Thanks for that tip. I have gotten in touch with FormTight, and so far the experience has been encouraging. We haven't yet gotten to the question of cost. Your order of 10K is a little scary, as I wouldn't live long enough to use that many trays. I'll see if the cost of a few thousand is beyond my reach.
Hello Julie,
I am an U.S. Citizen that married a Ghanaian woman over FIVE (5) plus years ago, so i have been living here with her before we gotten married. We both fell in love with CHOCOLATE & We just purchased a SMALL COCOA FARM here in Ghana. we have over TEN THOUSAND (10,000) TRESS at present.
Ghana ONLY EXPORTS TWO (2) products & these TWO (2) items are HIGHLY REGULATED!! #1) GOLD #2) RAW COCOA BEANS!! In fact the ONLY people/Group that the FARMER can legally sell their COCOA BEANS to ate the GHANA COCOA BOARD (CocoBod) or its Licensed Agents at a FIXED price determined by the Government. The ONLY EXCEPTION to these LAWS are if you PROCESS the COCOA BEANS here in GHANA!!!
So we invested my LIFE'S savings into all of the equipment needed to PROCESS approx ONE HUNDRED FIFTY (150 KG) Kilograms Per Hour. Our Mid Crop Harvest was just completed by mid May, 2017. This was our FIRST (1st) Harvest. We have already Fermented & Sun Dried our Quality Ghana on Bamboo Mats for over TWO (2) weeks with a SIX (6) day fermentation. We have over FORTY (40) SIXTY FIVE (65 KG) Kilogram Bags of Quality Cocoa Beans!! In order to QUALIFY as PROCESSING under Ghana laws to EXPORT. We MUST at the very least ROAST our COCOA BEANS!!
We are waiting for our last FIVE (5) more pieces of equipment to arrive at port before we can be up & running!!. We have just Finalized our LOGO & our Web Site is currently parked. GHANA GOURMET CHOCOLATE & our WEB SITE ADDRESS IS. WWW.GHANAGOURMETCHOCOLATE.COM Everything should be up & running & starting business for the 15th July, 2017.
We are in the process of starting the CERTIFICATION for ORGANIC COCOA FARMING & PROCESSING & JOINING Sustainability Association!! But as you know with the conversion to ORGANIC CERTIFICATION it is a THREE (3) year process.
We would be very happy to do business with you. If this sounds like something you would be interested in then please contact me. This is the list of COCOA PRODUCTS that we plan on selling both local & exporting!!
#1) ROASTED GHANA COCOA BEANS
#2) NIBBS
#3) COCOA PASTE / CHOCOLATE LIQUOR
#4) COCOA BUTTER
#5) COCOA POWDER CAKE (GROUNDED INTO FINE POWDER 100 MESH)
#6) CHOCOLATES (DARK, MILK & WHITE CHOCOLATES)
All of our COCOA BEANS ARE ONLY GHANA TOP QUALITY BEANS. I have also purchased SEVERAL OPTIONS on the PURCHASE of THREE (3) more existing COCOA FARMS with another ONE HUNDRED THIRTY (130 ) ACRES of TEN (10) to FIFTEEN (15) year old COCOA TRESS.
I hope to hear from you soon.
Respectfully,
Eric K. Meredith
I would love to buy the other set of 5. I'm headed out of town today and will return on Wednesday next week. 970.947.1099 if you want to call me on Wednesday next week.
The last trays I had custom molded I ordered from FormTight, Inc. in Denver Colorado. Easy to work with and they did a great job for me. Phone is 303-922-5563. I ordered 10K for a better price but if I remember right they would do less just the cost was more.
hallo Guus,
wat is de prijs? je kan me mailen op emile (at) zartpralinen punt at
Hello. Newbie question. I recently converted my meltaway recipe to using organic chocolate couvertures. So, instead of 58% cacao mass, now it has 71% cacao mass. What do I do to balance the flavour? I can only get my hands on 71% dark couverture or 38.8% milk couverture. I wonder if I mix the dark & milk chocolate couverture to find the balance, would it work? I understand that it will taste creamier because of the milk in the milk chocolate couverture. I tried to add sugar to the recipe but the sugar wouldn't melt in the fat. What else can I do? Please help.
The boxes are all sold. Thank you!
I am looking for a company that will make custom trays for chocolates. I know there are lots of manufacturers of such items, but all I have contacted so far (those who bothered to reply) have very high minimums. Is it a fool's search to look for someone who will make 2000-3000 such trays?
Hi Julie,
Interested in your display cases, are all of them refrigerated?
Do you have specs and pictures for the 5 and 6 foot cases?
Where in Indiana are you located? Are you willing to ship or are they for pick-up only?
Thanks!
Carley
Animas Chocolate Company
Finally had time to take some pictures and video 
Hi! Please send me photo at battviacheslav@gmail.com and cost. Thank you
Hi. Send me please your price and possible options for delivery to Europe 25 kg beans for tests. Thank you for attention. Aleks.
Hi there,
I was hoping to get some advise from you experienced chocolatiers. We are in the process of moving our commercial production into a 1700 sft warehouse that we are currently building out. I haven't quite figured out what to do about storing unpackaged/open chocolates. We currently have a walk in fridge with a freezer attached that broke a while ago and I turned that room into our cool storage as it is the perfect temperature.
As of now, after we are done with production we typically put all unpackaged chocolates on sheet pans in a speed rack and store that in the "freezer". When we come back the next day, we take the speed rack out and continue packaging.
We are in a hotter climate so leaving them out overnight, especially in the summertime is not an option
I am really curious how other chocolatiers have their storage figured out. Do you have a cool room? Do you have a walk in with a dehumidifier? Do you have both?
Thank you so much!
Bella
Hello everyone,
For anyone who is interested in starting bean to bar chocolate making I have two Santha 20 Melangeurs for sale. Both have been cleaned with sugar and I have made 1 batch of chocolade with them. The melangeurs come with speed controller. I am located in The Netherlands.
I have a Hilliards and I love it!
I was about to order a bottle for myself from Glarus. Shipping was $24 :/ I understand the Heat Safe Guarantee is mandatory for transfer sheets but not so much for the colored cocoa butters.
Please let us know about the differences! If you talk to Kurt again soon, please ask him about a cheaper shipping option for the cocoa butter colors.
Thanks!
Josh
Looking to buy a used vibrating table/machine. Anyone have an extra or know where to get a good deal?
I went ahead and contacted Glarus Gourmet (as mentioned above) and had a reply from Kurt. He says that if I am tasting titanium dioxide in white cocoa butter, I am using too much. The problem is that it takes quite a bit to provide a backing for other colors or to keep dark chocolate from showing through. He is going to send me a sample of his white cocoa butter, and I can post here whether the taste is different from Chef Rubber's. More promisingly, he said there is a white c.b. substitute out there, and he is going to get more information on that. To be continued....
Welcome .. Looking forward to your contributions
Hi an welcome to the forum. Good to hear you here
Hi Leona, Welcome to the forum. hehe nice quote I believe too 
I completely agree with you about the offputting taste of white cocoa butter. I hate using it but need to if I want some colors (such as red) to show up when applied to dark chocolate shells. I am not sure what constraints you are under to produce a white product, but you might not be satisfied with the ivory tint of white chocolate (even though that is a great possible option, as noted earlier in the thread).
This past weekend I was at a chocolate workshop in Las Vegas and met Kurt Knobel, the owner of Glarus Gourmet, which does business online as chocotransfersheets.com . He makes colored cocoa butters (he used to make the product for a major producer before going out on his own) and seemed genuinely interested in getting customer input and suggestions on his products. You might give him a call (707-748-5658). If you do contact him, it would be very helpful if you posted here and let others (especially me!) know what you find out.
Curved glass display - imported from Italy and made specifically for gelato. Used 3 summer seasons. Originally $10,000 asking $4500. Located in Indianapolis, Indiana area
jkbole@gmail.com
I have a 4 foot, 5 foot and 6 foot display cases for sale. Cold Core 3 and 5 years old - Curved glass, temperature and humidity controlled. Curved glass fronts and Walnut formica.
Asking $1000, $2200 and $2500 respectively.
Pictured is the 4 foot case - others are same except for lengths.
jkbole@gmail.com
Thanks for clarifying. I'll give that a try with pineapple purée, which scorches easily if added at the beginning of the process.
oh no! The bourbon goes in during the final stage of cooking.
Just to be certain I understand you: you are adding the bourbon after all the cooking is complete?
I haven't yet gone to a piping consistency for the Bourbon Salted Caramel. I pipe my dry caramel (more of a French, dark caramel). My bourbon one is cooked to 116.5-117 C. It is cut and dipped, or made into the turtles ( think I posted a pic up there.)
I'm afraid I don't have the expertise to be of much help in your quest, except to say that I would not use my guitar on caramel. If you have ever replaced even a single wire on a guitar, you will know why (though I realize that knowing your caramel and its consistency might change that rule for others). I do have a question. When you say:
"my only trick was to discover the precise temp I wanted to use to get the right texture, while adding about a 1/2 cup of bourbon to the double batch"
to what temp do you cook the caramel? I have the problem that when caramel is cooked to the right consistency (in my case, for piping), it means the correct amount of liquid has evaporated. If I add liquid (I have tried pineapple purée), the proportions are thrown off and the caramel is too thin to pipe into a mold. Of course, adding flavoring liquids earlier means the flavor often gets cooks off.
Josh, I can't answer the questions you asked of me. I have had the occasion to use titanium dioxide for a couple of small special orders and for those I squirted the colorant right into the chocolate until I got the desired color, but as a general rule in my shop we don't use any colorants.
Sorry.
Brad
If you have more photos and videos I would like to know more about the machines. Do you have a contact email?
I can be contacted at info@hazelmountainchocolate.com
Used as warmer for bigger tempering machine, works great!!! asking $2950 plus shipping. Located in Southern California.
Update as of May 22: the 4-truffles boxes and 12-truffles boxes have all been sold. The only cases that remain are 7 cases of 12 boxes of the 4-layer cube box (third on the list). Thank you.
If you have more photos and videos I would like to know more about the machines. Do you have a contact email?
Is this still available?
What is the price for units?
I found the key is to first score the number of rows you will be dipping. Cut that piece of caramel and transfer it to a cutting board for cutting. If it is firm I usually do not need to reshape, and if it is softer I just reshape it. Cutting smaller amounts helps the caramel to hold shape through dipping. I have used this cutter for 4 years now. If I have a few people helping we can get through 4 full sheets in just a few hours....when I started my business ....10hrs for one pan from start to finish with just me. I have a low tech business, but I also got a bit of advice from a chef I studied under...."Be the machine, before you buy the machine." It takes a lot of money to buy equipment, so I always make certain that I have the need and the money. Hope this is helpful.
