Forum Activity for @GretaHass

Jesús Emilio and Arley’s visit to the UK was organized with support from the human rights organization, Peace Brigade International. PBI has been working with the Community since their foundation in 1997, with the aim of keeping the eyes of the world on the dangerous human rights situation in Colombia. They regularly send volunteer observers into the field to show solidarity, and these international observers are able to bear witness to the threats the Community faces. This international presence is also a form of protection.

“Without this, we would have been massacred,” explains Jesús Emilio. Lush has played a significant role, too. “Lush has accompanied us on the recent pilgrimages that we have made to different settlements within the Community, where there has been an enormous paramilitary repression,” says Jésus Emilio. “We feel that Lush has joined our daily struggle.”

Hi, we sell new table top panning machinery. If you would like info please send an email to jim at unionmachinery.com

Thanks, Jim Greenberg - Union Confectionery Machinery Company

Looking for a used or new table-top panner - not a kitchen-aid attachment. Something like a Chocolate World machine. 

Thanks!

CAT

Practically new 200 pound Savage Bros chocolate Temperer with digital display.  Bought 12/12  (New) for 9380.00.  $7500.00 or best offer.

 image.jpg - 438KB

I am interested cmatice@gmail.com

packmachine.steven@gmail.com is the email of my rep. His name is Steven Cui. Please tell him Daniel from Wisconsin, USA referred you. Thank you,

Daniel

Thanks - I'll take the contact info!

Hi there!

I just purchased a flow wrapper from a Chinese company called Shanghai Goldsen. The machine just arrived to us in our facility in Wisconsin, USA. It was a very good price -- around 5,000 USD  . It appears to be a very high quality machine. The American and European Machines are definitely very nice, yet they were around$25,000 - 40,000 and that was too much for us.

I would be happy to introduce you to my sales rep in China if you wish.

We're looking to purchase a flow wrapping machine - looking for suggestions and recommendations. We've been talking for nearly a year with a UK company (Loynds) and hoping someone has specific experience with this company. Thoughts greatly appreciated. Thanks,

Hi - Could you tell me when was it made, how much does it hold and where is it located?

You might consider contacting the governments of Trinidad/Tobago, or Jamaica as they both fund activities in this area.  There's a few in grenada as well (although i've not had them for some time).  A great deal of cocoa grows in the DR as well, and i'd suggest you speak with Max at Rizek cacao.

Alternatively, give my family a room for a week and i'll teach you how to do it yourself

You will not be able to affect the softness change with your processing only.  IF (and this is a really, really BIG IF) you can control your bean sourcing to ONLY source beans (including the cocoa butter) from very high altitude trees, then you have some hope.  But i know of 3 people in the world (two who aren't typing at the moment) who can do this, and I suspect you're not one of them.

If you want to avoid milk entirely, you can get a similar affect by using small amount of liquid vegetable oil (or semisoft vegetable fat).  Note: doing so may result in your chocolate loosing its standard of identity (it's legal in some countries, but not others), and the more you use the more difficult it will be to temper (if not impossible.)

If you undertemper your chocolate, you can also achieve a textural softness, but you're playing with fire here, as, well, it's not really tempered any more, and you're likely to get bloom along with your softness (depending on your degree of temper, your bloom may  not show up for a week or longer, but it will show up).  Given the amount of information we have at this point, this is likely what happened in your first batch.  It will be very difficult for you to replicate consistently.

Edited to add: or my personal favorite, add some hazelnut paste and make it a gianduja.  Ranks high on the delicious-ometer, and it definitely softens it.

I'll definitely give the milk fat a try as a learning experience and to keep all my options open - thanks for the suggestion. But I'm still hoping for non-milk suggestions as there's milk allergies in my family (there's probably not enough protein in the milk fats to trigger an allergy, but that's not something I'll take a chance on), and having a 3 item ingredient (beans, cocoa butter, sugar) really calls to me.

I'll plan on changing one variable on every batch to see what happens. I'm hopeful I can figure out whatever I did in my first batch that made them so much softer.

Good morning everyone -

I am Pete, the Food & Beverage Director of the soon-to-be opened Park Hyatt St. Kitts resort. One of Park Hyatt's values is to integrate our brand into the communities we are located. We try to provide an authentic experience, embracing local customs and products.

To this end I am searching for a high quality chocolate bar to place in our minibars. I haven't been able to source anything suitable in St. Kitts and Nevis, so am expanding my search to neighbouring Caribbean islands. As the product will be in the minibar, a longer shelf life is preferable.

If you have a suitable product, or know of a product, please get in touch here.

That's true Sebastian 

To crackedcitrine - I would recommend trying it as a side by side comparison next time you're making a batch. When you're done grinding the chocolate, take half out and add 3-4% milk fat to the other half and continue grinding for 20-30 minutes. Mould the two batches up and taste them side by side.

You're spot on Gap! No reason to be intimidated at all  -  I'm not *that* terrifying....

I arrived in Amsterdam on the Wednesday of Chocoa and went directly from Centraal Station to the venue - the Beurs van Berlage.

My Thursday and Friday were spent moderating The Chocolate Makers Forum, and because I had taken on the moderator role, I told the organizers that I would be happy to jump in and take over tasting sessions if a presenter did not show up, but I did not want to commit to doing tastings of my own.

Somehow this was interpreted as my giving permission schedule tasting sessions for Saturday and on Sunday.

To make things even more fun, I did not learn about this until Friday after the Chocolate Makers Forum ended, when I just happened to pick up a copy of the program. Which is when I also learned the topic for my sessions:

How to taste the impact of soil conditions, climate, and the care and attention of the farmers and chocolate makers …

Really? Seriously? This was not a topic I would normally even begin to try to attempt without a lot of preparation and I would want a lot more than 45 minutes to present, especially when presenting to an audience of 100 non-professionals. And, of course, by the time I found out what I had been signed up for, it was impossible to change because it was in the printed program and on all the signage. 

If I had the time to prepare, I would have liked to have worked with raw and roasted beans, liquor and chocolate, but I would still have started with an industrial chocolate. But, I had less than 24 hours to come up with an approach and find whatever I needed before the first tasting and no facilities to do anything from scratch. 

So, what to do? Fortunately, I was at a chocolate festival … and one where, luckily for me, there were be a lot of raw cocoa beans, even if there were no roasted beans or liquors.

I decided to make my entry point into the session what I perceive to be the difference between craft chocolate makers and industrial chocolate makers. In my mind, industrial producers are defined by the requirement to be consistent and craft producers not so much. I seem them as the flip sides of a coin.

Using an unidentified dark chocolate from Callebaut - a Chocoa sponsor that sampled liberally so I was able to get my hands on many bars - I explained the process of how industrial chocolate makers can create chocolate with a consistent flavor profile despite the fact that the beans are an agricultural product and can vary. Through blending and the use of vanilla - which is a masking aroma - consistency is achieved, though at the expense of interesting varietal nuance in the beans.

From there I had the great good fortune to be able to taste some chocolates and the beans they were made from. I was able to sample a 100% Madgascar from Chocolats Madagascar/Chocolaterie Robert following it up immediately with the beans so that the audience could get a glimpse of the evolution of flavor from bean to chocolate - with both in their mouth at the same time.

I followed that combination up with two chocolates made from beans from Java. One was from Van Dender in Belgium and the other from Morin in France. Because I also had the (unroasted) beans - which were passed around in a bag - the audience got to smell and taste the beans and then taste the differences in the two chocolates which are actually quite different, with one preserving a strong smoky character that is common in Javanese beans (with smoke normally considered to be a defect) and the other with a more delicate smoky note. Two chocolate makers, each with their own aesthetic, producing recognizably different chocolates from the same beans.

[At this point I do need to give a shout out to Daarnhouwer – Albert and Maria – who graciously and unhesitatingly agreed to give me the beans from Madagascar and Java and the chocolates from Chocolaterie Robert, Van Dender, and Morin for me to use.]

As the beans and chocolates were being passed around I was able to talk a little bit about fermentation and drying and their contributions to flavor as well as take questions from the audience. I did get several really brilliant questions, including one from a teen who asked about the chemical neutralization of acidity which meant I could talk about Van Houten and a key Dutch innovation in chocolate making.

Regal Chocolate (Soklet) from India was offering two different ferments of the same bean with chocolate made from one of them, so that would have been an interesting choice, and Mava was offering beans from six different farms in Madagascar’s Sambirano Valley, none of them the two best-known - Millau or Akesson. One farm, Ottange, has flavors that remind me of the Madagascar chocolate I would have eaten when I first started out nearly 20 years ago.

It would have been really interesting to work with the beans from two or more of the farms (Mava had chocolate from these beans made by Chocolaterie Robert) and then to also taste beans and chocolate from Chocolaterie Robert made from beans from one of the two main sources. Throwing Valrhona’s Manjari into the mix would have been a real eye-opener, I think, as tasters I know claim that Manjari has drifted away from its original flavor profile.

I also know it would be interesting to work with Friis-Holm chocolate and the beans from Ingemann in Nicaragua. The double-turn and triple-turn Chuno for example would demonstrate the impact of fermentation on flavor, and there are other people working with Chuno to provide a counterpoint.

But I don’t know how interesting a deep dive into liquor tasting would be for a general audience and I certainly don’t know how I would accomplish for 100 people in only 45 minutes. I do know, after doing the tastings, that it is possible to introduce the concepts in an approachable and understandable way as long as both beans and chocolate can be tasted and compared.

Thanks

Del Ward - Fiddler's Chocolates

This is geared completely to dark chocolate. I use a commercially made ghee that is 99.9% fat. 

How acidic are your beans / liquor?

Also, as Sebastian says you are going to want to heat the chocolate in the mixer and be able to control the temperature. And, having forced hot air is going to be a good idea.

The Kleego conche I helped develop for FBM can control the bowl temperature to 60C and the hot air (about 100 cubic meters/hour) up to 70C. It is vertical, has counter-rotating stirrers, and a pump to transfer chocolate from the bottom of the working bowl to the top so that all of the chocolate is processed. With the heat on high you can conche very acidic chocolates flat in under two hours. However, people tend to use them hot for a short period of time in the beginning and then cool things down when much of the acidic aroma has evaporated off. Typical conching times are under 2.5 hours for a 35kg batch. It has a melting capacity of 50kg and can also mix many recipes.

Sebastian - to reduce spam, you need to follow each other first.

Sebastian: I think others might want to know!

Thanks for the tip gap, but is that advice geared more toward a milk chocolate rather than a dark chocolate?

A quick search says ghee has 0.5 - 1.0% water content. Is that low enough that you add it straight without the need for other additives like lecithin? I vaguely remember hearing chocolate is around that range, but I can't find it in writing at the moment.

Hi there,

We are changing directions a bit and are trying to sell a few different pieces of equipment...  

-----------

FBM Unica continuous tempering machine...

25kg working bowl capacity with full craft chocolate upgrade. This is a great machine that we would love to keep if we could. 

It is two years old and was minimally used for one of them. It is in excellent condition and a great buy for anyone ready to upgrade to one of the best machines in the industry.  

New this machine was available for 24k we are asking 18k obo.

-----------

We also have a Kent three roll mill

This mill has 9" x 24" rolls and can grind down quite a bit of chocolate fast. . This machine is not ready for chocolate just yet but with very little work it can be. We got a great deal on it and changed directions before we got it grinding. Willing to pass the same deal onto some one that wants it. 13k  

________

We have a number of other craft chocolate making items and some great Beans for sale as well.

Please inquire via Email or Phone   -   info@starchildchocolate.com / 1-707-671-5778

It's a bit intimidating after that comment from Sebastian, but . . .

I would suggest adding some anhydrous milk fat (AMF). Adding 2% will start to soften the chocolate, but 4% may be necessary. 

If you don't have access to AMF (it can be tricky to get hold of) you can substitute ghee (often available from supermarkets or Indian grocers).

Correct on 900g + 9g of cocoa butter as approximation of 1%.

If you find the change of viscosity too much you may need to go to 0.5%.

You need to add the cocoa butter to hot chocolate and mix for 10-15 minutes.

@peter3: Thank you for the reply and sound advice! That's actual a great basis for a starting experiment to test and calibrate the chocolate viscosity without too much wasted product (if any at all!)

By 1 percent Cocoa Butter, I assume you mean to add an amount of Cocoa Butter equal to the entire batch of chocolate, seed and all? For instance:

900 grams chocolate (including seed) + 9 grams of cocoa butter?

The tip regarding the lowering of the set point is very useful and will be tried if the state of the tempered Milk Chocolate begins to lose its luster with the addition of Cocoa Butter.

The whole matter of viscosity control of tempered chocolate is very complex and many pages could be written on the subject.

You could try a much simpler approach.

If you are happy with the temper of the milk chocolate keep the tempering machine settings.

You can use a disposable plastic knife (something with repeatable shape and weight) and dip it in the tempered dark chocolate (use 10 pieces to get good average), measure and record weights.

Add 1% of cocoa butter (by weight) to your milk chocolate, temper and dip the plastic knives, measure, record compare.

Keep increasing the cocoa butter by 1% until you get the same weights.

You can scrape the chocolate from plastic knives, melt and reuse.

I would guess 1-3% should do the trick.

You may need to drop your cooling temperature set point on the tempering machine if your temper is getting worse. 

I'm going to refrain from answering as a challenge to those who have been taught this answer.  Yes, consider this a pop quiz 8-)

I'm still fairly new to making chocolate and extremely low volume, so please forgive any lack of proper terminology. And thank you to everyone that's already helped me tremendously as I read through older posts here.

I'm getting feedback that my 65% dark chocolate bars are too "hard", meaning they take too much effort to bite through, and even breaking the bars apart takes a significant amount of effort. I thought this was normal (many of the commercial bars in that 65% range seem similar) until I found a bar from my very first bean to bar batch from almost a year ago, and it is significantly easier to bite through.

My only recipe so far for bean to bar is for a 65% dark, using 35% sugar, 60% winnowed nibs, 5% cocoa butter (no lecithin since I haven't needed it for viscosity reasons). Assuming 50% cocoa butter in the nibs, that gives me a total cocoa butter content of 35%. My batch size is around 2.5 pounds, running in a home-sized Premier tilting melanger for about 36 hours (I haven't intentionally experimented with different grinding times yet - variation is purely a matter of convenience). The bars go into the refrigerator for 10-15 minutes until they start pulling away from the molds. They are removed from the molds and sit at room temp 15-60 minutes before packaging. They are stored in a wine refrigerator at about 60 degrees F.

My first batch seems like it is grittier, so maybe I didn't grind it as long, and maybe that's why it is softer. It was also a different bean source, and probably a much lighter roast.

I've considered the possibility that I'm overtempering, but I'm not finding detailed advice on how to check for that other than "once the melted chocolate starts to thicken" (I can recognize and correct that) or using an expensive temper meter.

Any advice on how to create easier to eat chocolate?

Thanks,
David

Hello fellow chocolatiers! This is my first post here at this amazing website (which I've used to garner information from delving into prior forum posts a great many a time). Seeing as I had a somewhat specific question for which I couldn't find an adequate answer, I've decided to ask you, the experts, directly!

Here's the deal: My buddy and I, we like to hand-dip pretzels into chocolate which is tempered using a Chocovision Tempering Unit. We track data on the pretzels in order to learn about how time and type of chocolate can affect the coating that is applied to the pretzel itself.

When using a pretty high grade Dark Chocolate (from Germany), the chocolate tends to be of low thickness; viscosity, creating a coating on each pretzel of about 2.00 grams (with fluctuation from human-error in the hand-dipping process, of course.) This tends to work out fine, as we generally can finish our batch in a reasonable time before the chocolate thickens to the point of creating too gaudy of a coating.

We are currently now working on a Milk Chocolate coating from the great land of Norway (Freia, if you've heard of or tried it). Regardless of brand, we knew that Milk Chocolate would be a bit more difficult to work with due to its more viscous nature. After dipping and collecting the results, the average coating fell into the territory of around 3.11 grams; a more than 50 percent increase.

We have heard that adding cocoa butter to a batch will decrease its viscosity without too much hindrance to flavor or appearance (which we've also heard it can be a boon to...in that it can help temper the chocolate possibly!) So...

Questions!

1) We are fairly satisfied with the Dark Chocolate's viscosity, which again, yields an average coating on each pretzel of about 2.00 grams. With the Milk Chocolate's average coating of 3.11 grams, and an average batch size of 900 grams of chocolate, how much cocoa butter would you recommend adding to the Milk Chocolate to lower its viscosity to equal to that of the Dark Chocolate (recalling that the Milk Chocolate seems to be 50 percent more viscous, if the amount of coating were the judge.)

2) Is there a particular brand or type of cocoa butter one should purchase if its sole use was for lowering the viscosity of specifically Milk Chocolate?

Thank all of you in advance for any and all advice that you can provide; It is very much appreciated! May I also wish you a great day // night, whichever may apply!

-JesNES

I've never used one, so I don't know.  :)

What is a "normal" conching time with this?

It looks like there are many listed on Alibaba:

https://www.alibaba.com/trade/search?fsb=y&IndexArea=product_en&CatId=141607&SearchText=z+blade+mixer

Hi Clay,

I hope all good with you.  We are having a major issue at our chocolate factory at the moment and am feeling a bit desperate.  It is a small factory, and we just upgraded from a Selmi One to an FBM Unica with dosing head and line, which I heard about from The Chocolate Life.  

The problem is that we were told that it would dose with inclusions up to 7mm and 10% inclusions in the chocolate.  Our inclusions are under 5mm (we use a colander to make sure) and 5% inclusions in the chocolate and the dosing head works for less than 30 seconds before it gets blocked.  We spent $30,000UAUD on this machine because we thought it would make us more efficient, yet two thirds of our bars have inclusions, and we are finding that it is faster to hand mould the ones with inclusions (we have tried sprinkling them in by hand as we go with the moulding line and it is taking ages).  Sorry to rant, but I know you really believe in FBM and have a lot of experience with their machines, so I thought maybe you could help us in some way?  It is really damaging our business, we are weeks behind on orders because of these issues.  We are in contact with FBM, but we have tried everything they suggested and it doesn't work, so are feeling at a loss.  Any ideas welcome.  Thanks for your time.

I am interested in a z-blade mixer but don't know where to start looking. Can someone help me out with a company that makes them. I would prefer somewhere in China since the tax would be cheaper for me.

and, how long does it usually take a z-blade mixer to conche?

I am interested in a z-blade mixer but don't know where to start looking. Can someone help me out with a company that makes them. I would prefer somewhere in China since the tax would be cheaper for me

You are certainly more up-to-date than I am:)

Ruth,

I think AquaLab is/was the name for certain models of Decagon devices, so I should have referred to Decagon. In any event, that info is out of date because, in my recent email exchange with the company, this note was included at the end:

We are excited to let you know that we have changed our name from Decagon Devices/AquaLab to METER Group Inc.  All content will gradually migrate to our new website at METERgroup.com.  The current website www.aqualab.com will be available for the foreseeable future.

Jim

Jim, I think Pawkit is made by Decagon rather than AquaLab, not that it makes any difference in the answer.

There you go.  There are many different makes/models out there - towards the turn of the century is when the technology to differentiate/compensate began to be used, but not everyone chose to include it in every model.  Know thy model and it's limitations 8-)

Hi Chocolate Lifers!

I wanted to make sure you all know about The Slow Melt podcast. Hosted, written and created by author and journalist Simran Sethi, with guests including farmers, conservationists, manufacturers, tasting experts, scientists, social justice advocates, chocolate purveyors and, of course, award-winning chocolate makers.

Listen to the first 3 episodes on our website and please share if so moved. We welcome your feedback!

https://theslowmelt.com/