Forum Activity for @antonino allegra

Hi Gordon,

i have started following your website just about a year ago and i have really learned a lot. I also have shared my notes on beans, roasting and participated on a lot of discussion.

I found so interesting to contribute together with people from the 4 side of the world.

I understand you fear to loose control of the situation by someone pointing bad at your forum, but generally speaking this is a "open source" of knowledge: Someone like me will use to learn, someone will use to "spy" and someone just for the fun of accusing.

I like it, and i enjoyed discussions that are technically orientated.

I think Clay, you should still have input to the forum with your own discussion, opening up the forum to new ideas but also having a look at trends and political decision regarding chocolate (like the story about Fair trade)

Paying, not sure about... no one like to pay for sharing information.... and who will make the money? the Forum owner or the people that put the informations?

an online book library could be a cool idea.... small year fees, unlimited access and if i want to buy a Hard Copy of one of the books, a good discount should apply...

my 2 South African Rand of suggestions..

Cheers

Antonino

One option that is open to me on the Ning platform is toputsome"premium" content and features behind a pay wall. I am not saying I am going to do this, just that I can - and I want community input on this as well as other ideas for providing new services and features to members.

1) What kind(s) of content would you be willing to pay for?

2) How much would you be willing to pay for it?

I started TheChocolateLife back in January 2008 as an on-line community to share my passion for chocolate. That passion was ignited back in 1994, led to my starting chocophile.com back in May 2001 and to getting a book published in 2007, and to enabling me to travel to many interesting places and make a lot of very good friends.

But it almost didn't happen that way. Very early on, one of my first members (Casey Meshbesher of the now-shuttered The Chocolate Note), posted a review that did not meet "my guidelines." Casey pushed back saying that if I was going to try to control what people had to say - and how they said it - I would not be very successful in growing the community.

Very good advice, indeed, and I think that some of the success of the community - which is fast approaching 6000 members - is that I try to encourage a generally very positive and forward-thinking attitude in my writing and in members' discussions. Many members are surprised to find out that I spend more time behind the scenes corresponding with members than I do creating my own original content and contributing to others' discussions.

All of this came to a head over the past few days as a new member pushed back on some recent discussions I started. After taking the discussion off-line, it became apparent to me that I was at the kind of crossroads I was at back in early 2008 when Casey whacked me upside the head (metaphorically speaking).

As the community is now thousands (and not tens as it was back then), it makes sense for me to stand back and take stock of what my goals and mission are for the community. At the same time, it makes even more sense for me to ask you what you want to see in TheChocolateLife over the next four years.

So - tell me: What am I doing that you like (and don't like) and what would you like to see more of (and less of) on TheChocolateLife. I am constrained, somewhat, by the software platform, in what I can do and keep the site free for all to enjoy, but I will do what I can to learn from the spirit and intent of what you have to say - positive and not so positive - in order to help make the community work for ChocolateLife members around the world.

Hi mint,

I believe that they are using blister transfer technology.

Very common in Europe for printed shapes.

Alas, I don't think that we can make it in-house with inkjet printers and transfer sheets.

Virgil.

Hi Laura if you cant find what you are after on forum, it can be a bit daunting to start and money dont grow on trees ( shame ) you can email me on dave12389@hotmail.co.uk and i will walk you through it step by step.

if you go to the CHOCOLATE ARTIST SOFTWARE/PRINTER talks you should get all your questions answered. Should be on page 2 or 3 of the discussions.

hello i am new to the printing of cocoa butter but i aminterestedto learn more about the type of printer

Dave, you soundlikeyou knowa lotabout it

do you need to have a special printer ?

do you have to temper the cocoa butter or will the printer do it?

how does it keep the cocoa butter at the tempered?

thanks

Laura

Hi mint not sure what they have used for the watch, dont know what printer you purchased from ebay or what transfer sheets you use, i have had perfect results with chocolate artist form deco, that is the software they use for printing on transfer sheets, i use the cocoa butter sheets from chocolate world i find them better than the ones deco sell.

You will need a canon printer you can purchase all from deco but you might find if you buy the items seperately it may be cheaper.

dave

Hi All,

I bought this chocolate watch from Chapon in Paris. It's 7.5 euros and only 9g. It had a photo of Audrey Hepburn printed on it. Can anyone tell which technique they used to print image on chocolate? Transfer sheet or food printer?

I bought an edible printer from ebay and a pack of chocolate transfer sheets,but it doesn't work...I already wasted 4 sheets I also tried frosting sheets.. result is not good..

Hi Brad,

is it a case or all of the chocolate maker/ business owner suffer from high blood pressure?

Something to do with the fact we have been eating too much chocolate and our heart is used to pump under theobromine effect/push?

It might sound stupid, but i always been running on "high" (chocolate, figurative!!), now being a business owner that has turned into something more stressful.

If what we eat is what we are (and i eat very healthy) is the chocolate the potential cause of high pump work?

any thought anyone?

Nino

So Barb, any update on your research?

can anyone tell me what do i need /how to / crystallize theobromine ?

Brad if you want to reduce blood pressure naturally, hibiscus tea is very good apparently (Wiki again). I looked into it becausea couple of Aussie cacao growers started eating the whole beans straight out of the pods, pulp bean everything. The cacao beans they grow up there are very purple. Anyway they found they were able to ditch their blood pressure meds. This could be a combination of the theobromine as well as the complex mix of anthocyanins found in the purple beans - the same anthocyanins that are found inhibiscus tea, which are the blood pressure reducing agent. I did read on this further and it was a particular two anthocyanins that were the best - as far as I can remember.

I have no direct knowledge of it's use for bp reduction - however, since caffeine is also a diuretic, given the structural similarities between it and theobromine, i suppose theobromine could also be a diuretic. Again, i have no direct knowledge of this application personally, and while the wiki may be right, i've seen far too many things on it that are simply inaccurate for me to trust it as a good source 8-) (i've not looked at it in ages, but the chocolate wiki, for example, was (is?) riddled with inaccuracies).

I would unequivocally NOT make a 'tea' from the shells and drink that. You're going to get all sorts of unwanted nasties that you absolutely do not want to ingest. The entire point of crystallization is purification. At some point, you're going to need a separation step to help discriminate the theobromine from the other water soluble stuff - if you went straight to xtallization, sure you'd xtallize theobromine, but also precipitate out lots of other stuff.

a million $ question

I also read on Wikipedia that it works very well for reducing blood pressure (provided you don't exceed the LDL50). Seeing as I have high blood pressure, I could technically make a special "Brad" chocolate, eat it regularly (like that's tough to do already! haha!), and do away with my expensive meds. Theoretically....

Seeing as I have a few hundred lbs of shell, how does one boil them down and crystalize the theobromine from the residual? This is VERY intriguing!!!

Thanks.

Brad

It's the kissing cousin to caffeine. Stimulant. Also some evidence that it's pretty effective at suppressing the vagus nerve, which is what kicks off the coughing reflex - making it a natural cough suppressant.

Side note: you've heard not to feed chocolate to your dog as it could kill them - it's the theobromine that does this - small amounts can easily put a dog into cardiac arrest. Horses too, for that matter.

I'm curious too. Why would someone want to extract Theobromine? What use is it?

You can do the same with tea and extract the caffeine, it was a second year uni chemistry prac. Maybe they should do theobromine too, the prac would smell pretty good at least.

No.

Me too! what can you do with?

a "RED-theobromine-BULL"

anti-depressant nasal spray?

anti oxidant body oils?

what else.... with 200 kg of shell per month it could be intersting....

Extraction: boil in water and then boil the water down? would it "kill" the theobromine?

Callebaut was trying to commercialize something akin to this a few years ago, but it was never commercially available and it's terribly expensive (it's callebaut, after all...). I've not seen it anywhere else. If you're handy, average theobromine in shells is 2%, you can do a water extraction followed by a crystallization and produce it yourself.

Hi everyone. I'm new to The Chocolate Life so I hope I'm doing this correctly!

I'm looking for a source of theobromine that's extracted/removed from cocoa beans, i.e. not synthesized.

Does anyone know a good source for this ingredient?

Barb

Hey everybody,

Congratulations to Richard Foley and his Qzina team in Irvine, CA for their world record performance! This is a pretty cool sculpture created by his chocolate team, a tribute to the Mayans. Check out the photos as they are pretty impressive. I hope to get down there for a visit and have a look.

Sincerely,
Jeffray D. Gardner
Marsatta Fancy Chocolates

www.marsatta.com

I have insight into question 2:

A normal cream/butter/chocolate ganache will last a maximum of ~3 weeks unrefrigerated. With the addition of invert sugar you can prolong that to ~6 weeks. Any longer than that and you need to start using preservatives (sodium benzoate et al) or alcohol. Alcohol introduces a whole new regulatory quagmire.

Here's a basic dark ganache for slabbing:

720 grams dark (60-70% cacao) chocolate, melted

580 grams cream, boiling or close to it

105 grams invert sugar

155 grams pasteurized butter at room temp

Hope this helps.

to balance the sugars and to avoid drying etc you would need to use also inverted sugar, sorbitol and glucose. but the recipes are very different so to understand you need to get into it and know the function of those ingredients and their characteristics.

cheers.

rene

yes I certainly boil the cream (200 ml of heavy cream,50 g of butter and then i add the chocolate).

But this ganache is not creamy at all as you can see its more chocolate based that cream and butter based. How long do you think this would last in the filled and sealed chocolate? is there any advice you have on a different ganache that has a longer shelf life and at the same time has more shelf life.

thanx.

i hope you do boil the cream but with just a cream and butter i would risk only 2 maybe 3 weeks

In Peter Grewling's book he writes about the possibility of freezing chocolate bon bons. That is a possibility that is worth exploring. Good luck!

Thank you so very much!!!! all the info was so helpful...I will look up those books and buy them....

Really thanx for the advice.

Havea great day,

Christine.

Christine,

I'm not an expert on molded chocolates but I hope I can be of assistance:

1. I believe that Godiva doesn't manufacture its own chocolate, they probably buy it from Callebaut, but others can confirm. Finding a similar or better brand of chocolate shouldn't be hard at all. Try getting several brands from a specialized online store like Chocosphere.com and see what works best.

2. The ganache shelf life depends on the amount of cream and the storage conditions. I would strongly suggest getting yourself a copy, or finding in a library the books by Jean Pierre Wybauw ( v1 ) ( v2 - ganache) ( v3 - extending shelf life) as well as Chocolates and Confections by Peter Grewling. All are very good books, well worth the money. They explain the concepts of water activity (Aw) in confections and how to increase shelf life by the addition of glucose, butter. They have great recipes but different styles. In my opinion the Peter Grewling book is easier to understand, better organized and better value for the money.

Good luck!

Felipe

[Editor notes: added links to books]

Hello everyone!!!

I started my chocolate making business. I bought the tempering machine, the polycarbonate molds and I have a great chocolate to work on...but i have a lot of questions and Im hoping you all can help me.

Here is the list of questions:

1. Is there a specific brand of chocolate for tempering that taste similar to godiva style chocolate that you recommend?

2. The garnache that Im making is made of chocolate,cream and butter and this is my filling for my molded chocolates, ofcourse I add all the ingredients to make the different flavours that we offer. The question is how long do you guys think the garnache lasts if not in refrigeration. The reason I ask this is because I do not own a chocolate boutique yet, so my chocolae boxes will be in different stands at different selling points. Its the shelf life Im concerned of, since the garnache is made of cream and butter, they can get easily ruined. thoughts and advice on that? Do you have a specific recipe of garnache that has a long shelf life? I heared that the more creamy it is the less shelf life it has, since it contains a lot of creme...I was hoping to find a recipe that is creamy enough and still have long shelf life since it will not be in a refrigerated area.

so sorry for the details, but im really hoping to get some advice on all of this..any aditional info you think is usedful to me please dont hesitate to let me know.

thanx.

Pleasure!

i have been very happy with them, hope you will too! My employees are begging me to get another one! As business owner and chocolate maker, i have less stress knowing that anytime during the day for any reason i always have perfectly tempered chocolate, it makes every one happy to produce and efficiency was better than what i could ever expect!

Cheers!

Nino

Hi,

the beauty of this forum is exactly this: helping each other in many ways!

The chocolab is their latest creation, Fbm i think made it for multifunctional small/medium businesses and you could have all in one spot. i don't believe you could find it used as it just came in to the market.

I have a Unica 25kg with pneumatic depositor and i'm in the process to get another one with enrober (12 or 25kg depending on budget)

The best part of FBM machine is that they are easy to maintain an repair: we had once an issue with cooling (too fast) and i did use just a screw driver and the help on the phone by their technician (i live in South Africa), my local engineer loves the machine because if something brakes is easy to find spare parts even here in SA. I guess only the computer board must come from FBM directly for obvious reason..

If i would be in Italy/france/Spain area i would maybe buy second hand, but if you can afford it, buy it new.

Comparison with Selmi: i did work with some of the Selmi machines and they are also good, maybe sexier looking but they cost much much more, if they break is gonna hurt you... and i had a very bad experience with customer service, i still haven't received a quote after 2 years of asking..

Best of luck!

Hi MAhmoud,

for 200kg a day, you could easily start with an FBM continuos tempering machine of 12 kg, but for personal experience i suggest to buy a slightly over-sized machine, just in case you grow fast!.

Of course you should also consider your production, meaning: if you produce only 1 "color" then buy a 25kg machine, but if you temper 2 or more color you should then maybe buy 2 smaller solution (i think is called compatta or something).

Depend on your budget you may opt for a big (25 kg Unica, like the one i have) and 1 small (12kg)

Also, buy it with the dedicated enrobing belt, you can always develop some products to coat!

If you let us (the forum) have more info on what you produce we might come up with more solutions.

BTW, i don't work for FBM, i'm just a big fan thanks to the great experience with it....

I'am a new factory located in lebanon , we still use the traditional/classical way for tempering chocolate ,but meantime iam considering upgrading ,so iam looking to buy a tempering machine (used or brand new ) any advices or options ?! iam aiming to produce around 200kg per day

Your help is mostly appreciated

Mahmoud batakji

Brad,

I'm surprised the FDA doesn't control the chocolate licquor labels more closely.

Anyway, I did the test today. Took a Lindt Excellence 70% and compared it with two of our own chocolate bars: an Esmeraldas and Piura blend as well as a peruvian Tumbes 65%). We used a Nacional de Chocolates - Santander 70% as a 'control' bar.

You are completely right, the Lindt bar is a complete disaster. It was shocking. Ranked the lowest among the tasting group.

It is clearly sandy/dirt tasting, with astringency being very present. I can't believe a brand name can deceive our memories. I hadn't tasted the bar in a year. The Nacional de Chocolates - Santander bar didn't do much better, with a chocolatey flavor but too bitter, edgy and with a slight artificial flavor, probably from poor cacao butter or artificial vanilla.

Our own bars did better. The slightly overroasted blend of Piura and Esmeraldas ranked below my very own favorite Tumbes, Peru bar, whose citric notes are on the top of my list.

With the Lindt example, I wouldn't feel bad giving away a few sub-par bars I have lying around; if only we could can get a Fifth Avenue location, it would be perfect.

I have an excellent sourcewho has assured me that cocoa powder is in fact added to the Lindt Excellence bars at the end of the refining period, to increase the intensity of the dark chocolate flavour.

With regard to your question about whether or not they need to disclose this, the answer according to the FDA is "No".

Here is an exerpt directly from the FDA's website:

Brad, when you say 'The cocoa powder they include adds astringency and grittiness', does that mean additional cocoa powder is added to the Lindt 70% excellence bars? The ingredient lists claims only chocolate and another bar I've seen mentions cocoa mass only.

http://www.lindtusa.com/common/images/products/nutritional/392825new_nutr.pdf

I can't say that I'd throw the bar away or even refuse it if it was free. What I like best of the Lindt bars is that they are slim, like Valrhona's. I've struggled trying to fing slim molds (about 5mm thick) in several of the mold manufacturers. I heard it was because of bars easily breaking with slimmer molds being hand-moulded.

Regards,

Felipe

Thanks Brad... I haven't thought about this comparison...

Here in South Africa, Lindt is THE CHOCOLATE..... let's see what will happen next chocolate testing room!

What i find a bit "annoying" is that major company are now trying to "sell" the artisan feeling we (the real Artisan) give to our shops and clients.

Cheers

Nino