Forum Activity for @Clay

Bug reports

Posted in: FORUM FAQs

Jonas - it may be a source of confusion but there is a good functional reason that this is so. Jamroom was set up originally for bands. Bands have many members, and members can belong to more than one band - and in particular a manager could manage multiple bands. Jamroom is set up to handle this. In the coming weeks I plan to offer this up to ChocolateLife members who are companies with two or more employees who are ChocolateLife members.

One member can create two profiles for their account, a personal profile and a company profile. I can then link other member accounts to the company profile. People can post to their personal profiles AND to the company profile. It's pretty cool. There are other features, such as groups and pages attached to profiles and profile customization tweaks, so that a company could credibly host the community component of their web presence on TheChocolateLife instead of (or in addition to) Facebook (and social sharing via TheChocolateLife is arguably easier. Furthermore, by implementing something called domain mapping, the company profile on TheChocolatelife could become an actual part of the company's web presence at a url something like community.mydomain.tld.

IN THE MEANTIME ... you can take advantage of the fact that there are separate account and profile names.

Account Name: Jonas Ketterle
Profile Name: Firefly Chocolate

In this way in posts and comments the link to you would read:

Jonas Ketterle - @firefly-chocolate (with the @firefly-chocolate linking to your profile).

And, of course if you wanted to, you could reverse these and the links would say:

Firefly Chocolate - @jonas-ketterle
updated by @Clay Gordon: 06/29/23 16:55:17

Bug reports

Posted in: FORUM FAQs

Just noticed an issue with the search function. It appears that it only searches titles for group discussions, and the first post for forum discussions.

As examples, a search for the word 'foil' does not return the following group discussion, which has 'foil' in the first post:

http://www.thechocolatelife.com/clay/group_discuss/1134/chocolate-bar-wrappers

...and a search for 'infrared' does not return the following forum discussion, which has 'infrared' in the second post:

http://www.thechocolatelife.com/clay/forum/tech-help-tips-tricks-techniques/4441/chocolate-thermometers

updated by @Potomac Chocolate: 02/16/15 08:19:18

Bug reports

Posted in: FORUM FAQs

Thanks Clay. I think the search results look a little weird since they're inconsistent between the forum results (with detail) and the group results (without detail). My preference would definitely be to have the group results show the same detail as the forum results. It just gives you a little more info to help you decide which link to click.

For the group discussion comments, I would definitely prefer them to be oldest to newest. This is how the forum discussions work, so it would be consistent. But I also think it just makes more sense, considering that existing/older discussions on this site are used as a resource for new and existing users. Newest to oldest may work ok if you're actively tracking an ongoing discussion (although, I think oldest-to-newest makes more sense for this, too), but doesn't when referring back to it later or reading a discussion for the first time. In those cases, the user would read the original post at the top, then jump to the last page and scroll to the bottom, and then read a comment, scroll up to the top of the next comment, read down, scroll up, and so on.

Hello from a new bean to bar maker in Arizona

Posted in: Allow Me to Introduce Myself

Welcome and best wishes to you on this venture.

Gratitude

Posted in: FORUM FAQs

Clay, I might not post much on this site, but I want you to know how much this site has helped me when it comes to my chocolate business.  If I ever have a question about anything chocolate -- this is the first step I take to look for an answer.  I've never been disappointed in searching for the answer here first.  I've found different used equipment to purchase (and the transactions have always worked out great); ways to "fix" my caramel cooking process for the perfect tasting caramel; suppliers to purchase needed supplies; answers to my questions about "what to do if...."; and more things than there is room to discuss.  Thanks for creating a great "GO TO" site when it comes to every thing about chocolates.

Bug reports

Posted in: FORUM FAQs

Hey Clay,

Just noticed that I need to upload both a profile and an account photo. Didn't realize these were different things until the default image kept showing up even after updating my profile. You may not need to change this ... just a point of minor confusion. Site is great!

Jonas

Hello from a new bean to bar maker in Arizona

Posted in: Allow Me to Introduce Myself

Hi everyone. As the forum says, just wanted to introduce myself. I've been making chocolate truffles for about 9 years now and ventured into making chocolate from the bean about 6 years ago.  My friends and family have convinced me that I should venture out and start a business making chocolate, so I have.

As the intro says, I'm in Arizona. Specifically the Phoenix area.  And yes it becomes difficult to work with chocolate when it's 115+ outside, which may explain the utter lack of bean to bar makers here.

New to the site, but have heard about good stuff and of course my google-fu leads me to various forum and blog posts here so I figured this would be a good place to be active. I look forward to getting to know you on the forums.

updated by @timwilde: 04/09/15 16:00:53

Rev Delta baffle sensor repair

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

Greetings o chocomasters!

I recently bought a used Rev Delta and received a bunch of baffles. One of the baffles has a slight "burned" dark splotch over one of the two metallic sensors that touch the base (which tells the machine the baffle is installed correctly). So if I try to use that particular baffle, after about 5-6 minutes the drum stops and the alarm sounds with the LED warning ***PLEASE REPLACE BAFFLE*** even though it's screwed down all the way. I've tried (with more or less success) to unscrew it slightly which seems to help for a few minutes, but then it stops and gives the error message again. Using other baffles works just fine. When I emailed ChocoVision, they told me that the baffles can't be repaired and I have to buy a new baffle. Boo.

Anyone have any luck with this?

updated by @David Menkes: 04/11/25 09:27:36

I'm in the market for a smallish enrobing line

Posted in: Classifieds ARCHIVE

Speckledhen,

yes, please send me some photos. As I've asked, can you tell me the pros and cons of your machine? I've never used a smith before.

polycarbonate moulds giving probs.plz help

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

Patches as in discoloration? Do you have a photo?

Bug reports

Posted in: FORUM FAQs

Ben -

Having the name of the discussion without the detail makes a lot more sense when there are two or more search results.

The comments are being displayed in Newest to Oldest order. Do you want them in Oldest to Newest so that it's easier to follow the conversation? The page picker at the bottom makes it easy to jump to the last page.

Bug reports

Posted in: FORUM FAQs

Yep, I see the Shared Journey discussion now, too. I think it just didn't register that it was a link to the discussion since it didn't have the date, icon, first lines, etc. I must have just thought it was another section header.

The first post I see on that discussion is yours of 12/1/14, which is the most recent comment posted to that thread.

Thanks,
Ben

Bug reports

Posted in: FORUM FAQs

Ben:

When I click on Search in the top nav and enter " Shared Journey " as the search term I get the following page:

I see the Shared Journey discussion - as well as a forum topic that rererences the discussion. You see something different?

 

Bug reports

Posted in: FORUM FAQs

Michael, the site is not completely set up yet - I still have a couple of days until the end of the month!. However, I can tell you that it's more than a single-step process and your ChocolateLife.com login does not carry over. All Classifieds now have to fit within a listing package. When you click on submit listing you need to select a package (if you don't already have an account you will be asked to create one).

WANTED listings (either wanted to buy or jobs) are still free. SELL listings are either $5 (30 days) or $10 (60 days) each.

One of the issues with the classifieds on the old site is that they never aged off. No-one ever deleted them and it was a huge administrative burden for me to do it because I had no way of knowing if the classified was still active or not. In thinking about the problem I decided to set up a site with software that could handle classifieds where the listings could age off (disappear) after a certain length of time. There are increased cost for running two different sites and I had to do something to cover those additional costs.
updated by @Clay Gordon: 01/27/15 15:26:46

Bug reports

Posted in: FORUM FAQs

What is the date on the first comment displayed for you? For me it's 12/01/2014 - posted by me. I will look into the search thing.

Bug reports

Posted in: FORUM FAQs

Hi Clay,

On Thechocolatelife.info I am unable to post a classified.  Is the functionality just not done yet?  I press submit listing and nothing happends.

Thanks!

Air Agitation Conche

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

Thanks Clay. I will try option 1 out.

Bug reports

Posted in: FORUM FAQs

Thanks for looking into this Clay. The discussion that I first noticed this was this one:

http://www.thechocolatelife.com/clay/group_discuss/1068/barbecue-grill-convert-to-roaster

But the issue is much more apparent on a thread with more comments, like this one:

http://www.thechocolatelife.com/clay/group_discuss/666/shared-journey

It would be very awkward to ready that discussion start-to-finish with the current sorting.

On a separate issue, the search doesn't seem to search the group discussions. I tried to search for 'shared journey' but it didn't find the thread linked above.

updated by @Potomac Chocolate: 01/27/15 12:00:55

Bug reports

Posted in: FORUM FAQs

Ben -

The answer is I think yes on all these questions. I have been working on the sort order of comments specifically. Some things are set globally and there are some new features that were just added that changed the way some things worked. For the group discussions could you post the URL of a page where the sort order is wrong?

The "best" way to handle the comment update is for adding a comment to by synonymous with updating the original post, which are now different things. That's being worked on by the developers.

Bug reports

Posted in: FORUM FAQs

Hi Clay. In the group discussions, is it possible to have comments displayed chronologically top-to-bottom like they are in the forums? Currently, they're showing in reverse order which makes it difficult to read an entire conversation.

Also, is it possible to have the group discussion list be ordered by the date of the last comment, instead of the creation date (again, like the forums)? 

Thanks,
Ben

I'm in the market for a smallish enrobing line

Posted in: Classifieds ARCHIVE

I have a Smith and Sons enrober that I'm looking to sell...I'm in Pittsburgh PA.  It's an older enrober, probably 70's era?  

It's an 8'' belt, so a smaller unit...it runs off of 110/220 and includes the bottomer a mid unit cooling unit and the enrober. I can send pictures if interested.  Asking $11,000 + freight

Kinder Suprise Collectors?

Posted in: Opinion

Good day to you all.

Newbie to the forum here. I am just curious to know if there are any Kinder Surprise collectors out there? Their chocolate might not be the finest when compared to others, but the kids love them (why wouldn’t they, two 4 one).

I have collected the toys inside the eggs for many years now, and have a huge collection stored at my folks house. Living in the states, I am restricted to our annual Canada trip to stock up.

Anyway, hoping to get the ball rolling on a conversation.

Regards.

Shadowmeister

updated by @shadowmeister: 04/11/15 02:41:19

Praline fillings

Posted in: Recipes

David - is this recipe in Peter's book?

Air Agitation Conche

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

Ian -

I can make your life a little easier, maybe, experimenting with Option 1. Put the chocolate you want to conche into a stand mixer. Get one of those new scraper paddle blades that scrape the entire bowl. Use a hair dryer for the hot air source. This is going to be a lot easier than the drill method you're suggesting.

Option 2 is a non-starter for lots of different reasons.

There are two processes during conching. One affects texture and the other flavor. To affect texture you need shear force that will break of small clumps of particles and coat every particle with cocoa butter. You won't get that with an air bubbler. The part that affects flavor is about evaporating volatile aromatics you don't want (mainly acetic acid) out of the chocolate. This can be done by blowing hot air across the chocolate and stirring the chocolate to make sure that all surfaces are exposed to the air blowing over it.

If you wanted to experiment with making a small home conche, I would suggest that playing with stirrer/scraper designs that were more effective and efficient would be the way to go. You could also experiment using a dough hook. The reason why no-one has created a small home conche on the scale of the small table-top grinders is that the market is too small.

 

Air Agitation Conche

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

So maybe I am going out on a limb here but I am looking to create a dedicated conching machine for home use. I have looked at possibly doing a metal bowl with a drill over the top pointed down with a baffle attached at the end to agitate the chocolate. I am sure this will work with a pod pad to provide the heating element, and a stand to hold the drill and keep pressure on the trigger.  

Option 2 which is the one I am more interested in to see if it works. Imagine a glass or plastic container, taller than wider, filled with chocolate. Through the bottom and possibly the sides if need be there would be air nozzles through which air would be coming out of. Think an aerator in a fish tank, I would probably use one of these to make a easy. The air would be passing through at a near constant stream going through the chocolate and in turn, I hope, agitating the chocolate.

Would this agitate at the required force to actually turn over and coat the cocoa particles for a noticable different?

Would the chocolate fill with so many micro air bubbles that it would be a major pain to release them all when it came time to mold into bars?

IF this seems like a crack-pot theory/idea, has anyone made conche machines? I am having a hard time finding any at the home level (I doubt they exist) and as for commerical grade (even large ones) I am having a hard time finding them.

Suggestions, comments, all are welcome.

 

updated by @IH: 04/11/25 09:27:36

A chocolate blogger on Bainbridge Island, near Seattle

Posted in: Allow Me to Introduce Myself

Can't wait to read what you taste on in Washington State!

I'm in the market for a smallish enrobing line

Posted in: Classifieds ARCHIVE

Paul - I will get you info and we can take a look at your needs over the next few months.

I'm in the market for a smallish enrobing line

Posted in: Classifieds ARCHIVE

Dave, you are right. There are other factors at play. One of them is the shape of the working bowl. The bowls on FBM machines are narrow and deep, whereas others tend to be wide and shallow. This bowl shape makes it easier to melt crystals out of the chocolate while reducing heat loss and energy consumption.

You are right when you say that the machines are more efficient when you keep the working bowls full, but that's a matter of organizing work and scheduling production.

Can't Access Your Account?

Posted in: FORUM FAQs

I am still working on it. I will let you know when it is fixed - if I fix it for one person I fix it for everyone. Need to get the attention of the developers.

A chocolate blogger on Bainbridge Island, near Seattle

Posted in: Allow Me to Introduce Myself

Sarah -

I am excited, too. I am also excited to find out what members like you are going to do with it. TheChocolateLife is a platform for anyone and everyone interested in chocolate ... it's not (just) about me.

I'm in the market for a smallish enrobing line

Posted in: Classifieds ARCHIVE

Hi Clay,

I would be interested in looking at a catalog and price list. I should mention that I'm hoping to have the shop open in October, so I'm not in a great hurry to buy a machine. I'm also on a bit of a budget and might have to start with a cheaper, used unit to get up and running until I can afford a nice unit.

Can't Access Your Account?

Posted in: FORUM FAQs

I'm experiencing the same thing ari-salomon is.  The "Profile Active" and "Profile Quota" fields aren't visibile to me.

A chocolate blogger on Bainbridge Island, near Seattle

Posted in: Allow Me to Introduce Myself

I'm excited about this new format and looking forward to seeing what Clay does with it.  

updated by @Sandra Andrews-Strasko: 04/11/15 22:05:37

Can't Access Your Account?

Posted in: FORUM FAQs

that 'profile active' field is not visible to me.

I'm in the market for a smallish enrobing line

Posted in: Classifieds ARCHIVE

Going with an FBM would also get you Clay's expertise, as continuous enrobers must be by nature finicky machines. I do believe that the increased mass of a larger bowl helps to keep bowl temp at the target, especially as less chocolate is typically added to top off. I realize other factors are also in play, from agitation to even where the thermocoupler is located and the temp in the enrobing area.

On the other hand a capacity of 30 kilos is a lot of chocolate for a boutique operation and it's best to keep the bowl on a continuous machine full. It seems that a nice working belt width requires a larger top of the line machine. FBM may be different, and Clay's familiarity with the entire line also means choosing a machine sized to your particular operation.

Just A Chocolate Lover From California

Posted in: Allow Me to Introduce Myself

G -

I see that you have created a blog post already, however the body of the blog is empty, but you have added a comment.

I would go back and edit the blog (click on the gear icon) and write in the body of the post why you are moved to create the blog. At least a paragraph or two - 100 words or more. You're starting to tell a story here and you want to let us know why we want to enjoy your California Dreaming of Chocolate.

Then - as you are motivated to add things to the blog, you add them as comments rather than updating the main post. The things you add can be written but they can also be photos or a combination of the two.

I also noticed that your blog is in the "default" category. While you are adding text you can add a category for the post to belong to. As it's kind of a diary, it could be "Chocolate Diary" or it could be "Musings" or whatever strikes your fancy. Default is not very poetic and I don't think that it captures what you are trying to do.

updated by @Clay Gordon: 01/28/15 05:26:29

Bug reports

Posted in: FORUM FAQs

Piotr -

You are the second person to point this out to me. Let me ask the developers what is going on. Thanks for posting the screen shot. I will get back to you ASAP. I will set the quota to something usable in the meantime.

Bug reports

Posted in: FORUM FAQs

Dear Clay,

In the e-mail you ask us to choose a quota. In my Profile tab there is no such option. Did I miss something?

 

 

updated by @Piotr Krzciuk: 06/16/16 20:34:55

Flat printed cello bags

Posted in: Classifieds ARCHIVE

I buy my cello bags from Flora Designs in Burlington, Ontario - they have flat clear or can make them from prints.  Website is kind of useless but contact through e-mail and they should repond and be able to help you figure out what you need.  http://floradesigninc.com

 

I'm in the market for a smallish enrobing line

Posted in: Classifieds ARCHIVE

Paul -

As you may know, I represent FBM machines here in the US and to ChocolateLife members around the world and ChocolateLife members are entitled to a 10% discount. [THIS DISCOUNT IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE.] Most FBM 220V machines can be purchased in either single- or three-phase. Smaller machines can be run off 120V with a step-up transformer and there are step-up transformers we recommend. While you can use phase converters to turn single- to three-phase, because of the reactive load (compressors cycling on and off) you can't use static phase converters. Rotary or the much more expensive digital option.

That out of the way ...

One of the misconceptions out there is that throughput, when it comes to an enrober belt on a continuous tempering machine, is dependent on working bowl capacity. It's not.

Time to do some math.

Let's say you want to enrobe 250 pieces an hour. If each piece has 10 grams of chocolate on it, then you only need to temper about 2.5 kilos of chocolate per hour. You should not have to purchase a tempering machine with a 25 kilo working bowl just to be able to kit it out with an enrober belt. (The general rule of thumb for continuous tempering machines is that they will temper about 3x the capacity of the working bowl per hour. So if you need ~100 kilos of chocolate per day and are actually working 4-5 hours per day, a continuous tempering machine with a working bowl capacity of between 7-12 kilos will do the trick. Of course, if you are doing molded work and bars as well, you may need a larger tempering machine.

Let's get back to that 250 pieces per hour. That's only about four pieces per minute which is trivial for a 150-200 mm-wide belt. The real gating factors on throughput are how the pieces are going to be decorated. If you are going to be putting transfers on or hand decorating, a single operator should easily be able to do 250 pieces an hour, even if the work is not well organized. As you need to increase your throughput, organization becomes more and more important - how the work is organized before it goes on the belt, how it is handled to decorate it, and what happens after it gets decorated.

Maximum throughput is going to depend on the sizes of the pieces. If you are doing, say 40 mm-square pieces, then you can comfortably get three across a 180 mm-wide belt with lots of room between them. As the operator becomes familiar with the operation of the belt, they might be able to get four across. Keeping in mind spacing, I would estimate that an organized operator could get 10-12 rows of three pieces in the length of a sheet pan. You'd run those pieces through, take the pieces off, decorate, and then start the process over again. That's with one operator. If you have two you can have one put the pieces on and another take them off. So, ultimately, throughput is dependent on the number of people operating the line.In order to know what size belt and tempering machine is right for your production situation, it's important to know how many (number of pieces) of what kinds of work you plan to produce, on average, and during peak production seasons. From there it's possible to size the machine that will fit your requirements.Hope this is helpful. If you have any more questions about tempering machines and enrober belts I will be happy to answer them. If you are interested in getting catalog pages and pricing, please let me know and I will send them to you via email.

updated by @Clay Gordon: 12/28/16 11:43:55

Gratitude

Posted in: FORUM FAQs

Peter, I totally agree with you! I'm an IT project manager, so I know first hand how frustrating implementing new computer systems can be. (They're are never quite as simple to implement as glossy brochures make it sound.) I'm sure that Clay has put in many hours that he could have spent tasting chocolate bars.

Thank you Clay! I really appreciate the rich resource that is TCL! I appreciate all of the time and work you put in to babysit it.

updated by @ChocoFiles: 01/25/15 18:45:22

Can't Access Your Account?

Posted in: FORUM FAQs

Here is a screen shot of the PROFILE settings page of your account.

Hope this helps.