Forum Activity for @Tom

That is quite a journey, I wish I had a hidden plantation too!

On the website are the bars you are selling ground liquor bars?

Congrats on discovering you've got a surprise cocoa farm - not many can say that i don' t think 8-) Some things to consider moving forward, if i may. Whomever originally laid out your grandfathers farm had some knowledge of cocoa - i can tell from your photos. I can also tell from your photos that the trees have been there for some time - now, from what i can see they're all still pretty healthy and productive, but if you're going to migrate this from a discovery you didn't know you had to a sustainable business venture, you're going to want to give some consideration torehabilitation, and may wish to speak to someone about grafting and replenishment planting materials.

Best wishes to you in your new adventure!

4 months ago I was walking through a cocoa plantation in Samoa I didn't know I had. 30 minutes into my walk, thoughts of excitement and gratefulness entered my mind. My grandfathers determination and fighting spirit acquiring the lands I now called home. Dazed with excitement, I started on a journey of growing and producing the best cocoa bean I could possibly produce and share it with the world. Growing up in Samoa drinking cocoa was like drinking water to others. We would pick them off the trees, ferment and dry them before roasting then grind them ready to be made into hot cocoa drink. After some quick research in to cocoa exporting, it was clear that Samoas cocoa export market has been non- existing for many years.

My extended knowledge of cocoa is that you can drink it, buy in a chocolate form and grows all year round. The next two months for me was all about education and learning about cocoa from planting to chocolate and powder form.

We have farmers who live on cocoa so it wasnt hard to find information about growing cocoa in Samoa. The next big challenge for me was to start a program growing cocoa to its maximum potential. With that program now up and running, the next big obstacle was to find someone to sell the cocoa to, which is why my trip to Australia was a must.

Believe it or not, one of the first place I went to for market research was the Chocolate Life website and it all started from there so I would like to thank Chocolate Life and its creator Clay Gordon for contributing to what I have achieve to now. Ive met some fantastic people through CL and Im happy to say that it was through CL that I met Adrian who is my first Samoan raw cocoa bean customer in Australia. Adrian was fantastic through the whole shipping process and it didnt come without its issues. He persisted with it and now enjoys making chocolate with Samoan cocoa beans which only took a few days to get here.

I must admit there are still minor issues we still need to address here in Australia, but overall future shipment will be a breeze due to the work Adrian and I endured.

I also spoke to other cocoa buyers on CL who were interested in Samoan cocoa beans so if you are still in the market to try us, Im sure it will be worth it so contact me via email or go onto my website for more information. www.premiumcocoaenterpise.com

I came this far with other peoples help like CL, Adrian, Peter, Tom to name a few so Im here if anyone needs my help 24/7.

A Chocolate Life member

The more the merrier!

There is nothing like using your own cocoa liquor in cooking, roasted just the way you like it. You also have 100% control over added sugar etc.

hey Jeff

I know how you feel.. even icouldn'twait and now thatI'vestarted irealizethat the more i learn, the more irealize idon'tknow..its an absolutely amazing experience.. best of luck to you

Thanks Omar

Hey I am just getting started. I love making products from the start and I have become fascinated with chocolate. I have ordered all of my equipment to start and can't wait for it to arrive next week sometime.

Welcome to our beautiful crazy world Chirag!

hey members,

I just recently started attempting to make chocolate at home from bean to bar..

let me explain how this came about

I am a graduate of hotel management and whenever i tried to obtain a good cooking chocolate for my recipes (callebaut is a little out of budget) i hit a road block.

that got me thinking, why not manufacture a good cooking chocolate that is affordable..

and this further got me thinking that we dont have any good 'Indian' chocolate brands..

and for the past couple of months ive been going through everything i can find on bean to bar chocolate.. ive been through almost all the discussions on your site (very helpful).. and then i decided its time to stop reading and time to start acting..

through acolleague i procured 60 kgs of cocoa beans (not sure which variety, though i think its Indian Forastero)i was too excited to get starterd..

since i got these beans ive gone pretty mad ( in a good way).. i roast and then winnow them by hand.. and stay up the whole night conching/refining in a stone wet grinder..

i know i'verambledquite a bit and iapologizebut i wanted you to get an idea of who i am and how much ive fallen in love with chocolate.

regards

Chirag Bhatia

Brad: the roaster's appreciation for fine chocolate is not absolute. The farmers and the roaster are eager to learn what the market wants and how they can respond to that demand.

Your points are important but laced with disdain for those who have been disregarded and denigrated by a century of colonialism that has kept them at the very bottom of the value chain which is where the chocolate companies want them. Quit being a snob.

I will prevail in this endeavor, resolving one obstacle at a time.

Tom;

Two of the three most important components of making chocolate are 1) fermentation and post harvest care, and 2) roasting and removal of shell.

A properly trained monkey can make a chocolate bar. Case in point: machines do it all day by the millions.

However, the two points I provided above MUST be done by humans who know what they are doing. At the same time the person doing the roasting and refining must understand the taste profiles of the demographics to which you intend to market. I'm guessing that the person roasting the cocoa in Nigeria to press out the butter has absolutely no idea what fine quality chocolate tastes like in the US.

Brad

Nat: My objective is to allow the farmers themselves to ascend the value chain. Would liquor be a better stage to look for chocolatier cooperation?

I like your apple analogy, and as someone who is just getting into making chocolate, it is a clear picture of how good a bar of chocolate can be.

I went to your website, and checked it out. I was actually buying molds yesterday and saw the molds you use offered a few places online and thought about buying them, you really should offer to sell the companies your images of done chocolate because they really look great!

Tom,

You do understand that making good or even passablechocolate bars from cocoa powder cake andcocoa butter is very difficult in that by pressing out thecocoa butter you've deconstructed the bean and thechocolate maker then has to try to reconstruct it, right? It's like saying to someone, "Here, I have this apple juice and apple fiber. Canyou please make me the most delicious crunchy apple from these?" Doesn't work and is why much of the large scale manufacturers'chocolate tastes nothing like the artisanalchocolates discussed here.

You'd help show the great qualities ofyour cacao much better ifyou did a great ferment on it and handed that to an experiencedchocolate maker, and then give the finishedchocolate back to everyone down the line from the cacao grower, fermenter, to coop buyers, etc. so they can see what effect the changes in their practices has on the finishedchocolate and how they can improve it.

my 4 (accounting for inflation)

-Nat

____________________________

Nat Bletter, PhD

Chocolate Flavormeister

Madre Chocolate

http://madrechocolate.com

My company is the marketing arm for some cocoa farming cooperatives in Nigeria which want to bring their semi-processed cocoa (cake and butter) to the US. The cooperatives are getting certified. In the meanwhile, they are traceable. Our focus is on bringing out the best flavor of the forastero bean.

Our end game is to build a BRAND andget oodles of customers in the US. Our immediate goal isto establish a liaison with a chocolate maker in the Washington, DC area (or wider) to produce limited quantities of chocolate bars from our cake and butter for our sales and marketing purposes.

Anyone interested?

You can see which Valrhona chocolates I enjoy most by checking out my list at ChocoFiles . See the Alphabetical list with the description: "Alphabetical list (by company name) of all the chocolate bars that I've reviewed."

the reason why I'm asking is because there is no small package for valrhona from where I live to taste try. The only thing available is 3kg bag which range from $60-75 depending on the kind of chocolates. Which can put me in the hole for over 200 bucks, which i hope it great tasting or else is worthless unless I try to sell it to my friends

So I thought i get an idea of what people view valrhona chocolate... I'm currently using callebaut because it easily available

taste it and tell us. it's a bit like me asking you which citroen is the best - you may have something compeltely different in mind as to what constitutes 'best'. the 'best' way , imo, is to decide for yourself 8-)

Hi,

I want to know what is the best general valrhona chocolate in each category of bittersweet, semisweet, milk and white chocolate.

There is no need for the best for white chocolate since there is only one :P... Ivoire

Thanks

Invertase comes in several strengths. You only need a few tenths of a percent. The invertase will continue to invert the sucrose, increasing solubility, softening the creme. The inversion continues until the syrup phase gets to 20% moisture. Cordials become more liquid as you add more water with the fruit. As sucrose inverts, it takes up water to complete the two new saccharides. The more you use, the faster it works. But no matter how much you use, you get the same result. Reason to use as little as possible is it's expensive. But watch the temperature you add it as it is a protein and will denature with heat, making it ineffective. Once you get your technique and timing to completiondown you can add it at levels to match when you expect sales, commonly to get a head start on seasonal items.

Great! Thank you for your input! I will play around with it this week!

I have no specific instructions (i.e. on how much invertase to use on a percentage basis), but, yes, this is exactly what invertase is for. You can adjust how creamy/liquid your centers will be by adjusting the amount of invertase you use. You centers will be solid and easy to work with and will become more creamy/liquid over a very short period of time once the chocolate has been finished. This is typically how chocolate covered cherries are made. Obviously if you sell you chocolates you will need to allow this process to occur so your customers get the product with the texture you intend.

The Chocolates I make are mostly cream centers (fondants) and I hand dip and sign them. As I have tasted chocolates from some local shops I have noticed how smooth and soft their centers are. As I have studied them I realized there's no way they could dip something that soft and sticky and keep them a pretty shape. I was later told about Invertase. I have never used it but wonder if this could do the trick. My chocolates have been tasty and creamy, but not to the same extent. I don't want liquid centers just an extra silky smooth cream. What are your opinions and instructions on invertase.

To all ChocolateLife members.

Posts about looking for equipment , or used equipment for sale, this one belong in CLASSIFIEDS .

Thanks,
:: Clay

Hi Jan

Thanks for your reply.

The machine was being used doing a fudge bar and the client has basically updated his machinery recently. With this machine is the manual and a spare gearbox.

The machine is available in "as is condition" and the price is 8,000.00 plus vat and delivery.

What kind of equipment are you searching for?

Kind Regards

Alan

Hi Alan, looks good. I presume it works well. What price range did you have in mind.

And what more chocolate equipment do you have to offer.

Looking forward to your reply.

Jan

Good Morning Ian

My name is Alan Beverley and i can help you with this if you are still searching for a 2nd hand flow wrapper. I am trying to up load a picture of one that i currently have available. It was doing a fudge bar.

Hi guys,

Can someone help me to find a reasonable priced second hand flow wrapping machine. There is no need for great quantities. We are getting busier with the packaging and are looking to invest in a flow wrapper.

I'll try with firmer caramel but the current consistency is pretty nice feel in the mouth contrasted with the chocolate snap. It's slightly soft but not runny.

Thanks, with these batches even double coating doesn't seem to stop the leakage.

Maybe that's it. I'll also try to see if it makes any difference if I use stove top caramels vs microwave.

The latter are hard to cut if you don't chill them first. Thanks for your help

Our soft caramels are bizarre. If you chill them when they return to room temp they melt. If we do not chill them they hold form. If we chill the they will pop leaks or find a way out even on a thick coat, again unchilled this behavior is very minimized.

Strange right? YMMV but try some different handling.

If your coatings are too thin, they will most likely break as the chocolate crystalizes around the soft caramel. Quite often soft caramel requires double coatings because of cracking.

hey virginia,

How hard is the consistency of your caramel? the harder it is the lesschances for it to pop.

I have been having consistent difficulty with coating caramels with chocolate- using tempered Guittard Prestige. They spring little leaks. This happens even if I double dip them. They can look perfect and if I turn my head for a second-pop!- there's a little caramel poking its head out. I've tried dipping at room temp and slightly chilled and no difference. Caramels have nuts and coconut in them. Any clues? remedies?

I leave my chocolate in the melter for hours , tempered and untempered, and it still blooms if cooled improperly or doing a bad tempering. Since blooming is caused by improper crystallization I dont think keeping it at a certain temp (other than the advised storage temp) can make chocolate bloom resistant.

I just finished reading about a technique that says raising the temperature of your finished chocolate to 89.6-95 F for 80 minutes can postpone bloom development for one year. Has anyone ever tried this? Ever heard of this?

I'm very interested in hearing any success with postponing bloom for as long as possible.

Any special cooling tips?

thanks

I am looking at getting a chocolate decorator and was wondering if anyone can recommend a good one. So far I like the woody stringer decorator. Has anyone used it? Here's the link..

http://woody-decorators.com/PRODUCTS/PRODUCTSStringer/tabid/55/Default.aspx

Thanks,

O

www.sevvalmakine.com

Greetings Chocolate Lifers! I'm new to the forum, but I'm working on a project in Belize were we'll be doing bean to bar production. I'm on the hunt for a small to medium size roaster and winnower that isn't too high tech and could be worked on in the region of Punta Gorda. Any resources would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

mruneare

Mara,

Others should be able to correct me but the issue with the fat in supermarket dried milk is more of a 'stale' flavor than shorter shelf life.

It seems that commercial manufacturers have access to better dried milk than what we do in the regular food stores.Roller dried milk is hard to come by and spray dried milk is what most people use. Some sources like Beckett mention the benefits of using milk crumb, but that is also a sophisticated and complex process because it starts with wet milk.

If you look at commercial chocolate ingredients you will see that they sometimes mix the nonfat milk with whole milk. I guess an added advantage of using the ghee is that you can control the amount of fat very precisely.

I didn't get back to testing other formulations with the regular whole milk but if you have more than one machine you could try it and taste them side by side.

Felipe