Forum Activity for @Sebastian

It's probably the last thing you want to do. Shells are where most of the mycotoxins, aflatoxins, lead, salmonella, and bad things (tm) collect on the bean. highly discouraged.

I recently read a bit about cocoa shell infusions and I was wondering if anyone on this forum had any experience or comments about this? I've heard about local breweries and chocolate makers teaming up to make beer with the cocoa shells and now I have read about drinks made from infusing the cocoa shells in milk, etc. After picking through bags of cocoa beans and finding all sorts of stuff (hair, etc.) I can't imagine wanting to drink an infusion made of the shells. Will someone enlighten me?

There is a link circulating to a video that purports to show cacao farmers in Ivory Coast eating chocolate for the first time. A sad comment on the cacao and chocolate industry as who would ever think a wheat farmer could not afford bread?

Here is a insightful article written by someone whose boots are on the ground:

http://qz.com/244185

Hello Samson, i am also new in this platform, planning to start small scale chocolate making business in my country due to abundance of cocoa beans and the forth world largest producer and I guest, you needed a sources of supply that is cheap and will enhance your profitability, if you needs cocoa beans from Nigeria, you can message me. thanks

Hi Samson, I think you have been directed to the best suppliers out there. I also want to use this opportunity to alert you of our company. Cocoa Beans Ltd was created in 2009 and we have been the leading supplier of Cocoa in our local community and battling to the best exporters in Cameroon. Contact me at larryheight189@gmail.com for more information regarding our products and affordable prices.

Ok, message me, please.

Thanks!

I guess we won't know until we try, I can look into it, and get back to you.

Thanks Piper.

Thank you Joseph. Details are in e-mail.

Hi!

I'm Samson from Tbilisi/Georgia. I'm new here, need a help of experienced people.

Planning to start a small shop selling organic raw cocoa beans, nibs, cocoa powder. But the problem is that Georgia (Republic of) it's a South Caucasus region)) is very far from cocoa origin countries, so we have a problem with source and transportation.

Can anybody recommend who can supply me with cocoa raw organic beans, nibs and cocoa powder in small quantities (100-150 kg. approximately)? May be directly from farm, if it is possible?.. But no middlemen, please!

Please advice me if you know where I can start searching or may be you are the person I'm looking for.

Thanks a lot for help to All!

Thanks so much!

I would have never figured out that name.

Hello everyone!

This is my first discussion and I am very excited to be a part of this community!

There is a tool that I have searched high and low for that is used to put sticks in apples

I have included an image( That%20tool%21.png )of a person preparing apples to be dipped and inserting a wooden stick in each using a small tool. The tool is circled in red.

If anyone can give me a name of the tool or a vendor that sells it or just any information at all I would be grateful!

Sincerely,

Scotty Jackson

Owner/Operator of Apple Tree Chocolate

Hi Rom,

Well, I raised the temperature up to 108F and the problem went away! So I guess my chocolate was just too thick and created too much resistance. It's spinning away now perfectly, running at 109F.

I am so relieved, as the Spectra is doing a superb job of refining my sugar crystals and I hope to have a silky chocolate for the first time.

Mack,

Not sure if this is the answer but sometimes chocolate seeps into the wheel cavity along the rod and hardens, thus slowing the wheels. You can unscrew the wheel cap and remove the wheel. If you find that the chocolate has hardened then simply clean the rod and reassemble.

Rom Still

Hi TCL friends,

I recently bought my first melanger and ran a small test batch and it worked perfectly! So I put a second, 7.8 pound batch of chocolate in my Spectra 11 and it ran well for something like 8 hours when I noticed the wheels only had intermittent contact with the floor of the tub. In other words, the wheels were turning, but had sort of a pause in them, and I could hear it too. I could hear the wheel making contact with the stone floor and thus turning, but then perhaps have chocolate under it and sort of lift off and slow down, and then reconnect. I put my finger on the wheel and could stop it.

I had 7.8 pounds (3500 g) of chocolate in it. The temp was 105F. The chocolate was flowing around the wheels and scrapers robustly. It felt like I needed to turn the screw down more to make contact with the bottom, but the screw was turned all the way tight.

I am not sure what to do. I could run a smaller batch, but that is not very efficient. I could put more cacao butter in it, but that is not what I want either. I could modify the assembly so I can make the stone capable of dropping more, but that might damage the stones?

Does anyone have a solution? Oh, and I report that the Spectra came with one wheel with two grooves, and one wheel with 3 grooves.

Thank you,

Mack

THANK you! You know what... someone had moved my paper with the schematic and when I put one of the replays init was wired wrong...A few blow circuits later and several phone calls...

ITS ALL BETTER....oh my gosh...I could have had white chocolate a long time ago if I hadn't lost the paper...but we have it now.

Thanks to everyone.

I don't have any experience with the little dipper, but I do have a bunch of electrical experience.

Do you have a volt meter and a schematic of your unit?

I found an old little dipper manual online, and it had a schematic. It looks like you have a control board which has a 'double throw' relay on it. Double throw means that there are two contacts (NO and NC) and they alternate which one is on. The output of this relay then controls power relays which then control the actual devices (the lamps or the blowers).

You should be able to measure the output of the relay on the control board and see if there are correct signals going to the power relays.

My guess, given what you have already replaced: there is a short in the socket that holds the relay that controls the lamps, so that a relay which is supposed to be off is getting turned on. This relay is then powering the lamps.

Good luck.

-Jon

Yes, I have called. Even asked if they had a used one we could swap but they don't. I am going to call again this morning. It's been down for 6 weeks now I think. We will have plenty of toasted white chocolate for the fall now.

The only thing I didn't change was the temp probe, because the fan reacts. When I turn the temp down you can hear it click and the lights should go but they don't...Always something strange with the moody machines.

Thanks Ruth! I will keep you posted.

I assume you have called Hilliard? They have always been very helpful to me. Will they let you send it in?

and today I replaced the board...the same thing. Fan comes on, lights stay on.

Anyone have thoughts?

Hello....

So we have a hilliards little dipper that we do our white chocolate in. Over the past month it has given us a more than generous amount of toasted chocolate thanks to the lights not responding to the temperature...The fan works when it should but the lights NEVER shut off and just over heat the bowl. So-

Replaced both relay switches in it per the manufacturer. Before we install an entire new board on this thing does anyone have any ideas what it may be?

waiting to make pink lemonade poodles...

Emily

Hi, I may be re-inventing the wheel, but I wrote to Santha to ask what was the concern with washing the removable parts of the Spectra in a dishwasher. Here is the conversation email train (note it is in reverse order, last email at top of page)

Subject:Re: Question about temperature and dishwashers...

Thank you Kumar for this very useful information which will make it easier to clean the melanger.

And also thank you for your quick answer.

Based on this information I do have one more question, which is if my dishwasher temperature is kept below 140 degrees, would I then be "probably" safe putting the removable parts in the dishwasher and just washing them there, not drying them there?

Thank you again Kumar!

Mack

On Jul 22, 2014, at 11:01 PM, Spectra SanthaUSA <santhausa@yahoo.com> wrote:

Dear Mr. Mack Rasnom,

Thank you for purchasing the Spectra 11.

Regarding your query, our primary concern is the epoxy adhesive in the Stainless steel drum portion. We do not recommend

it because some dishwashers driers go ahove 140. The roller stones assembly does not have this issue.

The detergents are not an issue either.

Warm regards

Kumar

SanthaUSA / Spectra

Hi there,

I'm looking to purchase either the Santha Spectra 65 or the Cocoatown ECGC 65 and wanted to see if anyone has experience using both these units and how they compare to each other?

I've been using smaller Spectra models, and I've had issues with the belt breaking. But my understanding is that the 65 runs uses a gear drive, so I should have have these issues?

Any insights would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Sabrina

Hi Milford Deninison,I think you should post an ad on Alibaba.com. We have quality grade A cocoa beans for sale. Our located in CAMEROON.

The Black Inca beer is from Australia and you can contact ChocolateLife member Igor van Gerwen about getting some. We're registered for sale in California, so I need to connect to figure out how you can order. I will get back to you.

Hey there clay. That sounds like exactly what we are looking for! would love to get the contact info for that one. It would be great to get our hands on any other drinks you might know of too such as the black inca beer I noticed pictures of as well.

Ash -

One of the projects I am working on is Solbeso - the world's first distilled beverage made from 100% fresh cacao fruit juice. We're registered for sale in NY, FL, and CA and ship to most states. It's 40% ABV, not 5-12% which is what a wine or beer would be, but it is very tasty. Let me know if you are interested and I can give you contact info for how to purchase.

:: Clay

Hi there,

Anybody out there heard of, or know of, any wine or beer drinks that are made from or with cacao that are available in the US?

wanted to know if anyone wants to share a recipe of chocolate, as percentage of cocoa butter is placed in the manufacture of chocolate

I was a private pilot (still am technically) and the brotherhood of pilots is nothing short of amazing. I am getting that same feeling from the Chocolate life and the people making chocolate. It is Sunday m,owning, I fire out a question and people rush to help and spread their knowledge. I love the people and thee chocolate!! Thank you for your help. Makes perfect sense!

Hi Jim, the starch in the powdered sugar makes the chocolate swell up and thicken, which makes it hard to work with amongst other issues. I have used a Blendtec blender to pre grind sugar to some degree, but it does not get it very fine in the blender before the sugar starts to get sticky due to the heat build up from friction. So basically you can do a quick pre grind of the sugar but your chocolate will not have that silky smooth texture. A melanger seems to be the only solution I have found to get the smooth texture. FYI, the reason the powdered sugar has additives in it is to keep it from caking up. It is rumored that you can get powdered sugar from Europe or Canada without additives, but I have spent hours researching that and so far none has been found.

Careful with powder sugar...many times it isnt just sugar....it has corn starch, flour and calcium phoshpate, of course you could grind your own to get around that problem...

There seems to be lots of discussion about pulverizing the sugar before adding it to the chocolate liqueur. Is there some reason powdered sugar is not used?

Would anyone be able to give us some tips and pointers for getting the word out about Meadowlands Chocolate's Kickstarter campaign? Kickstarter has been very successful for several other bean-to-bar chocolate makers. We have a great product and would like to succeed in our Kickstarter goal. Would appreciate any help, especially from those who have run successful Kickstarter campaigns.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1412260686/meadowlands-chocolate

Greetings fellow chocolate lovers and chocolate makers! Clyo and I have been so busy making chocolate and getting our business going, that we haven't had much time to post here. However, we have learned a lot from The Chocolate Life people who post here over the past year. Just a note to let everyone within earshot (or cyber-earshot) know that Meadowlands Chocolate (we make handcrafted, single-origin, bean-to-bar chocolate) has launched our first KICKSTARTER Project! Please take a look, enjoy the video and read our story, and consider contributing if you can and are so inclined.

Great Chocolate definitely ROCKS!

-- Clyo and Beryl, Meadowlands Chocolate

Here's the link:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1412260686/meadowlands-chocolate

Enjoy!

Hello again chocolate lifers!

So just back from another round at the factory and I want to share some of our experience and get some feedback.

~~~~~*~~~~~

So we are starting an herbal chocolate business and we are in the midst of testing/refining our process so we can be selling asap. Tonight we noticed challenge which we think we have remedy for but I will run you through the journey of our latest batch.

This is our process;

We use a cacaotown melange to grind our raw nibs for 48 hrs. At hour 24 we add our sugar and herbs. Our ratio is 64 oz of nibs to 18 oz of butter with 32 oz of sugar and 160 grams of dried powdered herbs. That makes a 60% herbal chocolate bar.

When we arrived, the chocolate was quite thick in the melange but we figured we would see where we were at once tempered and warmed to working temperature.

We brought the chocolate up to 120* then started to temper by hand on our granite slab. We seeded about 50 grams of chocolate at about 95* and continued to reduce the temperature on the slab. This is when it started to thicken up on us and once we got to proper temperature it was hardly workable. After raising it back up to 90* it was still very hard for us to pour it into our molds. We ended up having to spread it into the molds with our flat spatula, forming many bubbles which we were unable to remove through agitation.

Then we placed the polycarbonate molds into the fridge and waited about 25 minutes. We couldnt get the bars out of the molds even with vigorous whacking on the table.

~~~~~*~~~~~

My thoughts are that we need to add more butter. Were hoping that adding maybe another 5 oz might give us the proper viscosity we are looking for. Does this sound like it would remedy our thickness issue as well as our ability to get them out of the molds??

The chocolate tastes great but the production needs some more fine tuning and any help would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers