Howdy,
I am looking for a white cocoa butter color without that Titanium Dioxide kick to the palate. I currently use the Chef Rubber Alabaster. It seems we've been getting more and more complaints about the off-putting flavor. Any suggestions? We have CLC licencing for our local university's logos, which happen to be Maroon and White, so using the white is a necessary evil. Thank you!
Josh
We are BRC, organic, GF and can be kosher if the volumes are there?
Hi Clay,
I am in the market for a cooling cabinet and was hoping for some suggestions. We are a very small kitchen just starting our cannabis chocolate in Tucson, Arizona. I am considering Hilliards cooling cabinet which is in the $3500 price range. Do you have any recomendations for alternatives with a similar price and size? I appreciate any help! Thank you 
If you would like to invest in a larger pot, then you need to have a burner that is strong enough to heat the contents of that pot. The kettle we use most often is made by Savage bros and we have purchased a candy stove to hold this copper pot. Our copper pots are round on the bottom. so your stove will need to be capable of stabilizing the pot.
The link you showed was interesting. I imagine it would work and it is flat on the bottom like standard pots. I prefer what I have, but I also have the matching stove to work with it.
Greetings!
TL;DR: need a new small-batch refiner & heavy duty Korean to American transformer.
I currently live in the ROK, and I've been waiting for my parents to mail me my small-batch chocolate-making machinery (a Premiere Wonder Grinder & a Behmor 1600+ roaster) from the US. But we decided not to send the wonder grinder & just look for a similar machine here in Korea, instead, but I have had absolutely no luck finding machines that run on 60hz & 220v, as machines here do. I've been looking for something under $300 and which has a capacity of 2-10 lbs, and I couldn't spend too much more than that, though it does have to be compatible with Korean electricity output since it'll be on for 2 days at a time.
On top of that, my transformer started smelling like burnt plastic after I tried to use the roaster with it. It seemed like it'd be fine since I had been using my American espresso machine with it for the last few months with no problems, and the roaster also only runs for about 30 minutes at a time. So now I'm in need of a new refiner/concher & super strength transformer. Unfortunately, Japanese machines would not work since their voltage & hertz output are different. The transformer just blew yesterday, when I was trying to roast a test batch of coffee to make sure the roaster functioned well here, so I can keep searching for that. But the refiner has been a month of intermittent searching in the making, and I seem to be no closer than before.
For a year back in the US, I was making chocolate with these machines, and everything was fine... and now I've been in Korea for about 8 months and this warm weather has got me itching to get back into chocolate-making. Please help!! Any helpful tips or links or tricks would be much appreciated.
Thanks so much!
Best,
Max
All equipment for sale in great shape, and priced at about 1/2 retail.
Cocoatown grinder used 10 times at most, with ss drum (used once) and 2nd drum with loose center pin. $300
Behmor 1600 Plus used 10-15 times $200
Sylph Winnower $125, include Micro shop vac - add $25
Stainless steel Crankenstein: $125
Add UPS shipping from San Diego or local pickup.
If interested email jbenten@yahoo.com
So, I've been doing some research on copper pots... not sure how big yours is or how much you'd be asking for it, but would something like this work?
http://tigercook.com/product_info.php/products_id/195
Thank you for all that great advice, Daniel!
I never seem to have any issue with scorching, and my caramel is the texture you describe. If I cut it, it holds it's shape, in a room at about 66 degrees, for about 10 minutes, before it starts to spread a little. I'm neurotic about temp, but I only get 150 caramels from each double batch. I am using my modified version of the master recipe they gave us in Ecole Chocolat's chocolatier course. It has always worked brilliantly for me... 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.
That kettle you use sounds huge. How do you get it onto the stove????
Good to hear the guitar cutter works for yours... that's my first option for a big expenditure, because it will also help improve my options for truffles.
I already do a liquid caramel in a 70% shell, that is a HUGE hit. Everyone that tries, in my little area, has never tasted something like it. But I want some chew to these and that one doesn't have it. It literally just flows into your mouth. I'm using a dry caramel for that one - no water... just dissolve the sugar, get it to toffee colored and then add butter and cream, vanilla and salt.
Hi there!
Yes! we need to find you a faster way to get these done.
Getting some new equipment can be helpful. Of course none of this stuff is cheap. IF you want to make dipped/enrobed caramels, one of the best things you can get is an enrober for obvious reasons. This will bring your daily production from the hundreds to the thousands. Of course this involves several thousands of dollars, even for the least expensive unit.
The other thing is cooking your caramel in one large batch versus multiple smaller batches. We cook all of our caramel in a copper kettle. I have an extra one that we don't use that I would be open to selling ( I know that is an issue for classifieds and I can post there) . When I used to make caramel in stainless steel pots, the pans would often get scorched and ultimately ruined. For some reason this does not happen when I use my kettle and if a little scorching happens then it washes out really easily. Anyway.... our kettle can make a batch of 1,000 caramels in one pot.
When the caramel is done cooking we line our granite table with silicone mats and use long metal bars (6 feet long) to contain the caramel. The bars on the ends are about 2.5 feet long. I had a machine shop make these out of food grade stainless steel. It was a few years ago, but I think I paid around $150-200 for 8 bars total.
The next day when the caramel is cooled, we spread some untempered dark chocolate (you can use tempered too -- either works) on the caramel. Believe it or not, we cut the caramels with a confectionery guitar. If you want to use a guitar, you must be extremely careful with the final temperature of the caramel. Our caramels are soft enough to cut, yet firm enough to hold their shape. If you cook your caramel to a higher temperature then you may break guitar strings. We are very exact on a caramel temperature so that we can achieve the exact texture. Many times, we need to use a knife to cut the caramels again -- regardless, the guitar establishes and marks the perfect shape of the caramels.
Then we put the caramels through an enrober.
If you cant afford some of the equipment I am mentioning, you may want to consider making molded caramels. For a very small operation, I believe that you can get more molded chocolates done in a shorter time than hand dipped chocolates. Also, it is easier to achieve a more liquid caramel for molded chocolates then firmer caramels for dipping/enrobing.
Glad to answer any questions you may have.
Thanks for that response Ben. Wasn't too sure at first but now that I know, will go for one of them. Will look thru the list here as I see many names have been mentioned severally here.
Continuous tempering machines draw from a bowl of melted, untempered chocolate and then temper it through cooling and then heating. The result is that tempered chocolate comes out of the depositing head. No seed is necessary.
I haven't figured a way. I bought a caramel roller and it doesn't get through caramel. The handle has a terrible grip. It is great for scoring them before you cut them. Don't get a guitar cutter.
If you want to speed things up, I'd recommend getting a Chocovision Delta to automate up your chocolate tempering. They're used on eBay regularly.
Hello to all the lovely experts out there. I'm a 1 year old newbie, when it comes to working with chocolate and have managed to get myself into a predicament. Hoping there might be some techniques out there I'm not aware of.
One of the first things I made that were a total hit are my Bourbon Salted Caramels. I do them in 4 forms... naked, dipped in a Peruvian milk chocolate and sprinkled with Hawaiian lava salt, dipped in Ecuadorian 65% and sprinkled with Applewood smoked salt, and then I do turtles. I've posted some older pics, to give you a bit of an idea.
My problem is this. They have become really good sellers... particularly when it comes to shops that carry them. And I'm very low-tech, in terms of my operation. The caramel is made in double batches, using a 13 quart tri-ply pan on stovetop. It's poured into a sheet pan and cooled, then, at this point, I'm still scoring them with a pastry cutter (not the super sturdy type) and cutting by hand. Then, I dip them all by hand.
All my chocolate tempering is by hand/seed method and I hold my chocolate in 2 3kg Mol d'Art melters that I found used, on Ebay, for a song...I've become very obsessive about tracking when this sort of stuff shows up. Again, very low tech, in terms of shop size, equipment, etc.
I don't bottom them... not sure how to do that with a sheet pan full of caramel. I just cut, group for dipping type and go. But this is taking FOREVER. And with the 3 shops buying them at several dozen at a wack (but wholesale) and then weekly markets and my online sale, I need to figure out a faster way to bang these out.
Anyone have a non-expensive recommendation on how to speed things along? I am looking at a caramel roller cutter, since that would speed it along a little. If not, I'll just muddle along until we can afford some higher tech stuff. 
...or is it the case that I will still seed and that the tempering machine just helps keep the temperature at 29 degrees to ensure over crystallization doesn't happen and that I continue to work with tempered chocolate?
Update: Please visit our website, or find us on iTunes and your favorite podcast apps, to listen to more episodes.
Episode 8: The Deep Origin: Latin America with Maricel Presilla , Cristian Melo and Chloé Doutre-Roussel .
Episode 7: The Craft of Chocolate , featuring guidance from Clay Gordon , author of Discover Chocolate , and creator and moderator of TheChocolateLife.com, as well as
Karen Bryant , Greg D’Alesandre , Sunita de Tourreil , Carla Martin , and Art Pollard. Read a full transcript of interviews on our website.
Episode 6: Save by Savoring , with Sam Maruta , chocolate maker and co-founder of Marou, Faiseurs de Chocolat, in Vietnam; Pathmanathan Umaharan , director of The University of the West Indies Cocoa Research Centre and International Cocoa Genebank, Trinidad (ICG,T); and Charles Kerchner , co-founder of Reserva Zorzal in the Dominican Republic.
Episode 5: Eat With Your Ears, with insights from experts on how our other senses can impact the taste of chocolate.
Hi all,
You may enjoy our most recent podcast episode:
The cocoa and chocolate we know and love was born in the upper Amazon and domesticated (turned into chocolate) in Mesoamerica. In this episode, we will explore the history of the food of the gods and, as the leading producer of fine and flavor cocoa, the role Latin America plays in chocolate today.
Guests include:
Maricel Presilla , chef, culinary historian, author of The New Taste of Chocolate and coordinator of the International Chocolate Awards, on the history of cacao and cocoa.
Cristian Melo , professor at Universidad Tecnológica Equinoccial, on the development of prized indigenous cacao and one of the world’s most prolific hybrids in the country that leads in fine and flavor production.
Chloé Doutre-Roussel , consultant and author of The Chocolate Connoisseur , on how the economic crisis in Venezuela impacts cocoa farmers and the industry at large.
Happy listening!
Katie@theslowmelt.com
Jennifer, I have 3, slightly larger ones for sale, send me a message if interested
Hi Jennifer,
I'm sorry, I just shipped them out to another buyer. I'll update the listing as sold.
Nicole
Hi Nicole - I'm interested in the molds you have for sale. What is the shipping cost to California, 93003? Thank you, Jennifer
Over the years I have had a lot of people ask me about tempering. Here's the easiest you will see on the Internet:
Hi..
I'm in San Antonio and it can be done. It isn't cost effective and really just a hobby but fun nonetheless. I purchased trees from Hawaii after trying several other options with no success. They came 2nd day air and were about 3' tall when I got them. All of the smaller trees I tried (including seeds from a fresh pod) failed with the exception of two. Soil pH, mites, cold, humidity are all factors. I ended up setting up a greenhouse with humidity and temperature control for just a few trees so that they made it through the winter. No pods yet and I think I've spent enough to buy 40 sacks of beans. <G> I still make bean to bar chocolate from regular supply lines and don't know that I'll ever get enough pods to do anything MUCH LESS get my fermentation to a point where it is worthwhile. You should read about fermentation because after all the work, this can destroy the beans in just days. I'm visiting farms in Hawaii now and keep hearing about losses due to mold and other factors. I'd hate to see that on a small (micro) crop of beans after waiting years.
Either way, GOOD LUCK.
Brian
Hello all, I recently lost my Peruvian cacao supplier because of the tremendous flooding there. Can anyone point me in another direction? I'm looking for 40-60 lbs liquor to start out with and 12-15 lbs cacao butter.
Hello,
This is our FIRST (1st) harvest in approx ONE (1) month. I live in Ghana. But everything I have read says up to 15 degrees each side of the equator under 8,000 feet above Seal Level & approx 3,000 MM per year of rain. We have TWO (2) rainy seasons per year & the harvest is after the rainy seasons. This June is the smaller Harvest & the main Harvest is around December. They recommend TWO (2) separate methods of planting #1) Open clear field. Start with a Cover Crop at first Plantain Every 3 meters square & a primary shade tree like Coconuts every 12 Meters. After approx Six months plant your seedling Cocoa Plant approx 1 meter from the Plantain. Again your Cocoa Trees should be in a row of 3 meters square. The Plantain corp for the FIRST (1st) THREE (3) years to protect your Cocoa Trees from the sun. You will start your first harvest in between your THIRD (3rd) & FOURTH (4th) year. Then you can harvest the coconuts also about the same time.
#2) Existing forest, keep the bigger shad trees & partially clear & plant our Cocoa Seedlings Trees every 3 meters square. keep a good eye on your seedling Cocoa Trees the 1st THREE (3) years. Your 1st harvest should be between your third (3rd) & (4th) year.
In Ghana the CocoBod or Ghana Board of Cocoa will help you a lot & in fact you can even get FREE seedlings from the CocoBod if they have them in stock?? Good Luck.
Eric
Actually I do! Please call me (503-523-7509) or email me at carbonja@gmail.com.
Do you still have this for sale? I am interested in buying it...
Do you still have this tempering machine? I'm very interested in buying it if so. Please let me know ASAP.
Do you still have this tempering machine and skimmer? I'm very interested in buying it if so. Please let me know ASAP.
Do you still have this tempering machine? I'm interested in buying it if so, and maybe the skimmer as well.
ATTENTION- please note the Behmoor Roaster has been sold, all remaining items are still available.
Thanks!
HI @alan-chapman, I decided to move out of the bean-to-bar manufacturing and making of chocolate due to the fact I felt the margins were not enough to sustain the living I needed... long term. That said, every moment has been enjoyable in the process and I wish your daughter the best!
Good luck to you Cat. I think you will be pretty happy with what you decide to purchase. Glad to help in any way.
Thanks!
Daniel
Daniel - Thanks so much for the insight and the reference co. I'll investigate. I'm in talks now with your man in China and he has been very helpful- so thanks again.
CAT
In my super small scale bean-to-bar tempering, I like using a large pyrex glass bowl and silicone spatula to do my equivalent of "tabling." I put the bowl in the refrigerator to get it mostly cold, then pour a small portion of chocolate directly from the grinder into the bowl. If the bowl is too cold and everything solidifies, I add more chocolate from the grinder. If I initially used too much chocolate and it never gets down to thickening temperature, I put the bowl in the fridge for a couple minutes, then stir, repeating until I get the temp/consistency I need. Then, I add the rest of the grinder chocolate to the bowl and start molding.
I'll only do this with a new bean origin to initially get tempered chocolate. I'll use a seed method with future batches of the same beans. I'm a big fan of using a hard cheese grater (like for Parmesan) to make my seed - finely grated melts much easier than larger pieces.
Hi Everyone,
I am jake and i am about to start a new adventure of making bean to bar chocolate at out coffee roasterie, i have already purchased the spectra 11 and was confused as to which hydraulic press should i get, i have decided to make my own cacao butter, but i am struggling with options for the hydraulic press as i am not sure of the workings of one or what it should ideally look like. What is the ideal extraction rate of cacao butter from cacao with a hydraulic press?
Would really appreciate if someone could throw me in the right direction
Thank you
Jake
I'm still pretty new to owning this machine. I am working with a nitrogen gas provider to get us started with the gas flush process. I am still waiting on that. I am definitely glad I paid a little extra to get the gas flush hookup and the printer.
I have not used the gas flush hookup yet. I need to get a delivery of nitrogen tanks from Praxair. I don't know what they recommend. I would love it if there was someone on this site who was knowlegable about gas flush. Sebastian? Are you out there?
I'm glad I have the printer too. That prints as the film is packaging our product. It is meant for codes only i.e, date codes, batch codes, etc...
We have been packaging quite a bit this week and things have been going pretty smoothly so I am still quite happy with this machine.
Hi Daniel - Wondering if you can elaborate on the operations of the printer and gas flush components of the machine?
Does the printer operate real time as it's wrapping pieces? i.e. prints prior to wrap - or do you have to pre-print the film? Any issues/limitations with the printer?
Assuming the gas flush operates from a nitrogen tank...how many tanks do you go through? Maintenance? Cost of tanks? Any other issues?
Thanks!
CAT
Used GEI Flowtronic 120SE Horizontal Flow Wrapper with:
Please inquire by email - info@honeyridgefarms.com
THANK YOU Clay!!!!!! I cannot tell you how many times I have to try and explain this to non-believers! This is a very academic way to explain:)
Looking for co-manufacturing partner in the immediate future. Must be Organic, Kosher, and GFSI or SQF certified and ability to handle large volumes. Please contact for additional details.
Hi all What is the best surface for tempering chocolate, marble or granite or is the other options. What would you consider the best and an ideal size?
Cooling Cabinet info (1).pdf - 658KB
