Forum Activity for @Allan

If it doesn't work out in LA, I'm still interested in one  to start with.

• 250 new molds;  all same style (Chocolate World Polycarb #2166)
• outside measurement:  10.75" x 6.875" x 1" deep
• 32 cavities per mold (4 x 8)
• finished piece is approx 1-1/4" x 1-3/8";  tray cavity should be 1-3/8" x 1-1/2"
• Paid $25 USD each
• If buying less than 50 molds - asking price is $10 USD each + shipping FOB Austin, TX
• If buying 50 or more - asking price is $6 USD each + shipping FOB Austin, TX
• If buying entire lot of 250 - asking price is $3 each + shipping FOB Austin, TX

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• French stainless steel trolleys from Bourgeat; purchased from Chocolate World in Belgium; 15 shelves each, grills included.
• 8 trolleys available for sale
• Paid $690 USD for each trolley with grills
• Asking $195 USD each + shipping FOB Austin, TX
• If all 8 are purchased, asking price is reduced to $145 USD each + shipping FOB Austin, TX 

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• Reconditioned Walker Tank, model PZ-K, 25 gal stainless steel double action and water jacketed.
• Only in service since Oct 2015, very lightly used
• Swept surface agitator with scrapers and counter rotating x-mas tree style agitator
• 21" diameter x 23" deep; 1.5" dia bottom discharge
• Tank mounted on load cells with scale
• Scraper motor mechanical variable speed; 1-hp, 3 phase, 60 cycle, 230 volt motor
• Counter agitator driven by a 2-hp, 3 phase, 60 cycle, 230 volt motor
• Electric hot water jacket system with thermostat
• Comes with a Savage multi-product metering pump; model 1300-09-40 
• Paid $14,500 for tank + $4,800 for pump
• Asking $9,500 for tank & pump + shipping;  FOB Austin, TX
• See attached photos 

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Hey I don't see the private note anywhere I was looking. Can you just send me a direct email?

stevenshipler @ g m a  i   l

Thanks! I spread it out so it doesn't get caught for spam.

Hi Steven. I think the logistics of the LA offer is better for you. I really only wanted one to try out making my own from the nibs. I am actually in eastern Canada, so god knows what the customs people would do to me, not to mention the exchange rate which currently changes the price of a machine from $300US to $450 Cdn.

Remember, if you find you have an airflow issue, it's really very easy to add a small cooling fan(s) (similar to what computers use to cool their processes) to existing cooling cabinets.  Might be a more budget friendly option than buying new units.  Good luck!

Thanks for the input folks.

My feeling is, it's the inclusions, we are doing some tests as you suggested.

Fridge - we purchased from Vantage House in the UK, this is a fridge designed for chocolate work. We have been using it for years and still, to this day, have never had a problem with hand ladled bars. The only difference is that instead of mixing through the inclusions and hand ladling, we are dousing straight from the machine and sprinkling the inclusions on the back. That's what makes me think its the inclusions. 

Calum - I am taking a look at the specs on the fridge and it's not clear to me what the capacity of the fans is. Air circulation is an important consideration when cooling molds. I've been a fan if Irinox cabinets for a long time but they are really expensive. A good alternative, I have found, is sold by Angel Refrigeration in the UK (ask for Julie Croker and mention my name) – Everlasting. They make temperature and humidity-controlled cabinets specifically for crystallization and holding chocolate.

It's not enough to get the right temperature, you need airflow and to remove the latent heat of crystallization that the bars give off and the airflow need to be top and bottom - under the molds is just as important as over the top.

One test is to use exactly the same chocolate in two different bars – one with and one without inclusions. You'll see pretty quickly whether or not the inclusions are the problem or contribute to it. This will either eliminate the inclusions as a source of the problem or give you a clue that there is something about the inclusions that you need to look at. Temperature could be a factor. I am not sure you have to get them up to 29 ...

10-12C is a little cold. I would start at 15 and then work down by degrees.

I've reduced the price....  

Call with any questions

well, not knowing your chocolate recipe and not being able to see exactly what you're doing, or  how you're doing it - makes it difficult to say what you must do.  I would say that adding cold inclusions/toppings certainly would be one of the things that i'd assess, as from here it appears that it certainly could be a factor.  Whether it is or not, or if it's the largest factor, remains to be seen...

Edit - do your bars tend to warp more if they're towards the top, mid, or bottom of that unit?  Or does it not seem to matter?

*heat (not hear)

my thumbs on a small phone!! 

Sorry for all typos above, autocorrect!

We use a manufacturer modified (for chocolate work) Foster fridge:

http://www.foster-fridge.com/foster-ep-1440-g-ecopro-g2-refrigerator-with-glass-doors

we set this at 10-12C

So, are you saying that we would have to hear the inclusions to around 29C? 

If i'm reading that right, your inclusions are colder than your chocolate.  That'll cause localized cooling at a faster rate.  w/o knowing more about your cooling setup, it sounds to me like there's an uneven airflow issue.

Hi Steve,

If the items are still available, We will also be interested we are located in Los Angeles, California and Anna left you a private note regarding all 3 items.

Sebastian 

the inclusions will be at room temp 18-22C. The chocolate is at 29C when taken off the machine and inclusions vibrated in. Is that a. Station that would effect the cooling?

its strange as we use the chocolate fridge of about 1000 hand Ladeled bars a bay and they cool without any issues.

A dollar says it's the result of uneven cooling.  Is your topping material about the same temperature as your chocolate?

You may wish to consider leaving your chocolate in the cooling unit longer.  You may also wish to put a fan into your cooling unit to move the air inside it around.

Santha is sold. Savage brothers tempering machine is currently still for sale.

Hi folks,

We have done some tests with just plain milk, all looks fine.

Quick thought, the inclusions we were sprinkling on the back were a mix of hazelnuts and sea salt. Do you think the sea salt was drawing in moisture when left sat on the shelves and that may have caused this?

Thanks!

The molds were clean. I'll be honest I didn't check the temperature of the mold before I poured the chocolate in. The room temperature is about 20 degrees celsius. Out of a batch of 8 chocolates I made, this is the worst looking (so I'm not using this). The others, I left longer in the fridge and the marks were a lot less visible. Still not perfect, but okay. But maybe a combination of checking proper mold temperature, and leaving them longer in the fridge would do the trick. An extra 2 minutes patience could have saved me a bar. The mold is polycarbonate and measures 10x10cms and it is plain flat, I knew this would probably not be the best idea.

Thanks for the advice.

Mark:

Patience. You need to wait for the chocolate and the miracle of proper and sufficient crystallization. These look to be mold release marks. I would definitely wait before you try to demold and see what happens. Your molds may not be clean enough or they may not be the right temperature when you put the chocolate in them. And ... what's the temperature of the room you're working in the humidity, and the temp and humidity of whatever you're using to cool the chocolate?

Few quick points:

1. If your chocolate is correctly tempered but the surface temperature of the mould cavity is not correct (too cold) you will get the result as in your photos.

To put it in basic terms heat flows from the chocolate into the mould surface, chocolate cools too fast resulting in creation of "unwanted" type of cocoa butter crystals in this area.

Try warming your moulds up to 27-29C and see if this will improve the results.

2. The trick to making a nicer looking product is to have a bit of texture on the mould cavity which gives you texture on the product surface. Flat surface with nothing on it as in your moulds is not a good idea.

3. Keep tapping and vibrating too get rid of bubbles. Using lower viscosity chocolate will help.

Hi I'm from Kent, uk. Didn't go to chocolate show. Hoping to go to 2017!

Can anyone please look at the pictures and tell me what am I doing wrong? The chocolate is well tempered, but when I unmold, they come with a whitish area. Not all of them. I'm starting to think it's the unmolding part. I put the tempered chocolate to set in the fridge for about 5 to 10 mins, and perhaps I'm a little impatient, so as soon as I look at the mold and I see it is releasing from the sides, I help to unmold by twisting the mold. The area you see in white is the area which wasn't released whilst in the fridge. Should I leave it a little longer?

Also, when I put the chocolate in the mold I tap it so I remove the bubbles. Obviously the bubbles come from the other side. But I'd like my chocolate to be free from bubbles from both sides. Should I keep tapping it?

Thank you for your help my fellow wizards!

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Hi, Did you sell this machine yet? I'm interested. Thank you!

Will try and cool at room temp.

The temps from manufacturer are:

Melting 48-50C

Cooling 26-27C

Working 28-29C

Calum:

You should not have to wait when topping up the machine if you add chocolate that is melted to about the same temperature as the cooling cycle on your machine. So, if the cooling is set to 31C then add melted chocolate at between 31-35C in this way you won't interrupt the tempering cycle. If you add that amount of solid chocolate you may have to wait given the overall size of the bowl.

Although it might take a lot longer to cool - can you test some bars not in the fridge? Let them cool at room temp just as test? It looks like you have inclusions scattered on the top of the bar, can you try without inclusions?

Also - what are the temps on the bag from Belcolade? 45C is a good choice as a melting temp as a starting point and I recommend starting out with every new chocolate using the same set of temperatures and then work from there as it eliminates having too many variables to troubleshoot at the same time.

I forwarded off a link to this post to Carlo at FBM so I knew about the Compatta. Are you still having the same issue there or did you get that solved.

Better quality photo 

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- It's bee going on since we started dosing from the machine, we normally hand ladle from the machine.

- We may not have been waiting 15minuts after temp is reached. We only take about 2 - 3 kg out, before topping up. If we were to wait 15 mins between each topping up wee would only get through 8-12Kg per hour. 

- We are using a plain milk organic couverture from Belcolade

- Milk settings 45/29C

- Fridge Temp 10-12C (20-30 mins)

- Room temp 20-22C

- I don't believe there is anything wroing with that machine, it must be our settings as it also happened on our dark Compatta machine.

- It 7kg Prima

- Out of interest, what do you advise as a good setting on the auger, as we have this setting on our Compatta

- See photo for bending - it happens a 20-48 hours later. 

Thanks all! 

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Sorry for the delay, I am in Scottsdale, Arizona. I can bubble wrap it all in large boxes and make sure nothing is damaged in transit. I will also insure the packages to make sure if anything is damaged we can get it taken care of. But I will separate the wheels and bubble wrap them like crazy haha.

In a recent article in Confectionery News , Fairtrade has announced a partnership with Mondelēz that should mean more Fairtrade cocoa will find its way into Cadbury products in the UK & Ireland. This is to be done through expansion of the Cocoa Life program.

However, in a troubling (to me) comment from Barbara Crowther, Director of Policy and Public Affairs at Fairtrade, [the cocoa for Cadbury] "isn't going to be certified either under the Fairtrade mark or through the sourcing program. It's going to be traded through loyalty payments embedded into Cocoa Life itself and we will work to hold that program accountable ."

We should take into account the fact that the International Institute for Sustainable Development, in its most recent report on cocoa, says that less than 40% of the cocoa that is certified is sold as certified. That means that the producers pay for the certification of 100% of what they grow but, on average, receive the premium on only 40% of what they sell that is certified.

This fact is not one that is advertised by Fairtrade, which is hardly surprising, as I think it's part of an overall lack of transparency with respect to how premiums do (or more importantly, do not) always make it to the producer. While there is an inordinate focus on paperwork and documentation up the supply chain, there is no corresponding documentation or commitment down the supply chain.

There are other aspect of Fairtrade's work that also need to be examined, one of the most heinous of which is the concept of mass balance, which guarantees a complete lack of traceability back to the producer in countries where this is practiced.

What immediately occurs to me, when Fairtrade says, "Trust us, we'll work to hold the Cocoa Life program accountable," is that they first must hold themselves accountable for the premiums that are collected and how those premiums are disbursed. My immediate suggestion is a report on the flow of money, down to the producer (co-op) level. If they can come up with total dollar amount for premiums collected globally, they should know the numbers that roll up into that number on a country-by-country basis as well as on a producer-by-producer basis. If they don't ... then their global numbers should probably be considered suspect.

What the industry needs is more transparency, not less transparency. Fairtrade has not earned my trust because they have never fully documented the flow of money back down to the producer. Fairtrade positioning itself as the monitor of Mondelēz's cocoa portfolio for the UK and Ireland is asking way too much and it is naive on our part (consumers' part) to assume that the job will be done properly.

The article talks about Mondelēz's $400 million, 10-year commitment to improving cacao farmers' lives and livelihoods. Last I looked there were something like 15 million people who rely on the income from cocoa in whole or in part. $400 million over 10 years is $40 million/ year, which is less than $3/year per person. And that's assuming that all $400 million actually gets spent in productive ways? How much of that $400 million is caught up in administrative overhead and other expenses?

Maybe this new initiative will produce positive results ... but I one thing I am fairly certain of is that the only news that will be published will be positive and glowing: the system is not designed to report its own shortfalls. We can only wait to see what sort of reports are produced, but I am not sanguine that the effects will be meaningful, especially absent any promotion or connection with Fairtrade. What will be the consumer messaging around this? How are they to know?

Calum -

How long has this been going on and have you been in touch with FBM yet (and where are you located)? Do you have the FBM Skype account for technical support?

Is this a chocolate you're making or a commercial couverture you're buying?

What are the temps you're using for the chocolate (bowl heater temp and cooling system temp).

How long are you waiting after the machine says it's "ready" before you start depositing? You should not start immediately as it takes some time to circulate all the crystals once the temperatures have equilibrated. I recommend 15 minutes at a minimum.

Basically, if you have the temper dialed in properly then this (the bending) should not occur. So, there's something about the way you are using the machine - or there's an issue with the machine itself - that's causing the issue.

My guess is that you've got a lot of lower-form crystal formation going on. That could be because you're not cooling the chocolate to a low-enough temperature. I need to know more about how you're using the Prima ... you can't use it the same way you use a batch tempering machine.

Is this a 7kg Prima or a newer 10kg Prima? If it's a 10kg machine, do you have a speed controller on the auger (and if do, what speed is it set for)?

Hi Clay,

Its a FBM prima.

when you say it might not be tempered, do you have an idea what might be the issue?

im going to get some photos tomorrow, hopefully.

thanks all.

Calum -

What machine are you using for tempering? If you never had problems hand-ladling then it may be that you think the bars are tempered but they are actually not.

Dan:

Welcome to TheChocolateLife!

Where are you located? Were you at The Chocolate Show in London? I was there.

All machines were sold!

Dear all,

I am new to you but you're not to me since I've been reading this forum for a couple of weeks now. So : please to meet you!

With my wife we are planning to open a bean to bar production in France in 2017, after we discovered cacao in Colombia where we are staying right now. The whole BtB world is new to us.

I have thousands of questions about machines, recipes, training, law, values etc. But let's start with one that, to what I read in this forum, has'nt been discussed recently. Please tell me if I'm wrong.

For those who produce BtB chocolate in countries without cacao production, where do you buy your beans ? Do you deal directly with producers (individuals? Cooperatives? Other organizations?) ? Do you deal with a cacao trader ? Do you buy in common with other buyers in your area ? 

And if you have any contact in Colombia, it would be very usefull. 

All your recommandations and feedbacks are welcome !

Thank you

Aurelien

hi all, I'm from the uk. I have been making 'craft chocolate' for about 6 months. I now sell raw beans online from all over the world in small bags. Love to get acquainted with you all.

Specific formula please, and photos if you have them?

They are plain milk bars. 

Melting 45c

tempered 30.5

Dosed straight ff the machine.

80g bar 150 x 80 x 9mm

Cooled in fridge at 12C for 30mins

they then appear to be fine and then a couple of days later they bend.

We never have this problem when we hand ladel, I just cant get my head around this.

Any help is, as always, much appreciated.

Where are you located? I'm in the Northeast so I'm hoping shipping won't be an issue.

The roll mill is sold.