For a "watch your back" on a rental kitchen story...
I got a call from the landlord that others using the kitchen had unplugged the fridge. (Eek!) I had dairy products in there and it was a good thing I was told or I could have been using tainted ingredients. Fortunately, the landlord covered the cost of replacement ingredients. So all was well in the end. But, yeah, could have been a nightmare.
A temperature controlled work environment is the first thing that comes to mind. Most kitchens are hot and extremely difficult to work with chocolate in. I work in a catering kitchen where I do other work besides my own chocolate stuff. If the line and ovens are all going, I have to plan my chocolate days for when it's not going full blast. Or, if we open the doors, it's like a wind tunnel with the ocean air blasting through. We are a block from the ocean, so dampness can be an issue as well.
I used to work for a large caterer that was in a warehouse. We hand tempered chocolate for everything and some days it was too warm to get the chocolate to cool down enough, even on marble.
A private country club in my area is remodeling their kitchen and are including a "chocolate room". Would be my dream 
.
comfortable space for individuals to work
convenient location for utilities for everyone:making sure the production flow is smooth.i.e:raw material must be next to entrance while end product must be near exit and not close to anything else.
Isolation of different sections for different products: baking products should be away from ice cream or chocolate as well as products containing flour
Digital key ovens have prooved to be a pain in the bum on the long run if you use alot of flour in your kitchen.The dust gathers around the keys. It causes alot of technical issues and it's not a hygienic approach on the long run.
Floor:I like to havetwo minimal downhills which meet in the centre of the kitchen. Its ideal to clean.That way the water meets in the middle where the sewerage is. (ihope youunderstood this point and am sure you have a much better way of explaining it).
Location of the kitchen is important to be accessible for suppliers.During busy times (like today) when you run out of an item all of a sudden, its good to have someone close by or a good enough alternative at least and fast delivery.
Avoid stairs as much as possible, the flatter the better
Hope this helps
I am writing the second in a series of articles for Dessert Professional magazine on "Perfect Kitchens" (the first was on ice cream and gelato kitchens).
When you think about your "perfect kitchen" for making confections, what comes to mind?
When you think about your current work space, what things come to mind that you wished you knew before you made some critical decisions ... before you went ahead and implemented them?
The answers can be on any topic from design and construction (including utilities), to licensing and permitting, to equipment and tool selection. This isn't an article about ingredients so opinions about specific chocolates is not something I am looking for.
I am also interested in hearing some real-life stories of good (and not so good) experiences using rental kitchens. You don't have to name names, just let me know what did and did not go well - and how you might approach this issue in the future now that you have more experience.
The article is for the June-July issue and the editorial deadline about May 1, so any thoughts you have would be greatly appreciated. I know it's the Easter rush so I've waited this long in the hopes that in the relative quiet of early next week you might have some time to help me out.
I am going to try to work a deal on discount subscriptions to the magazine not only for everyone who contributes but also for any ChocolateLife member who contributes.
Thanks in advance,
:: Clay
PS. Contributions can be attributed or anonymous, and I will send everyone whose writings I use a heads up on how I used them before I submit the article for final approval.
How have you liked the chocoma enrober since you've had it? I'm looking into purchasing an enrober / tempering machine for my small business.
Is anyone familiar with a Denmark made Chocoma Enrober? I'd like to know your thoughts on this. Is there a US distributor?
Greetings Chocolate Loves!
Please enter to win our giveaway contest!
8 luck winners will receive a gift pack of Crucial Chocolate products ~
Go to the link below, and leave a comment to be entered in our giveaway! Good Luck!!!
http://naturalhealthfoodie.blogspot.com/2011/04/crucial-raw-chocolate-giveaway.html
Crucial Chocolate Website - www.crucialchocolate.com
SCOTT: Many thanks. I'm a chocoholic, and I may have to make a trip to Europe to buy some of these.
--Arnold
Arnold:
Did you keep the label / outer wrap? If so, please take a picture with your phone (or scan) of the entire label and post it here.
The description you provide is very, very general and could apply to many chocolates - translated it basically means "74% cocoa Superior Dark Chocolate Square."
I recently tried a small chocolate bar labeled "Fin Carre....Chocolat Noir Superior...74% cacao."
It had a superb flavor. Does anyone know who the manufacturer is, and where I can buy it?
--Arnold Ismach
Have you considered a certified ethical section? I for one, now that I more fully understand how the vast majority of our cacao is produced would prefer to buy certified ethical.
Is it true you bought Biagio's store? If so, congrats!
I am opening a specialty Chocolate Store in Washington D.C. in May. If you have very high quality specialty chocolate bars, I would like to hear from you. Chocolate must be made from Single Plantation, or Single Origin, or rare bean species to be considered. I am looking for premium products from around the world, not just the USA. I currently have a number of vendors, but am looking for a special selection of chocolate to feature. If you think you have that product, please send an email to Sales@CapitalChocolate.com. The store boasts an international selection of high quality chocolate and carries over 400 items. Rest assured that your products will not get lost on the shelves. I heavily market our products.
Thank you and I look forward to build new relationships among the chocolate community.
Robert
Hi Everyone,
I am going to be vacationing in Montego Bay, Jamaica this August and am hoping to visit a cacao farm while I am there. I was wondering if anyone had any information about Jamaican cacao farming or can point me in the direction of where I could find such information.
Thanks,
Sarah
Nat,
I realized that I should've asked the same thing...my comment is certainly more appropriate for .5 MT and up of wet bean. Thanks for explaining and look forward to seeing where this thread goes...
Sometimes ifyou're fermenting a smallamount the heat of the pile is not enough to keep the temperature up high enough for proper fermentation or there are not the airborne yeast and bacteria in a region to passively inoculate it. Active inoculation can help in both these instances.
We see improper fermentation in Hawaiian cacao all the time as we are straddling the 20 latitude where cacao is normally grown and fermented, so it gets too cool here at night to continue the fermentation except with large commercial batches. Therefore these backup measures of inoculation and added heat are necessary, and it seems like Ning has come up against the same thing.
But I did forget to ask, Ning, how much areyou trying to ferment at once?
Ning,
Hope this note finds you well!
Why are you adding anything to the fermentation? After breaking the ripe pod, you should be putting the beans in a poly bag or wooden box or a pile covered with banana leaves and leave for 2 days, then rotate it each day (another 2-4 days). Next step is sun drying on patio or raised mesh until @ 7.5% humidity. Buy this book, it explains it all:
Salam.
Lactobacter is fine but I am not sure where I can obtain live acetobacter, or vinega mothers.
Thanks again.
-Ning
Selamat malam Ning,
live yogurt and vinegar mothers have the live lactobacteria and acetobacteria that are essential for good fermentation in addition to yeast and are totally different from yeast, in a different kingdom of living organisms. Yeast take sugars and turn them into alcohol, while lactobacteria take sugars and turn them to lactic acid and acetobacteria create acetic acid (vinegar). Usually, all these microorganisms can land on the fermenting cacao beans from the air or the outside of the cacao pods, adding to part of the terroir taste of the cacao, but if they are not abundant oryour fermentation is not working for other reasons, it's good to add these.
I would throw out the germinated seeds, yes. They can be quite bitter in comparison to the non-germinated seeds as the embryo has started to convert sugars into other compounds it needs to grow.
-Nat
Thank you Nat,
The pods are ripe and not black when picked. The pulps are thick, moist and sweet, not dry. And the beans were not sprouted when I started the fermentation.
I only turned on day 4. I fermented for 7 days. Next batch I will turn every day and raise the temp to 45 C.
I am currently using baker's yeast. I could try live yogurt, but what is the benefit over baker's yeast?
Should I discard the sprouted beans from this batch?
-Ning
Hi Ning,
Areyou picking the pods soon after they ripen (when nicking the skin reveals no green underneath) or letting them blacken? The beans shouldn't germinate that easily during fermentation if they haven't started beforehand.
Also try raising the temp to 45 C in the first few days of fermentation, turn every day, and inoculate with aceto and lacto-bacteria from vinegar mothers and live yogurt cultures if possible.
Cheers and sincere appreciation to the active members in this forum for all the information sharing and support.
I'm a chocolate lover and have taken this passion one more step by trying to make bars from beans.
I am currently in the third attempt:
#1: beans got mouldy from natural fermentation after 3 days, I dried it anyway but will not take it much further.
#2: beans were fermented for 4 days, dried, then discovered they were not flavorful possibly from under-fermenting.
#3: this time adding yeast, with temperature control 35-40C, beans are fermenting beautifully with aroma forming, fermented for 8 days, cut test shows moist, dark folds, but about 15% of the beans have sprouted.
Here are my concerns...
Should I toss out the sprouted beans? Is this normal?
I only harvest the ripest pods, they are the sweetest and I assume would make the best chocolate, no beans are sprouted at the time of harvest. Did I harvest the pods too ripe?
Should I raise the fermentation temperature or shorten the duration?
I appreciate any help in producing my first chocolate bar! Thank you.
Ning
Hey Sebastian,
Just to update you, I tried the grinder again. This time I broke it. I heated the mill and put the plates as tight as i could get them. it worked a little bit better, but nowhere near the paste consistency that i got witht the PITEBA. I would tighten the plates periodically when they felt too loose, but then, under too much pressure (too tight) one of the spirals on the augar chipped and the augar plate feels much looser now. sometimes when i crank the handle the plate doesnt move. trying to mill cocoa was obviously too much for the machine.
the pictures on this blog http://www.learnnc.org/lp/editions/cacao/5291
show that it can obviously be done with a corona mill. this mill looks a bit more heavy duty than mine. i guess that's the difference. do you have any specific make/model/supplier of millthat you know will work?
hi Sebastian,
i took them straight from the burner, winnowed them and ran them through the grinder, so they were still pretty warm. you think i should winnow them and then throw them back on the burner for a minute before I grind them?
what bothers me about this is that i then took the cocoa grounds produced by the corona grinder (which had cooled down by then)and ran them through a PITEBA oil press (with no heat added)and got a nice cocoa paste.
the pressure inside the PITEBA expeller was noticably greater than inside the Corona grinder. I will try again heating them, and try to put the burrs even closer together (if thats possible) to see if that works.
i'm worried that the corona mill i bought is somehow different from the one that is typically used for koko, but I dont see how as the specs are nearly identical. do the pictures of my grinder look different from any you are familiar with?
i'm open to anymore advice.
thanks,
Benj
Hi,
I am having trouble producing cocoa liquor/paste from roasted, winnowed beans with my corona grinder. It is only grindingit into coffee-like grounds, not liquor.
I have seen pictures online of others cranking out liquor with a manual corona grinder, so I know it is possible, but I do not know why I am only getting fine grounds.
My millis not a corona brand, but a victoriacast iron grinder.it's the same specs as a corona, steel burrs, etc. i had the burrs just about as close as they could be to create enough pressure. they were practically rubbing together.
Could someone please help me to grind out a paste??? Pics of my grinder are below.
Thanks
I'm starting a small process using cocoa beans to introduce cocoa powder to the local market, I had a feedback from Clay Gordon that butter can be produced from lower grades of beans without even roasting just extruding then deodorizing, higher grades of beans are roasted to yield flavored cocoa powder, I do not have good demand for the butter and I need only the raw cocoa powder, is it possible to have only powder from beans without extracting fats (butter).
Many thanks for your help
I will be visiting Sri Lanka soon and would like to pay the cocoa fields a visit. Has anyone been there before? I tried looking it up online but could not find any leads or a specific location.
Any leads?
I have a couple questions for you experts out there. I am looking for a good Dutch process cocoa for the dark color. I am going to be doing allot of baking and I really want a rich dark color with a rich flavor, i was thinking of dutch process to get the color right. I dont want the flavor to be to exotic, more of an everyday chocolate lovers then a experts choice.
What is the best cocoa powder? I have heard Valrhona is good but allot of reviews actually say its kinda burnt tasting.
Would I be better off buying a specific brand of cocoa powder or buying from a wholesaler who just tells me where its from, fat content, ect?
What is the difference between a cocoa powder with a 10-12% fat and 20-22% fat?
Do you have any recommendations as to were to purchase cocoa in bulk at a good price.
Thank you!
Elaine
Thanks to Clay for posting this on his DiscoverChocolate Daily News!
Madre Chocolate Online Store is open
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We've already sent out hundreds of bars over the last few weeks to beta testers from our online shop and the reviews have been unanimously glowing for the packaging, flavors, and quality of the stone ground chocolate! If you want to spread the word and include your friends in the pleasures of eating gourmet Hawaiian-made chocolate, please let them know about our shop . Please come back often as we're always developing new flavors.
Let us know ifyou have questions about the shop or are setting up something similar and we'd be happy to offer our advice on how we did it, and the pros and cons of some of the different online shops we've looked at.
It's almost a year since you posted this question so I assume that by know you are an expert at this. Typically - assuming the chocolate slab is new, the machine is pre-heated for a few minutes and the slab is cut in small pieces (tiny bits like buttons) - a 1kg batch should not take more than 10-15 minutes. This is very open-ended as many variables need to be defined (not to mention how patient one is) but that time frame is a reasonable figure to start with.
