Forum Activity for @Clay

If you are referring to the Academia de Cacao in Nicaragua, the course in May is not yet filled. However, it is not bean-to-bar class, it's rooted in what you need to know to improve cocoa quality.

Hi Larry,

Would you suggest getting a guitar cutter with a 5mm or 7.5 mm base? I'm wondering if there is a "standard". My hope is to make some savory chocolates which will be smaller in size, but for larger pieces, I'm wondering if there's a more common size (e.g. candy cups, etc.).

Thanks,

Annalynn

Are you open to buy new or used? My recommendation is to look for a "used table top fully automatic with depositor":

With a 4K budget you may be able to get a used table top full automatic tempering machine with depositor (Brand new range will be between 5 to 10K)

Here are few examples:

FULL AUTO

http://www.tcfsales.com/products/659-fbm-AURA-Table-Top-Auto-Tempering-Machine/ ( For more information contact Clay Gordon via ChocolateLife )

http://www.savagebros.com/p.26/50-lb-20-kg-table-top-chocolate-melter-conditioner.aspx 

SEMI AUTO (with depositor)

http://www.tcfsales.com/products/623-LCM-Table-Top-Tempering-Machine-with-Pump-25-kg/

SEMI AUTO (Mini Wheel)

http://perfectinc.com/en/tempering/mini-wheel-tempering-air-20 

http://www.tcfsales.com/products/557-DEDY-Mini-Molding-Machine-23-kg/

http://www.bakonusa.com/chocolate-machines/choco-tt 

Directly to customers. I buy wafers and melt them down. Around 4000$

There is a lot of melting and tempering machines with a depositor head in the market. I still have few more questions to help you better:

1 - Based on the quantity, I am assuming you are selling your bars directly to your customers (individuals/online customers or smaller specialty retailer) and not via retail stores (major retailer), correct?

If you intend to sell your bars via retail stores you may need a volumetric controled pump and custom depositor for your mold - major retailers usually require weight accuracy and those custom depositors could run you expensive)

2 - Do you MAKE your chocolate (bean to bar) or Purchase Blocks/Discs from 3rd party Chocolate maker and what is the typical batch of chocolate you make/melt on a daily basis (How many Kg) (based on your answer I am assuming you melt 3rd party blocks/discs - correct me If I am wrong)?

3 - What is your budget (range) for the equipment?

PS - A 600 bars daily batch, seems a large quantity of bars to be produced via Microwave Melting/Manual Tempering 

I'd like to queue up for this machine, if the other folks don't buy it first. 

I, too, am in California. 

Cheers.

d

I make milk and white chocolate bars. Currently using microwave to melt and piping bags to fill the molds. Make roughly 600 bars in a day looking for a machine to take my melted chocolate and dispense it into molds

@niewulis, in order to provide you with an accurate answer, what is the volume of bars you're going to produce, how many types of chocolate (dark, milk ..) and how many types of bars (just single size or more?) what kind of equipment do you currently have?

 I will be interrested in both of them or one of them can you please reach me at cocoaglobe@gmail.com

Thank you,

Ruth

My contact email is info@starchildchocolate.com I would be interested in one. 

For one, these are already worth 400 and brand new

250 for both?

Reduced tgo 250

SOLD 

I've started using coconut cream in my ganache and it works perfectly. Question in how long will the shelf life be?

Check out Chocovisions tempering machines, varied sizes and not overly expensive. Sounds like you might be over seeding your chocolate?

I used the tempering machine from Perfect Equipment out of Quebec, it doesn't pump but it works amazingly well for creating bars just with the standard set up. Check them out, they might have something up your alley?

Thank you Gerhard!

Well done on your sculptures!! :D I couldn't find info on your website, but I will check again ...

excellent! thank you sir!

I am a chocolate sculptor and carve mostly out of a solid block..lots of infos and sculptures on my website: gerhardpetzl.com

If you need more infos, you are very welcome to ask me! 

Hi Jason,

You do not have to use seed chocolate when tempering. This is just one method usually used by people that melt tempered chocolate for making truffles and such. There are many YouTube videos on tempering chocolate. I would suggest watching some these and then giving it a try. You can always buy a bag of chocolate chips and practice. 

- Thomas

I use the Mol d'Art 6 Kg melter just for that purpose and it works great for me. They also make a 3Kg melter. I have no affiliation with the company.

http://www.moldart.be/en/producten/chocolate-machinery/chocolate-melters/

Clay--

I totally agree with you about learning to temper chocolate by hand first.  Good advice.  Thank you for your input and I look forward to learning from you and others who have such deep knowledge about the amazing world of chocolate.

Thomas,

Is it always necessary to use seed chocolate when tempering?

Jason

Hi guys,

Do you know anything about sculpting with chocolate? I have searched around and didn't find much info. I mean, kinda like the creations by Patrick Roger (France) and Stephane Treand ...

Do they temper chocolate and work with it, or as I'm assuming, they work with a different type of chocolate?

Thanks!

Hello folks,

Any idea how to keep the chocolate in temper. I make one mould, and it gets too thick for a 2nd one, so I will need to heat it carefully each time, and stir like a maniac.

Heard you can buy a chocolate melter and putting the tempered chocolate in it to maintain at working temperature. Seems like a good idea. Any (inexpensive) melters you would recommend? I don't need a huge melter. I'm based in Europe...

Thank you!

Hi! 

Is this still available? 

Info@whimsychocolates.com

Thank you!

http://chocolatetalk.proboards.com/thread/1673/sale-hilliard-chocolate-tempering-machines?page=1&scrollTo=8889

Hi, I am looking for another one or two Hilliards little dippers. I dont care if they are super old as long as they work well and are a good price. Thank you for looking

Thanks, Larry! All very helpful. Based on sizing, I think I'm more keen to having a 15 mm and 22.5 mm frame. I shall update.

Cheers,

Annalynn

Annalynn,

I saw your post about looking for a guitar cutter. I wanted to point out a few more helpful things.

There are several frames that have the wires strung across with different spacing. identifying which spacing you are looking for would be helpful to get what you want. The wire spacing options for the 7.5mm base are 15mm, 22.5mm, 30mm, and 37.5mm. You could remove some wires if needed for different spacing. i.e. if you wanted a 45mm piece cut a 15 or 22.5mm frame with some wires removed would do the trick. 

Also, they don't make a 7mm base. it is 7.5mm.

Happy guitar hunting,

Larry

I temper chocolate, bean to bar that I make, in one stainless steel bowl. I use a double boiler to heat it, place it in a sink with a couple inches of cool water to cool it, and back on the double boiler to heat again. All while stirring with a spatula. I can do up to 6 pounds at a time. I would say this is about as low tech as one can get. I did buy a melter to pour the tempered chocolate into to maintain a working temperature. I started making bean to bar chocolate at home about a year ago and have made about 40 batches of different types. Although no white (yuck). 

Holy cow Clay.  I just about fell off my stool when I read your post!

We finally agree on something unilaterally!

Gotta go.  I need to print and frame this thread!  

LOL

Brad

Matt -

You might want to look into the small business nutrition labeling exemption. As a small business (under something like 500 employees and $50,000,000 in sales) you are not required to put a nutrition label on a package, especially if it it's small. And I think federal law trumps state law on this. You do however, have to have the nutrition information available and it has to be easily accessible. But, I am not a lawyer and you should check.

That said, some retail outlets will demand it, along with UPC codes. Ingredients labels with allergen statements should be considered mandatory no matter what the regs require. 

As you are in the US you only need to really worry about internationalization if you find yourself selling outside the US. As near as I know there are no special requirements unless you are wholesaling to a retailer unless the retailer requires it for liability reasons.

Jason -

For such small quantities learn to do it by hand if you can't afford the machines. The experience you gain learning to hand temper will pay huge dividends going forward. In the end, machines can only do what you tell them to do. If they don't produce correct results and you don't know what tempering looks and feels like then you are not in a position to know why the machine "failed" to temper properly. 

It's not the machine's fault, actually. They are not artificially intelligent and cannot read your mind or evalaute the chocolate they are being asked to temper. They don't know the external temperature, or humidity, or anything like that. So they can't react to changes in ambient environment, for example, that will affect temper.

Finally - and I really don't want to dissuade you from pursuing your chocolate dreams, at this stage if the difference in price between a Rev 1 and a Rev 2 is straining your budget then wait and save until it's not an issue for you.

:: Clay

Brad:

If you go to the Academy of Chocolate web site you will find the criteria for what constitutes "bean-to-bar." Specifically:

BEST DARK BEAN TO BAR (%)

Open to manufacturers who use cocoa beans (as opposed to cocoa liquor, paste, or couverture) as their raw material in any of the three specifications below.

Please specify on the entry form which best describes your bean to bar product. This is for office information only and will not be disclosed to the judges. [Emphasis in the original.]

• Tree to Bar. Made from beans managed by the producer. This is the end-to-end process of manufacturing owned and controlled by a single business.
• Tree to Factory. Management of cacao at the source with a third party manufacturing the bean to bar process.
• Factory Roast to Conch [sic]. Bar made from beans purchased from a grower or an intermediary. All manufacturing processes i.e. roasting, grinding, refining and conching owned and controlled by a single business.

IMO, these "distinctions" make it possible for virtually everyone to claim to be bean to bar. As I interpret the guidelines, I could make a phone call to ECOM and get a container of beans - sight unseen - delivered to ICAM and have chocolate made and I would qualify.

WRT to Papa Chocolat - if Callebaut sources the beans and someone else makes the chocolate for them then it fits under the Factory Roast definition. That said, I can see how Original Beans, Idilio, and Åkesson fit the definition - they source beans and have the chocolate made for them - Factory Roast again. But it's harder for me to see how some others fit. And I am fairly knowledgeable.

To me, bean-to-bar means – at the very minimum – all stages of the transformation of raw cocoa beans into finished chocolate are performed under the direct supervision and control of the company claiming so. Secondarily, it means that the company actually has to sell product (bars) at retail in a package with their own name on it. 

I have long had a problem with the phrase bean-to-bar because of this malleability and I strongly encourage the Academy of Chocolate to take a long, hard, look at their classification criteria before the next installment of the Awards. This is because, in the long run, the context of the guidelines will get stripped from the award itself when it appears on a box or wrapper and the uninformed consumer will not see the asterisk that a knowledgeable professional might.

:: Clay

Please let me know if you've got a guitar cutter that you're willing to sell. I live in the Bay Area and if you're local, will gladly pick it up.

Ideally, I'd like a Dedy 7.5 mm base with a 15mm and/or 22.5 mm frame Guitar Cutter, please.

Thanks,

Annalynn

Larry,

Thanks for the warm welcome and the tips on the Dedy. The more I look into a guitar cutter, the more I'm inclined to purchase a Dedy and it sounds like I should go with the 7mm.

I've only been around TheChocolateLife for a week and I love it already!

Now, I'm on a hunt for that guitar cutter.

Cheers,

Annalynn

Hello,

I'm slowly accumulating equipment for the purpose of making dark chocolate.  Some equipment will be affordable; others, like a good tempering machine, probably won't be.  I've read good reviews of the Rev 2 temperer, but it is a little too expensive at this point, and the Rev 1 seems to have mixed reviews.  Any hints or clues about different low-tech tools for tempering chocolate would be greatly appreciated!

thanks,

Jason