Forum Activity for @stacyarchy

Hi,

I love chocolates. My favorites are dark chocolates. I prefer to try the home made stuffs rather than the wholesale products. happy to be on this forum.

we have one and it was barely in use so in perfect condition. pm for further discussion if still interested.

My opinion:  Almost all chocolate today is not made with stone wheel grinders because it is old, and inefficient technology.  You can't even buy new industrial equipment with stone wheels (even replacement parts are hard to get).

My experience:  Most craft chocolate is gritty (and unpleasant to me) because the granite wheels cannot get the chocolate down to the smallest particle size in a reasonable amount of time.

 Clay can put you in touch with a manufacturer that offers a much better solution - a solution that is specifically designed for refining chocolate - even on a small scale like 100lbs.

You can also get in touch with me at Brad@Choklat.com I am in the process of becoming a dealer of machines I've been using for 9 years now. You will be pleasantly surprised at the price of the machines, and, like I said, I have been using them for 9 years.  They are rock solid.

Brad

To get into the details of what's going on with your setup will take some time i'm afraid.  If you're able to post a series of pictures showing the empty boxes (internal and external), as well as a shot of the whole setup from 10-20 meters back at 10 am, noon, and 4pm on a sunny day that'd be helpful.  The details are important here - where are you, what is the starting brix, how are you measuring temperature, how are you turning the beans, what is the external temperature graphed over a 72 hour period, etc all are important places to help start looking at..

Hello @thesweetartco. The cooling tunnel is still available. Let me know if you have any questions. You can email at patrick@conillin.com

hello,

is this still available?

@sebastian - can you point to some of those manuals or give some quick word on how box design impacts fermentation? Deeper is more acidic?

I'm doing some experimenting at ~400kg batch level, changing every 2 days across 3-4 boxes (~ 32" wide x 35" long x 35" tall), drainage holes on the bottom, banana leaves and jute sack on top. We're finding some temperature/fermentation inconsistency within this set of boxes -- by 96hrs there was still some pockets of cool fresh cocoa on bottom and corners. Could this be because box is too deep or cocoa too wet at start?

Our cocoa is quite wet compared to other areas i've seen. My best guesses are (a) add more drainage holes in beginning boxes (b) make the first box change at 24hr instead of 48 (c) mix in between box changes (d) make a more shallow box with less cocoa touching the wood. Looking for any tips you can offer though..

Hello @chaqchao

Do you sell cacao beans? Can you send me the info and details to aselek777@gmail.com?

Thanks

Asel

Does anyone have any opinions about the Diamond Custom Machines melangers (70 lb or 100 lb)?  Many thanks.

David

The hotel pans give a clue to the dimensions.

In my experience, you will spend a lot of time working on duplicating the Kudvic rig. There is a lot going on here and the geometry and physics are complex. Also - a lot depends on the cracker you're using.

IMO - you'd be better off starting with the Real Seeds winnower and working to modify it. I would not use a single piece of plexi on the front. I'd have separate pieces for the zig zag chamber and the collection chambers. This will enable you to access the zig zag chamber easily and experiment with shapes and distances and more to improve and focus the turbulence which is what you need to separate things properly.

Thanks, Clay and Ben, for the responses. I'm feeling a couple of late nights down in the basement with some pvc and a drill are in my future. It's all quite achievable, though.

It's really like the "Wild West of the Winnowers" out there, isn't it?!

I'm also intrigued by the Kudvic design... and it seems rather possible to recreate from the video (though exact measurements would have to be figured out):

Cocoa bean cracker and winnower Cocoa breaker, Cocoa bean crusher and separator Kudvic

Any thoughts about (or experience with) this design?

David

Hilliards Little Dipper

$850 + $50 ground shipping in continental US.

This machine is an excellent upgrade if you’ve been using smaller tempering machines or are planning to temper between 1.5 lbs and 25lbs of chocolate a day. Plugs into a standard 120 volt outlet.

The machine uses two 100-watt light bulbs as a heating mechanism, and they’re easy to change.  It’s also relatively easy to unscrew the baffle and the bowl for cleaning or changing chocolate, as necessary. Temperature is controlled by a digital control panel  and the tempering bowl motor is controlled by an off-on switch.

Email ayala@shayschocolate.com if interested.

 Hillard Little Dipper 1.jpg - 665KB

There are several plans out there online, including the realseeds one Clay linked. If you search/dig on this site, I'm sure you'll find some of them. If you like John Nanci's winnower, he has plans on his site if you want to build it yourself:

http://chocolatealchemy.com/blog/2011/07/11/chocolate-alchemys-diy-winnower 

Clay,

As update on my experiments and thinking on the humidity issue and cooling chocolate:  Today I put 2 Moso bags in my regular fridge and added a small fan. I won't know until I get to the unmolding stage whether everything worked OK (it is very humid here right now, but I have the kitchen RH down to around 45%). Of course, it won't be possible, with so many variables, to know for sure whether the two measures I took made any difference or not. The Moso bags last only two years, but I contacted the company and was assured that if I take the bags out of the fridge when I am not making chocolates and seal them in a plastic bag, they should last a longer time. The fan was quite gentle (I could barely hear that it was running), so I don't expect much help from it.

My goal is to purchase the Everlasting mini. There was a 220V outlet in the house previously for a big window AC unit, so I'm hoping it would not be a huge deal to restore it--but I know almost nothing about electricity. I will spend some time investigating the various issues, including with an electrician, and then hope to proceed.

Dave -

One of the most-liked small winnowers is the one from RealSeeds in the UK:

http://www.realseeds.co.uk/seedcleaner.html

One trick to throughput on this is to be able to feed it continuously with some sort of feeder. I might also look to consider multiple passes or perhaps pre-classify.

You should also consider making this with food-safe material such as HDPE - at least for the food contact parts.

I would be careful with making too extensive modifications to the dimensions.

All of the winnowers out there seem to be either very expensive (for a relatively small producer) or a homemade series of tubes and a shop-vac. Even John Nancy's Aether (and I am a fan of his) is a bit costly for a series of pvc pipes, poly-carbonate, and aluminum. I'm wondering if anyone might have drawn out plans for a winnower that they have created that I can use to build my own? I would, of course, be willing to pay for these plans (providing they are a proven design, are written clearly and can winnow, EFFECTIVELY, 50-75 lbs an hour).

Thanks!

David

Hey Sebastian;

I can build one in.  See attached photo.

Oh... Wait... I just put on my glasses.  Never mind....

 download.jpg - 4KB

I think they were solid. I asked him to send me pictures from the last time. They were not well done I can tell you that. Thanks for your advice. Greatly appreciate it.

Did the last owner make them solid or partially hollow or hollow?  

For hollow--You could fill one side, clip the other side on and shake bubbles out and rotate to evenly coat the mold (much harder way to do this as you could get air bubbles that won't come out).

For partial air pockets in the piece--You could fill both sides with chocolate, shake the bubbles out, them put them together with clips.  You will still have a few air pockets but they should not surface to the top to been seen.  This is simpler than above but can be kind of messy if the chocolate starts to pour out when putting together.

Or to make them solid--you can fill both sides, let harden, take them out of the mold and "glue" them with chocolate to create the finished piece.  I use an angled icing knife from cake decorating to glue chocolate pieces together with tempered chocolates.

Thank you Lynda. I know the clips of which you speak. So, in your opinion, I should just fill it enough for both sides and then clip the sides, as opposed to filling each side and then sticking it together? 

Don't use duct tape.  There are clips that are a "O" shape that will hold them that are open and clip to the edges of the mold (I think all the chocolate mold companies sell these like chocolate world or tomric) or you can use the big black binder clips.  They can be washed and sanitized easily. 

Hello. I am looking for a Savage Brothers Fire Mixer 14, in excellent condition. I am located in Calgary, Canada. Please drop me a line if you have one you're looking to sell.

Thanks.

I have a small Dedy - it's a beautiful thing! The large Dedy was as well - it's in use elsewhere these days. I know that one of the eGullet Matt's has a small Martellato and he has found it works well for what he does. The Martellato actually has a slightly larger bed than the Dedy so cuts more pieces for the size which is an advantage I'd say. It's not a double though.

The objection I have to the Martellato's is the plastic - I've seen some where the raised plastic edge gets splits in it - then it is the thing that catches then breaks the wires as they come down.

Changing a wire is tedious initially - you get better at it. But I have not broken a lot of them over time, by watching what I'm cutting as Jim mentions above. 

Hello Chocolate Collective,

I recently took over a business from a local chocolatier and have been asked to repeat job that the previous owner has done for the past 2 years. The company makes a widget, and has it recreated in molds (see attached). The molds come is two pieces and fit together. The previous owner had duck-taped a hinge along one side - which can't be hygienic, but while they fit together, they don't stay together (if that makes sense).

He has asked me to make a total of 3500 of these. What is the most efficient way to do this? Should I mold it separately and then and stick it together or try to mold it as a single unit? I have attached an image of the two pieces. Any thoughts would be great.

Thoughts?

Morag

 20170724_154429.jpg - 455KB

As we have closed down our business we have a lot of Polycarbonate molds for sale.

• 5 Heart Shaped Chocolate World CW 2348 - $75
• 60 Chocolate Bar molds - Implast/Imren IM145 - $10/each
• 10 Chocolate Bar molds - Cabrellon 1642 - $150 (or could split in half 5 molds for $75)
• 25 Micelli Chocolate Bar Molds 1169- New Never Opened. Bought the wrong size about 3 years ago - $375

All prices + shipping

Please email me at kristian (at) nuttyness (dot) com if you are interested in any of the molds or have any question.

 Micelli1169.jpg - 62KB

I have a full-size Dedy. In about 30 uses, I have broken one string--and that was my fault, not the guitar's. It's not a pleasant job to replace a string, but it's not super-difficult. There is a  video  showing how to do it. My experience suggests that the strings are not so fragile; rather the whole issue is cutting the right ganache at the right time. By that I mean not trying to cut substances with chopped nuts or coconut or nibs, etc. and having the ganache at a consistency where it will cut cleanly but is not too firm. The time I broke a string was when I was cutting a gianduja layer--it firmed up faster than usual, and I wasn't paying close attention. With ganaches and gianduja, I watch it fairly closely until it begins to crystallize around the edges and gets that matte (rather than wet) look, and then I test around the edges of the slab (which I will eventually trim off anyway) by sticking a small knife repeatedly into the ganache. It's like testing many cakes--wait until the tester comes out almost clean. It may sound like a tedious process, but there are two things I can say definitively about a guitar: Once you break a string, you will be more careful in the future, and getting those perfect pieces with completely straight edges is very satisfying (and I don't think it is possible to duplicate that with a knife).

You might want to check out the  lengthy thread  on guitars on the eGullet forum. If I recall correctly, someone on that thread was planning to buy a small guitar, and people asked the poster to report on it, but there was never any more information provided.

Looking to buy a gentle used Savage Brothers Fire Mixer 14. I'm in the San Francisco Bay Area in CA. Please contact me at info@neococoa.com if you have a lead.

Thanks a lot, Greg, for your insights. They are very helpful.

Can you tell me a bit more why the strings are so difficult to replace? Is it like tuning a guitar? This model is quite small (0,5m x 0,5m) and supposedly dishwasher safe.. I wonder if the strings will break as easily as the full size's longer strings.

Me!  silverchildconfectionaries@gmail.com

picture..

the taste is milk powder but not burning taste whatsoever.

Its not burned, so, it's moisture condensation?

 20170723_200002.jpg - 704KB

This sounds exciting, will you ship to the UK?

The case above is for white chocolate.

Is it possible that it burns but without "burning taste"? 

Absorb moisture is also a possibility but the viscosity was fine so I assume it was not moisture. 

Hi everyone,

Sometimes it's more convent to me the leave some chocolate totally untempered and temper it when needed. When I try to melt it there are many clumps that doesn't melt no matter what I do and those clumps have really bad effect on the final product, i.e. far from smooth-very gritty although from the outside it looks fine (in contrast to temper chocolate from the same batch which tempered right after conching).

An important factor is that the regular temperature is usually 28C so it takes days to harden when untempered.

What is the reason for this? It means that under-tempered chocolate cannot be smooth again?

Thank's

But does it come with a flux capacitor?

I have a Rev2 for very small jobs, but mostly use a Delta, which does some of the same things yours does (it is fairly noisy). I generally temper my chocolate by raising it to the top temp, then let it fall to around 95F, when I add a small amount of tempered seed, then let it fall further to the working point. I found that when I added the seed when the Delta beeps (at the highest point), the chocolate often gets horribly overtempered in no time at all. Adding it at around 95 means the Type V crystals from the seed get some time to do their job, but not too much. This seems to work. The down side is that, without a large amount of seed added early, it takes longer for the chocolate to cool. I don't lower the temp, then raise it again (in the traditional method, which I gather is the default for your machine and your method of tempering--though the Chocovision machines allow for following either method). Using an unorthodox time to add the seed means I have to stay close to watch the temp because the machines beep at the highest temp, then not again until the temp is 90F, when the seed is supposed to be removed--obviously too late to add seed.

Jim.

I am familiar with the Chocovision machines.  I had a Rev2.  It was an expensive noisy, tiny waste of money.

Brad

Thanks for the detailed responses. I'm sure I will have more questions--do you prefer that I post them here or email them to you?

One of them will be whether you are familiar with the Chocovision machines and, if so, how they compare to yours.

Q: What's the diameter of the bowl?

A: Diameter of the bowl is 14 inches.  You can easily dump your polycarbonate molds into it.  The overall height of the machine is 15 inches, so it can easily sit on a chair and be perfectly flush with your kitchen table.

Q: How many kilos can it hold?

A:  It will temper 1 kilo or up to 8 kilos.  Each litre of volume is about 1kg.

Q: What about cooling?  That is always the longest part of the tempering curve.

A:  All table top tempering machines use ambient room air temp to cool, because adding a compressor and cooling device would not only make the machine much larger and heavier, but also significantly more expensive and complex.  This machine is no different in that respect. HOWEVER.... Unlike any other tempering machine on the market, you can turn on and off the first two of the three tempering steps. This gives the operator ultimate flexibility with respect to how they handle their chocolate.

Each tempering cycle has three set points: 1. Heat  2. Cool  3. Reheat. 

If your chocolate is already hot, and you start your tempering cycle, it will figure that out and move to the cool stage or you can just turn set point one off completely.  The machine will then start at 2 and move to three automatically.

Maybe you want to melt it and cool it quicker - say in a water bath like I demonstrate on my website.  No problem .  Turn off set point one and two, and pour your cooled and crystalized chocolate into the bowl, push the cycle start button and walk away.  It will bring the chocolate up to your working temperature and hold it for you all day.

Maybe you have tempered chocolate.  Maybe you don't . It doesn't matter.  You can dump any kind of chocolate into it, set your temperature points, push cycle start, motor start, and walk away.  If the chocolate is cold, the motor will start automatically once the temperature sensor reads 80F/26.5C

Unlike other machines the motor operates independently of the tempering cycle.  This allows you turn off the motor to dip, pour, mix or whatever.  It will continue to try and regulate the temperature of the chocolate.  That being said, the significantly enlarged workspace helps reduce the need to turn the motor off.

Also:  If something happens and your chocolate gets too cool, the motor will automatically go into a "Hold" mode where it will shut off and wait until the chocolate is again at a safe temperature before restarting.  The software in the control center figures that out for you so that you don't turn around and find chocolate crawling out of the bowl (we have had this happen WAAAAY too many times with Hilliards, ACMC, and Pavoni machines).

Baffle:  unlike other machines where the baffle goes all the way across the bowl, essentially cutting your workspace in half, this machine's baffle is removed and replaced with a scraper that agitates the chocolate just enough to keep it from completely crystalizing.  This gives the operator maximum workspace.

Let's say you're working and running low on chocolate.  This is where this machine REALLY shines!  Melt more chocolate very quickly on a double boiler and cool it to 95 degrees F in a water bath.  While it's cooling, drop setpoint 3 (you can do that in real time with this machine WITHOUT having to reset the temper cycle) temperature to 83F/27C  it will begin to overcrystalize the chocolate in the bowl.  Once it's there, and you can see your chocolate getting thick, simply dump the new chocolate into the bowl and raise the working temperature again to your own working temperature.  The new chocolate will help bring up the temperature of the chocolate in the bowl and vice versa - eventually equalling out.  The machine will ensure that the temperature hits your target point.  Wait a few minutes for the new and old chocolate to mix and the temperature to become consistent, and presto!  a bowl full of perfectly tempered chocolate (provided of course that your existing chocolate was overcrystalized to begin with Haha!!)  You can even have spare chocolate premelted and cooled on your stove to add to the machine throughout the day.  (We do this all the time so we never have to go through the tempering process after the first cycle in the morning).

One other thing:  because this machine is for the most part round, there is a HECK of a lot less cleanup at the end of the day.  You don't have a machine with chocolate poured all over it, or a mess of chocolate in the bolt mounts for a baffle that isn't needed in the first place!

As someone who has worked with thousands and thousands of kgs of chocolate over the years, and broken or made a mess with every P.O.S. table top tempering machine out there.  I can assure you that this machine eliminates ALL of the hassle of working with a table top machine.

...and it's not going to break the bank.  After all the price is in Canadian funds.  Our dollar isn't worth much outside of Canada!  LOL

Get On the List!

Brad@Choklat.com

I sent an email. I included a question that I'll post here for the larger group. Does this machine handle chocolate straight from a melanger? One thing I've noticed from a lot of table top machines in the lower price range is that they really only work well with already tempered chocolate. I need something in this price range and quantity you've stated that I can put untempered chocolate into, push a button and then is will temper it without much supervision.

This is an exciting project, and I am very interested. The machine sounds similar to a Chocovision unit (perhaps the Delta). If you don't mind answering more questions publicly, what is the diameter of the bowl? (In other words, is it wide enough to empty molds into it once they are filled?) I can't quite figure out how 8 litres translates into kilos; do you have that figure? Do you (or will you) have available a comparison to other temperers?

The longest wait in any table-top machine is (for me, at least) the time between the top melt temp and the final tempering point. I have often thought that a cooling source would certainly speed things up. Would that put such machines out of reach as far as cost goes?

Hi Omar;

The chocolate is heated using two elements in a coil similar to that of a hair dryer.  When the chocolate is heating to the melt cycle both elements are on and it is producing very hot air.  Once the chocolate is at its final cycle (maintain temp), then the large coil shuts off and the small coil cycles.  This uses FAR less energy, and there is no risk of burning the chocolate.

The machine is also designed in such a way that all parts are very easy to get access to and replace in the event that something does break down.

ALSO:  unlike the Pavoni Mini Temper, and the ACMC Mini Temperer which have the circuit board IN the heating and cooling chamber (Stupid design.  I mean really... what were they thinking???? Who puts a circuit board in an oven???), in my machine the circuitry is kept in a completely different chamber with a consistent operating temperature.

Please send me your emails at Brad@Choklat.com so I can put you on the list and keep you updated as to progress.

Cheers

Brad