Forum Activity for @Shelley Fields
Shelley
My First Valentine's!
Posted in: Tasting Notes
Hi Wendy.Thank you for the tips and good luck with your second Valentine's!!!Oh, boy!!! Easter??? Lol...wonderful!
My First Valentine's!
Posted in: Tasting Notes
Hey Andre! This is my second Valentine's Day. Last year I learned that it is very much a last minute Holiday for us. Most everyone came the week of Valentine's Day. We also learned to have things like baskets or sampler boxes of truffles made up because a lot of the shoppers wanted very easy gifts. They liked coming in and picking up the big pretty baskets or boxes instead of choosing truffles to have us box for them. Then there are the little packaged chocolates for those customers who want just a little something to give friends. We sold a lot of those too! I like what Sarah said...if you run out you run out. Be ready to start cranking out Easter Bunnies like crazy! ~Wendy
My First Valentine's!
Posted in: Tasting Notes
Traditionally we send Valentines Day cards to friends and loved ones...You can send a free virtual Valentine to everyone on your list and you could win two special edition boxes of Godiva chocolate one to savor and one to share. Go to http://godiva.bit.ly/67s3PV for details. Let me know if you like it. I'm supporting this promo and am a true chocolate lover!
My First Valentine's!
Posted in: Tasting Notes
Oh, nevermind. My question makes no sense. Sorry, I'm new here. Still getting used to it.
My First Valentine's!
Posted in: Tasting Notes
Sarah,That's precisely what I meant.I guess you are right...I will do the best I can!Thank you,Andre
My First Valentine's!
Posted in: Tasting Notes
I think he means his first Valentine's Day in the chocolate biz and how to handle the busy-ness.I think if you plan well and work really hard then you can just let it go after that. If you run out, you run out and most people get that if they are coming to a little artisan shop, especially in your first season. The people that don't understand might be "happier elsewhere" and you might be happier without them, too!
My First Valentine's!
Posted in: Tasting Notes
I am. In what way is this your first Valentine's? What kinds of things does your valentine like?
My First Valentine's!
Posted in: Tasting Notes
This is my first Valentine's season and I am starting to freak out (probably unnecessarily!).We have just gone through Xmas and New Year's and Valentine's seems so close.Have you guys started thinking about Valentine's yet?
updated by @Andre Costa: 05/09/15 13:28:45
Where to buy bulk couverture?
Posted in: Classifieds ARCHIVE
Periodically, El-Rey Chocolates has a special on wholesale couvature Venezualan chocolates. Six different varieties. http://sales.chocolateselrey.com/-strse-74/AAB-dsh-Wholesale-Blocks-22-lbs./Detail.bok
Where to buy bulk couverture?
Posted in: Classifieds ARCHIVE
Gourmail is the retail division of Primarque. http://primarque.com/ You might try contacting them to see if they will provide retail handing (and of course, unfortunately, pricing) for other items in their wholesale line. I tried working with them years ago, but it didn't pan out; I mention them because you mentioned Gourmail.I highly recommend 'chocosphere' as a great online seller of a large variety of chocolates. http://www.chocosphere.com/ -Jon
Where to buy bulk couverture?
Posted in: Classifieds ARCHIVE
Thanks Nina. I'm somewhat familiar with your company through your Twitter stream. I just filled out the contact me form on your website. Looking forward to speaking with someone.
Where to buy bulk couverture?
Posted in: Classifieds ARCHIVE
Hi Valerie!We sell top quality bulk dark couverture -- 68% blend, 60.5% blend, and a 66% organic/fair trade blend. Specifically designed to perform perfectly in baking, this couverture is already being used by top chefs around the country.You can find out more in our website's TCHOPRO section: http://www.tcho.com/tchopro/ And more about the company: http://www.tcho.com Cheers!Nina
Where to buy bulk couverture?
Posted in: Classifieds ARCHIVE
I'm looking for another source for bulk couverture. I usually buy through www.gourmail.com because they have the best prices I've found ($49.95 for 11 pound blocks of Callebaut or 6.6 pound blocks of Valrhona), but the selection is limited to a few products out of the line. Any recommendations for other sources for bulk couverture?
updated by @Valerie: 04/07/25 13:00:14
Need Help in Finding A certain product
Posted in: Classifieds ARCHIVE
Linnea's is the best source for candy cups. Cheaper than papermart or modpak. www.linneasinc.com
Need Help in Finding A certain product
Posted in: Classifieds ARCHIVE
You can get them on-line through Paper Mart http://www.papermart.com/Product%20Pages/Product.aspx?GroupID=21234&SubGroupID=21221&ParentGroupID=18989#21221
Need Help in Finding A certain product
Posted in: Classifieds ARCHIVE
Many craft stores also carry cake decorating and hobby confection making supplies such as the foil cups. Here in North America, we have a large craft chain called Michael's which carries exactly those foil cups, and in different colors and sizes.Hope this helps.Brad Churchill
Need Help in Finding A certain product
Posted in: Classifieds ARCHIVE
Hello, I am having a hard time locating a certain product. I have the book chocolate and confections by peter greweling, and on page 70 he is filling the gold foil cups. I would like to find these cups but have been unable to do so. Everything I seem to find look like mini muffin cups. If I could get a reference I would be so happy. ThanksMatt Parmley
updated by @Matt Parmley: 04/07/25 13:00:14
Bean to Bar Blog ?
Posted in: Travels & Adventures
HI AllFascinating stuff. Thanks for the links.Seems to be that in USA/Canada at least, we may be at the tip of a bean-to-bar movement starting up, much as we've seen in the craft beer industry. Question is whether there is the market to support good, locally made, albeit expensive, chocolate.Drew
Bean to Bar Blog ?
Posted in: Travels & Adventures
Holy cacao batman! Timothy Childs is leaving Tcho! Crazy.
Bean to Bar Blog ?
Posted in: Travels & Adventures
Hi Drew!We have a blog on our site: www.tcho.com And we are bean to bar.Cheers!Nina
Bean to Bar Blog ?
Posted in: Travels & Adventures
Funny - I have the same equipment as Rogue Chocolatier!
Bean to Bar Blog ?
Posted in: Travels & Adventures
Rogue has some information on bean-to-bar. http://www.roguechocolatier.com/category/news/
Bean to Bar Blog ?
Posted in: Travels & Adventures
Check this kid out: http://www.danielhschreiber.com/blog/ I think Taza and Mast Brothers have blogs too.
Bean to Bar Blog ?
Posted in: Travels & Adventures
Not yet...but as soon as I get the final sign-off to start selling bars the web-site will go live and I will be blogging about how I got to the start line!
Bean to Bar Blog ?
Posted in: Travels & Adventures
I'm interested in learning/following the story of bean-to-bar startups. Can anyone point me to any blogs or exchanges here or elsewhere?ThanksDrew
updated by @Drew Gilmour: 04/19/15 16:18:20
General Tempering Question
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques
I think it may have been a couple of issues. One reason was that as I dipped different centers, the ganache would slightly melt and what I would have was not pure chocolate but different fats (cream, nuts, etc.) I solved this by starting with fresh chocolate each time. I would use the leftover for my new ganache. (The technique that I use for making a ganache is to temper my chocolate and mix that with my cream/invert sugar that has boiled and let cool to 95 degrees. I then add my butter and tempered chocolate together. That way the ganache sets up much quicker and is much firmer. I'm told that under a microscope, my ganache would look more tempered than one using the method of pouring the boiling cream over the tempered chocolate. But I digress.So that was one issue. The other was messing around with my temperatures. I had changed my coveratures around the time I bought the machine and needed to find the right custom temperature settings for the combination's of chocolate that I was using. I hope this helped.Bud
General Tempering Question
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques
I just happened on this discussion and was wondering if your problem was ever resolved. I have been tempering my chocolate the same way in a Rev 2 for a couple of months and suddenly I getting this weird bloom that I've never had before. The chocolate sets up okay when I test it, but then about an hour after I have dipped all my centers, they look awful with a grayish hue and spotted look to them. I am very frustrated and perplexed. Did you figure out what your problem was?
General Tempering Question
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques
Brian, i have been battling with tempering and cooling, and i noticed yesterday that the blotch i've been getting on every bar, on the side touching the mold CAN be wiped off. Perhaps you can shed some light on my problem and a possible solution?After a full day of tempering and molding under all sorts of different conditions, i suspected that maybe there was too much residual cocoa butter in my molds and that was causing the problem (even though i clean them out with cotton balls before use), so i washed one with soap for the first time to test my hypothesis today. (by the way, i'm using a revolation x as of yesterday, but was getting this when i'd temper by hand prior to this)thanks in advance-mike
General Tempering Question
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques
I want to thank you all for your kind posts.To recap, my problem is a mild case of bloom caused by my not heating the chocolate high enough to melt out all of the seed. I'll also add more seed as I have been adding about 20% when I hit 95 degrees. Even though I use a temperer that is always stirring the mass of chocolate, I should still stir more by hand to ensure even temperature distribution. I might also lean to letting it over-crystallize a bit. I have also been adding up to 20% more melted chocolate when at 95 degrees to my tempered chocolate when I was running low. Now I'll let it cool a bit more so the temperatures are closer. And stir, stir, stir.Again, thanks. It's great finding a community of fellow chocolatiers who are so kind and open to helping.Yours,Bud
General Tempering Question
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques
Brian;Here's where your problem may very well lie. Chocolate at a pre-crystalization temperature is WAY too warm, and will for certain be the culprit that causes the streaks/bloom in your final product (which is the result of uneven temperatures, and uneven crystalization).You can add untempered chocolate to tempered chocolate, but here is how you should do it:When your working chocolate is running low, or beginning to thicken:1. In a seperate melter or over a double boiler, melt the chocolate you wish to add, and heat it to 120 degrees.2. Cool the chocolate to 92 degrees. This can be done very quickly by putting the bowl in a cold water bath and stirring the chocolate away from the sides of the bowl.3. Slowly add that chocolate to your working chocolate, being sure to STIR, STIR, STIR.4. Wait 5-10 minutes for the working chocolate to seed the chocolate you've just added, and for the temperature to become consistent.You should be good to go, with no streaks.The important thing here is to add the new chocolate to the working chocolate when the temperatures are very close together, and to ensure the new chocolate has never reached a lower temperature where the undesireable types of crystalization occurs.Hope this helps.Brad. www.SoChoklat.com
General Tempering Question
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques
Brad.Ahh, crystallization. Some days I wish I had paid more attention to high school science with how often I am confronted with it these days.Where you talk about using cocoa butter and the prob's with it - I tend to use the chocolate that I am working with at a pre-crystallization temperature. Obviously one has to be careful not to destroy the temper but it doesn't change the flavor profile. This is the technique I always use with traditional wheel machines.brian
General Tempering Question
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques
Bud.I'm with Brad on this one - your melt temp is borderline and is probably not at that temperature through the entire mass and so when you put the rest of the mass in temper, some of its not. And it sounds like it's not sugar bloom so isn't an ambient temperature or humidity issue.brian
General Tempering Question
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques
Carol;For hand dipping the truffles, my staff use 6 ACMC machines, and then for larger amounts (above 50lbs) we use a series of Savage Bros semi automatic tempering machines. I have also trained all my staff to be able to temper all 9 varieties of our chocolate by hand, using just a double boiler, 8 litre bowl, and a heat gun/blow dryer.One big thing is to learn the crystalization properties of chocolate. Quite often viscosity of dark chocolate can be controled by temperature. I know of many chocolatiers who, as the day progresses and their working chocolate gets thicker, just add more cocoa butter. Bad move! It thins it out for a short bit, but also mutes the flavour. All they would need to do is increase the working temperature by a couple of degrees, and within minutes the chocolate is thin again.The same principle applies when working with very "thin" couverture. By controlling the temperature as you are working with it, you can make a very fluid dark chocolate, quite thick. (hence thicker chocolate coating on your confections).It's all about crystalization.Brad.
General Tempering Question
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques
Brad,What kind of equipment are you using. Do you use a melter? The reason I ask is because of all the stirring.Also, do you melt to 120 even for brand new chocolate?I use a mold'art melter and basicly follow your procedure, the main problem I battle with is the ambient room teperature.Carol
General Tempering Question
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques
Assuming you're talking about the swirl, that's correct. It's chocolate that has bloomed (ie it has set with the wrong form of crystal). It won't wipe off. You will need to remelt and remold it.
General Tempering Question
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques
It stays put and does not wipe off.