Forum Activity for @Mariano Garcia

I live in Honduras Central America, can take online courses in Spanish?

Mariano

Thank you for you answer i did not think about what you said but of course you're right. Some of my ganache have a too high fat content and it breaks or there is a deposit if fat at the bottom though i followed the recipe or the proportions of half the weight of the chocolate . And it is specially annoying with my caramel ganache interieur with a pinch of salt. I will appreciate any insight from more experienced chocolatiers thank you

It is technically possible to use a 15% cream, but you have to consider that you are actually using way more water in your ganache and that would impact seriously in the shelf life.

What problem are you experiencing? Maybe there is another way to solve it.

Have you considered starting with powdered milk (NFDM), and adding butter and water to reconstitute it, but to a lower level of moisture than you'd have with your standard fluid milk to reduce the time needed for moisture removal?

What we normally do is put our boxes in ziplock bags and transport them in a cooler. During very hot days we put blue ice bags in the cooler too (but outside the ziplocks obviously).

No, the stand is there to keep the stirrer from acting like a lid. When the stirrer was resting on the cooker, the caramel quickly boiled over. With it raised up a bit, the water evaporates faster and helps prevent boilover.

The spindle is in contact with the pot, however the stirring blades are 1/16" to 1/8" inch from the bottom of the pot. You could sand or machine the tip of the spindle to reduce that distance, but there would still probably be some gap.

I tried adding silicone scrapers to the blades. That experiment failed as the caramel still scorched. I found it more effective to simply use the stirrer til 218 degrees, then stir by hand. No more scorching, but I still saved time over stirring the entire time.

I've toyed with the idea of stacking two stirring machines to increase the power of the stir, and hopefully stir the caramel faster, thus helping prevent scorching, but I haven't sprung for another stirrer to test this.

If you try it out, please let us know how it goes.

Thanks,

Larry

Hi Clay. 

Any news on getting the group discussions updated? In my opinion, they're almost useless now, since there's no way to easily see when a thread was last updated.

Also, the search results issue I mentioned in my 3/12/15 post is still happening.

Thanks,
Ben

@larry2 It looks as though you're using a stand to hang the stirrer above your pot.  Does this help with the issue of blades missing the bottom of the pot, (read in Amazon reviews ) or was this constructed for another reason?

Thanks!

Hello again, Kerry.  Someone in another thread recommended Bubble Wrap bags.  What type of insulated bags do you use, and who Brands them for you?  Also, the small ice packs you referred to - not sure what they are.  Thanks again for the help.  John

Thanks Kerry.  I'll try that.  John

Get some little insulated bags with your branding on them - have the really tiny little ice packs available.  

I'm about to have to replace another motor since originally posting this. (I think I have replaced one in between that time)... We since added a Chocovision Revolution 3Z to the shop and it has some design flaws as well... Why would anyone think that plastic is a good material for something in an area (on the machine) where tension, heat, and constant movement are all happening all the time?! We've had to send it back for repair and haven't even had it a year. I sent a letter with some suggestions for fixing the issue. I'm sure they'll assume I'm a smart a$$.

I'm still on the lookout for a replacement motor for the ACMC. It's a small enough temperer for our white chocolate needs, and while I don't mind paying a bit for upkeep/maintenance for the machine; I'd rather have to do it less.

Thanks!

(Oh, thanks Chirag-Bhatia, but I couldn't get the link above to open)

Hi!  New to TCL, but have been digging through the forums for burried treasure for several months.  I'm weeks away from "opening the doors" to a confectionary, with intentions of selling online and to local shops wholesale... for now.

The first retailer I'll be working with owns a candy store, and keeps some chocolates and many novelty candies.  My concern is that while she knows to keep her shop from boiling in the summer, she's also trying to avoid an astronomical electric bill.  This is fine for candies that will be eaten immediately, but I've literally walked a block from store to car and experienced chocolate smudges on the package. No bueno for gifts or savoring, and if I weren't trying to get my foot in the door, I'd say it's inhospitable for my products.

On my side, they'll will be kept at about 55-60 F until I personally deliver them to her shop, weekly.  My question is this:  What can I personally do to give my products the best chance during transport and storage at the retail destination?

I'm thinking of transporting in a cooler with dry ice or similar, and wrapping the kraft boxes in bags to avoid contact.  Inside the kraft box may be a layer with silica packs to help with humidity, and care instructions label outside.  Any other/better ideas on how to keep my precious works from turning into gloop?

Thanks!

https://www.thechocolatelife.com/clay/forums/tech-help-tips-tricks-techniques/4705/summer-shipping-tips-tricks

Colin - I love your packaging information page for customers!  If I were to order from you, I'd feel very appreciated, and that you truly care about the quality of your product and my experience.  Well done, Sir!

I've received samples from TCHO that had to travel from the West to the East US coast, and they were packaged in a Uline foil backed bubble bag (5x fast) with 2 cold packs inside.  Are yous guys saying that just the foil bubble bag would have sufficed, no cold packs neccesary?  Any experiences with this?

Oh i know the weaver nut folks very well - small world it is!

I want to thank you all for these extremely useful comments, explanation, tips and remedies. Brad's comment stressing that there is no boiler plate and that "rule of thumb" is the guiding principle is a perfet conclusion. I have reached succes about 50% of the time so far, with better results with fatter beans from Granada and Trinidad in which I do not add cocoa butter. The Dominican beans are rather "dry" and I add up to 8% butter. I do leave the chocolate at 29 degre C for 2 hours before warming it up again and I leave the mould in the open in an A/C room at approx. 22 degres, but not under the fan. That works betes so far. Thank you again

Out towards Lancaster and Litiz?  I buy my chocolate from Weaver Nut in Ephrata.  Look forward to meeting you.

No store for me- but i'm about an hour west of you.  I'll need to stop by sometime!

Hello Sebastian.  It's called Chillings and Chocolate in Upper Darby PA.  What's the name of your store?

I am in Sydney, Australia and this is probably the hottest continent on Earth.  It's also very larg.  I send chocolate around Australia and indeed to New Zealand and other coutries and this is how I do it. 

http://www.captainchocolate.com.au/hot-weather-shipping/

This follows ask-maki's suggestion and it does work very well.  I get VERY few failures and if I do I just replace.

At markets I use the same idea but one really important concept is to keep the cold air from getting out and new hot air getting in.  To achieve that I pop the chocolate in the foil bag and then I heat seal it on the stand.  Then the air simply can't transverse.

I can't actually buy these bags - at least not cheaply. So I buy rolls of metalized of the material (metalized bubble wrap) that I use for shipping and cut bags out of that and make the bags myself at home before going to the markets.  Then I just have to heat-seal the opening on-site.

I DO keep all of my chocolate in polystyrene boxes on my stall to keep them cool.  And I take these nice cold bags to seal for Customers.

Oh - forgot to say. I keep my chocolate as cold as I reasonably can and load my van just as I leave for the day.  Temperture is always around 15-18C.

Hope this helps - taking care of chocolates and Customers at farmers markets becomes a real artr and I am now pretty good at it!

Colin

Captain Chocolate, Sydney, Australia

Here is another option that works. Ive heard of folks mailing in these, without ice packs, mid summer with no problems.

http://www.uline.com/BL_1566/Uline-Glamour-Bubble-Mailers

John - what's your business called?  It sounds like you're not far from me at all..

Hey John,

You can get bags like these:

http://www.4imprint.com/search/thermal/product/106542/Therm-O-Tote-Insulated-Grocery-Bag

Maybe you could do a deposit system so that people can bring them back so you're not just giving away loads of bags. Alternatively, you can always just charge them for a bag. Manoa in Hawaii gives you a bag like this if you order over a certain amount of bars.

That sounds great. We would be interested for sure. Our best form of comunication at the moment is by email info@starchildchocolate.com but would love to talk to you more.

 Hello All.  Sorry for posting my previous post in the wrong forum  - (should have gone into tip & tricks).  Still getting used to the new site!  I may have an opportunity to sell my chocolate in a local Tea Room where they serve tea and gourmet sandwiches.  Any thoughts as to pairing chocolate with tea?  The only pairing that  I currently make is a tea & honey truffle.  Thanks for the help, John 

Hello All.  I posted this in the wrong forum and I'm not sure how to "Move" it, so I'm re-posting here - still getting familiar with the new site.

In order to keep selling chocolate in the summer, I'm looking for a way to keep the chocolate from melting when customers transport it a short distance to their house (90 degree f in Philadelphia).  Any suggestions for relatively easy and inexpensive ways to do this?  Thanks for the help, John

Well we're going to start bringing in containers - we can produce 110MT per year.

Thanks for the response, We would be looking for a much larger volume than what is available on your site there.

Hello All.  This will be my second summer in business and last summer I pretty much discontinued my chocolate sales (I sell ice cream also).  I'd like to keep making / selling throughout the summer but I'm not sure how to ensure that my customers can get the chocolate home, without melting.  I live in Philadelphia and the temperatures stay in the 90's (f) for much of the summer.  Is there a relatively easy and inexpensive way to transport chocolate for small distances during hot summer months?  Thanks for the help, John

We have Guatemala beans for sale on our site onlinecacao.com

We will also have new beans from our own farm in Rio Dulce coming soon!

The James Cooper PLC is turning the shells of cocoa beans into paper

http://www.cropper.com/news/post.php?s=2014-01-17-sweet-innovation-as-cocoa-waste-is-transformed 

Wide - perhaps - not sure about wise 8-)  Certainly it could be used for fertilizer.  I'm not sure how much nitrogen or phosphorous it has, but shells do have a fair amount of potassium in them.

which is the chronological order and how often each ingredient placed?

you can use it as fertilizer on land?

Thanks Sebastian, you are very wise!

What to do with the shell?  Mulch (but it will attract bugs).  Burn it?

Absolutely do NOT use it for anything edible.  Shell is notoriously high in heavy metals and mycotoxins and all sorts of stuff that you don't want to eat.

I roasted cocoa beans and many have already separated from the seed husk. that I can do with it?

I have received three boxes of zChocolat's beautiful confections now and I have enjoyed every one (although not every chocolate in each box).  The ganache is always perfect and there are finely ground pieces of nuts in many of the chocolates that create a delicate crunch.  Just wondering if anyone else has had experiences with zChocolat and what your thoughts are?  I love the signature 'Z' chocolate so much I want to order a whole box of just that and forget all the other flavours (my Canadian palate still can't get used to lavender in chocolate - blah!). This is my most recent post about zChocolat's Mother's Day box - they sent it to me last week: http://ultimatechocolateblog.blogspot.ca/2015/04/zchocolat-will-help-you-say-i-love-you.html  I was amazed that it was so well packed that the ice pack was still cold when I received it 5 days after they sent the package from France to Canada (and a 7-hour drive north of Toronto).  Anyway, let me know what you think! I am curious about experiences that other people have had.

Anybody know of a source for a quality organic bean from Guatemala? I have had four people in the past week ask us for Guatemalan chocolate and we have yet to find a good source. Thanks

Is it fat migration from the peanut butter?