
Our CocoaT Junior roaster can roast 5-6 lbs of cocoa beans. The CocoaT junior roaster has manual temperature and timer controls. Cost - $499.99 (F.O.B. Atlanta)
CocoaT Jumbo Roaster can roast 10-12 lbs of cocoa beans. The CocoaT Jumbo roaster comes with temperature and timer controls. Cost - $749.99 (F.O.B. Atlanta)
