In Friday's New York Times travel section there was an interesting article about chocolate tours in Trinidad, Tobago, Saint Lucia and Martinique. It is worth the read.
I had a sample from Cacao Atlanta .... no vanilla but very grainy .
Brad,
Quick question: Any special reason you needed a separate refiner for white chocolate?
Do you find that once you use a refiner for white/milk chocolate it leaves notable traces when doing dark batches?
Felipe
The Askinosie Davao white chocolate bar has no vanilla. But I don't know if it's available in professional weights such as multi-kilo bars. Then again they're not a huge outfit, so if you need enough they would probably hook you up.
O really shoot. Thanks for the correction.
I made it a lot in the past and with Callebaut HW2 and it was good but reminded me of rhubarb and custard ... i don't use Cream , just fruit puree and i want unadulterated Tartness. I've recently acquired abottle of rhubarb bitters which i'm eager to try out
Yea! Hope its useful. Let me know how the rhubarb ganache goes. It sounds tasty.
Thanks for this Duncan! Much appreciated
sounds Great! yeah I was looking at making my own too but that's a lot of expense.
Mine's a Rhubarb Ganache BTW
Good luck with that. Other than getting someone on here to make it for you (such as good 'ol Cheebs), you won't find it. Several of my recipes need a white chocolate with no vanilla, and I couldn't find any, so I ended up breaking down an buying a refiner specifically to make my own.
Now that I can make my own white chocolate with or without vanilla, that REALLY sets our confections apart from our peers. No local chocolatier can do a Pomegranate white chocolate center like we can!
Cheers.
Brad
I can make you a 7-lb batch if you want. Send me a private message if you're interested.
simple question..... does it exist? I need a vanilla-free white chocolate ganache.
For me it would have to be Amedei's Cru Venezuela. I visited Amedei in Sept, sampled almost all of them, but the Cru is a classic bar, for fun, I also liked their white chocolate with pistachio.
From the ones I have tried in the last year, Michel Cluizel, Los Ancones or that variety pack of El Rey I had after the FCIA conference in June. They ended up being dinner in the hotel room.
Good call. Cluizel makes a 5kg Villa Gracinada. That would probably last 3 weeks.
A tie:
Both rated 9.8 out of 10.
If I had a time machine my all time favorite was Amedei Chuao 2009 vintage (but their current bars have significantly declined in quality so I wouldn't choose that bar today).
See my reviews at ChocoFiles .
There are some new ones that I like very much, for example Danta's Chuao and Dandelion's Ambanja. But if I can only have one....I take a 2 kilo bag couverture of Felchlin's Cru Sauvage 68% - 60H conch 
That's enough for 2 weeks on a desert island. Then I wanna go home to taste other chocolate! Chocolove, Vera
A milk chocolate bar I make with beans from the Ocumare De LaCosta region of Venezuela. (I don't sell this bar).
Mmmmmm.... to die for
Thanks for sharing, Clay. If that's a 100% cocoa content bar, does it feel slightly clayish at the back of the tongue?
You can have only one bar of chocolate. The circumstances don't matter (zombie apocalypse, climate change devastates cacao around the world, you're stranded on a desert island, etc), you can only choose one.
Which one is it?
After my recent trip to Europe, I'd pick the IL100% Criollo from Domori. Why? It delivers pure chocolate intensity with no punches pulled.
Yours?
I am looking for a Bean to Bar mentor. I have been making bean to bar chocolate for the last 5 months and am in need of guidance and knowledge. Currently it's a fairly small production but I would like it to grow. I have had a candy business for the past 10 years and recently got introduced into making Bean to Bar chocoalte.
Haha I'm not sure actually, they never last that long, but I've opened them within 2 weeks and they're still perfect. I've read that using glucose, boiling the cream and using tempered chocolate makes your chocolates last very long (about a month). But it also depends on your recipe.
You can also freeze your ganaches, and finished truffles as well 
so you can work the heavy seasons in advance
You can extend shelf life by adding glucose, corn syrup, invert sugar or alcohol to the recipe. also be careful about not leaving any air bubbles inside the truffle, or it'll be a certain spot for mold. I boil my cream and let it rest until it reaches 30C, then I mix it with the tempered chocolate.
x
Good Call. The place should be odor free BEFORE you lease it and spend all the money on reno's. The fact that he doesn't value your time or money tells me the landlord'sdefinitely not a professional when it comes to commercial real estate. Don't waste your time with him.
There is something to be said for commercial leasing companies, that's for sure.
Cheers and Best Wishes.
I brought this up with the landlord. He agreed to include a termination clause in the lease if the problem was not fixed to my satisfaction. When he sent me a copy of the lease agreementhowever, there was a time limit of 9 days on that. Yikes! I told him I could not agree to that. Not only do I think that is not nearly enough time todetermine if I can remedy the situation,I also would not begin investing a bunch of money updating the place until I knewthat I could. So I guess I'll keep on looking for now.
Have your landlord take care of the issues as part of the lease negotiation, and ensure that the issues are dealt with "subject to your approval". Chocolate is very hygroscopic, meaning it readily absorbs odor and moisture from its environment. Once the odor is absorbed, there's no going back.
Yup.
New ceiling tiles won't break the bank, nor are they particularily hard or time consuming to install, but the price can add up.
Shellac has a very nice property in that it blocks odours, it's also organic. Again, applying this to the walls won't break the bank, but the cost will add up, and then you'll need a few more coats of paint on the walls.
Same goes for the floors, Sand them down and reseal with varnish (or linoleum in the kitchen) will block the odours.
On one hand you have to deal with "perfumy" odours. I dealt with 30 yr old "ethnic restaurant " odours..........
Hi Giovanna,
I had a drain-cleaning company move in next door to my industrial unit. Nice guys and I'd recommend them as drain cleaners but not as neighbours. They moved out after a month when I complained about the smell but I was still throwing chocolate away 6 months after that despite throwing all the doors open, having fans blowing and giving the place several thorough cleans. I'm not sure what the risk is exactly but unless you can get rid of the smell by cleaning the place and thoroughly ventilating I'd be wary.
Duffy
After finding what I had hoped would be a good location for my new shop, I haveserious reservations. The space was previously a hair salon formany years (they recently moved tothe larger space next door). My concern is the smell. There is a distinctsoapy/perfumy fragrance of hair care products that has not dissipated over the last month or two that it has been vacant. The cabinet mounted on the wall where the hair wash station wasseems to be the main culprit, however,I am concerned that even when the cabinet is removed, the smellhas alsopermeatedthe wood flooring, drywall, and hung ceiling tiles. The last thing I want to do is commit to a lease, only to find out that the ambiant odors render my product unsellable (I don't thinkextra-body shampoo infused ganache would be a big hit). Has anyonedealt with this kind ofstinky situationin their work space?
I've heard wonderful things about this book http://www.amazon.com/Fine-Chocolates-Great-Experience-Extending/dp/9020990209/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1352238527&sr=8-1&keywords=fine+chocolates+3
I'm still not able to get it, but want to 
I would also be interested in finding an answer to this question. Sorry to jump on this post but I currently make truffles to sell but they only have a shelf life of 7 days because of the cream content but I am having many customers ask for a longer shelf life & I am yet to find an answer. Would be extremely interested if anyone has any help?
Thanks Melanie. I do realize that it will take some time and experimentation to get it right for me. I am hoping to just start making small batches of truffles in different ways (butter ganache, cream heated up to different temps etc) and see what happens. I do want to make sure that I know what I am doing before I sell the truffles and I have considered the courses at Ecole Chocolat. What I am hoping for is some guidance on what to look for when trying -- what happens when a truffle goes bad? Does the cream curdle? Does the liquid breakdown the chocolate?
Time and experience are the best teachers and they cannot be had overnight.
There is no "Magic pill" to create 1 month shelf life. How you choose & formulate your recipes, have the skill and equipment investment to make them, control your working environment and store your product, will ultimately bear on the shelf life.
Most of us test our recipes which can take weeks. Ecole Chocolat offers a great course on this subject if you need more theory.
Hi,
I have stumbled into a chocolate business and now I am madly researching trying to learn as much as I can. I need a lot of advice lol but I will to only ask one at a time :)
My first question is about ganache. I want to make truffles that will last a minimum of one month at room temperature. My understanding is that a standard cream ganache will only last 3 weeks which is not quite long enough for me. I have heard (and read on here) a few different ways to extend this so I want to experiment. So dumb question... but how do I know if it worked (short of eating the chocolates and seeing if I get sick?) Will it separate or something once it is bad?
I will be selling the chocolates and I want to be sure that I am giving people something that is safe for them.
Thanks :)
Heather
Kind of recalls that adage, "Just because you can doesn't mean you should..."
