Forum Activity for @Robert Wolfgang III

Tempering problems again.

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

Julie- It sounds like you are cooling the chocolate too much. You are simply over tempering. If it is dark chocolate the coolest temperature to come down to could be 30-31C. For milk chocolate 28-29C could be cool enough. Remember that if you have an efficient way to cool and then re-heat the chocolate you might not need to add seed. Adding seed is to help form the correct crystals, cooling and re-heating does the same thing. If you are doing the tempering by hand, I would cool to about 32C add seed and you should be good to go. Every chocolate is different but once you find what works for you it should be easily repeated.

Tempering problems again.

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

Sorry to bring up this issue yet again, but I cannot find any reference to the problem that I am having.

I am trying to produce simple chocolate bars from commercially provided couverture.

The instructions from everywhere I read, basically say to melt the chocolate at around 45C, cool whilst adding seed chocolate to around 27C then raise again to 30-31C

My problem is that as the chocolate cools, at around 29C it becomes so stiff that it is almost impossible to stir, and I simply cannot get the temperature to drop further without is solidifying.

What am I doing wrong?

updated by @Julie Fisher: 04/11/25 09:27:36

Bar Codes

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

You can purchase UPC bar codes from some third party sellers. One I've used is ez upc:

https://ezupc.com

They just give you some image files (.jpg & .eps, I think) of the bar codes that you can add to your packaging, print on labels, etc.

Bar Codes

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

You can generate barcodes with GS1datadriver

https://datadriver.prod.gs1us.org/dd2/auth/Login.action

You will have to purchase a membership and there is an annual renewal fee.

Bar Codes

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

We need some help. We have a few markets interested in our product but require bar codes. What do you use? We have a Mac and it looks like everything is PC based. If we need to get an inexpensive PC, we will. Appreciate the help.

Corey

updated by @Corey Meyer: 04/11/25 09:27:36

A question everybody can contribute to...

Posted in: Opinion

Slightly off topic. But you said that customers use credit cards, even though they are being charged an extra 5%, without noticing. I have a small shop and normally we avoid stocking items that the big supermarkets stock... simply because they will normally be cheaper.

However some products we simply have to have, and even though we can be 20% more expensive, people will still buy them... not everyone, but enough. And I would say that over half the customers never look at the price, at least not in detail.

My conclusion: People are strange......

A question everybody can contribute to...

Posted in: Opinion

Andy;

Thanks for the feedback.

Hard core arguer eh? I resemble that comment! LOL

The credit card fees are low (about 1.9%). However there are lots of other "fees" involved when it comes to accepting credit cards, and all of them add up to almost 5%. My system is 100% web-based, so I pay a merchant fee (to Visa) for each transaction, then a gateway fee, then a monthly service fee, plus the cost of connecting to the Internet. If it were just paying Visa I wouldn't complain.

Last year I paid $20,000 in "fees" to accept credit cards and subsidize people's desire to collect airmiles. At $20 per average transaction, over 1,000 people would have to walk out out my doors without purchasing anythingbefore I break even with my losses in fees. That's a lot of people.

The challenge I'm faced with is that with multiple stores, consistency in the eyes of the consumer is very important. Accepting cards at one and not others pisses people off. One of my stores is in a marquee financial building in Calgary, and EVERYONE uses their corporate cards to buy things. It's crazy!!! You wouldn't believe how many people buy their $2morning Starbucks tea with their visa!! That's just ridiculous!

My manager at that store is getting pushback, and that is the reason I'm exploring the option.

Now having said all of that, I have given my staff the green light to begin accepting cards again, and have designed the cash register so that it just adds 5% to the total when the person chooses to pay with plastic. You know what? Nobody even looks at the invoice or cares about the increase! (at least not yet). Sales have gone up at the corporate location significantly (we put a 6 foot high sign up saying we now accept visa and mastercard), and at our other stores, revenue has remained flat, but the split has become about 50/50 between cards and cash.

My conclusion: People are strange......

Brad

A question everybody can contribute to...

Posted in: Opinion

The real question is whats your split? We see only 10% cash here the rest is all CC, so is your demographic a huge cash basis or real even split? CA may be different than the US I dunno.

Making up lots of rules confuses customers. I educate card goers on fees from time to time but otherwise they just want their product and no one cares.

If you are also paying 5% for your fees you really need to find another provider. You have more power than you realize if you stick with traditional merchant services. You're a hard core arguer so you should really battle them. Or go with a one size fits all like Square, Paypal, Fee Fighters, etc.

Lastly I wouldn't raise your rates unless you felt that you weren't doing 5% more business by accepting the cards. I educate a lot of people at farmers markets. If you don't accept cards you have nothing to lose. If you accept cards and you do 20% more business, is it worth paying them 5% for that? They don't call it Cost Of Doing Business for nothing. Again though you should be able to get a much much lower rate.

A question everybody can contribute to...

Posted in: Opinion

I live in Germany and everyone uses debit cards. There are plenty of business with "cash only" signs. I used to use the credit card very often but these days, I really have gotten use to cash and debit cards. I really find it easier to keep track of what I'm spending. If it is impacting your business, why not try and implement a scheme with just debit cards and cash and see if it pays off? If not, you can always revert to the way it was.

A question everybody can contribute to...

Posted in: Opinion

The underground economy in Europe is not about credit cards, it is about TAXATION! LOL!

A question everybody can contribute to...

Posted in: Opinion

B

I have run retail chocolate shops for half of my 48 years. For those of us who went to public schools that is 24 years.

Accepting credit cards is kind of like adapting to the internal combustion engine & automobiles about 90 years ago. At that time there were still horses in use, but you really had to be backwards looking to believe that the trend to automobiles was not going to overwhelm everything and the horse and buggy would really become a thing of the past. Cash is the horse, and credit/debit cards are the automobile. It is what it is. In five years we will be accepting 90% of our sales that way. In ten years we will be pushing 99% credit/debit to 1% cash.

In 20 years, youngsters will not even grasp that we used to exchange paper money! It will not exist.

Raise the price and everyone pays it, just stop agonizing over the inevitable and focus on doing something else in your business better, and that 3 or 5% won't bother you OR the customer as much.

A question everybody can contribute to...

Posted in: Opinion

Debit cards rule here in the Netherlands. Credit cards are only wielded by tourists. But I still prefer to pay cash, and would appreciate a discount for cash. I think more of us should do so just to publicise the point that the banks are getting rich on transaction charges.

A question everybody can contribute to...

Posted in: Opinion

"... but for some reason I find it annoying when a place has a sign up saying they charge less when you pay with cash."

I also think consumers would be annoyed with the reverse -- getting hit with a credit card usage fee during checkout. I think it's pretty well understood that by and large we're a plastic-using society (for better or worse), there is a price to pay for that convenience, and it's expected that companies factor those costs into the price of doing business.

There's a regional liquor store that offers a 5% discount if you pay with cash or debit card. The cashiers consistently mention this at checkout and signs are posted everywhere. Customers love this. This offer (along with a great product selection) is effectively building customer loyalty.

A question everybody can contribute to...

Posted in: Opinion

I think it's also important to consider the cost of accepting cash, as it is a real expense and it grows especially with multiple stores, and high cash volumes. These include transporting cash deposits to the bank, the cost of internal and external theft, banking fee's (at least here, it's common practice to charge fee's for monthly cash deposits exceeding $10,000).

From the consumer standpoint I'd pick your option A.

A question everybody can contribute to...

Posted in: Opinion

I prefer to pay for everything possible with CC. It is very convenient for me to not have to carry cash plus I can track expenses. I do think most consumers have an idea of what it costs the vendor to accept CCs but maybe they don't factor in the Internet and equipment costs. That said, I still think accepting CCs is a cost of doing business. I can understand a small vendor having a sign up saying they only accept cash but for some reason I find it annoying when a place has a sign up saying they charge less when you pay with cash. Locally there is a place that does this for a commodity you can buy at various places. Their cost, even at their "reduced cash price" is higher than you can buy it elsewhere and pay however you want.I am also the customer who would not be incented to pay cash for the possibility of winning a basket of goodies. I look at those giveaways as a way for the store to collect my personal information for the mailing database.Where I live, I have not found stores willing to offer a discount either when I buy in bulk, buy an expensive item or pay in cash especially for an expensive item. I have asked! I can't see a store lowering their prices overall if they decided to not accept CCs - I think most would simply keep prices where they are and pocket the difference.Keep us posted on how you decide to handle this. It would be interesting to see the response down the road if you decide to offer a cash discount to see if it caused confusion with the customers (I.e. how much time do you take out of the day explaining the specifics to customers) or if they seem to really love it and it maybe boosts your sales.

A question everybody can contribute to...

Posted in: Opinion

This device was targeted at brick & mortar retail locations. I just looked into it and it looks like it doesn't really take multiple stores into consideration. All of the sales would probably just show up in the same account with no differentiation.

Side note: Square works on Android too.

A question everybody can contribute to...

Posted in: Opinion

I pay for almost everything in cash, when possible. Obviously i'm having a hard time sending $20 bills through the internet, they keep getting stuck in my dvd slot for some reason. must be a jam. anyway, CC's are terribly convenient, but, as you note, expensive. I've also gotten in the habit of asking merchants if there are discounts for cash - i was surprised by how many offered up to 10% discounts simply for me paying cash - now, some don't (any store that's a major retailer or chain, for example), and that's fine.

Interestingly, a few years ago my wife had her identity stolen and a bunch of things put on a CC under her name. the charges were reversed, yadda yadda, but we wanted to take it further and nail the guy. the CC company effectively said that this was simply the cost of doing business, and there was no intent to further pursue/prosecute it from their end. Basically they just told the criminals they've got a very, very low chance of getting prosecuted, making it such a tempting target to continue to do more theft. Part of those transaction fees are going to subsidize that cost of doing business.

A question everybody can contribute to...

Posted in: Opinion

Thanks Larry.

I Really like the idea of a draw for event tickets. That's an $80 value!

We currently accept corporate cheques only, as personal cheques here in Canada are more or less a thing of the past. Here in Canada the big thing is Interac (debit).

Cheers.

A question everybody can contribute to...

Posted in: Opinion

Square works great for sole proprietors, but doesn't work for multiple bricks and mortar retail locations with multiple staff. Square also only works on Iphone. Won't work for my application, as I have multiple stores and am now signing up dealerships.

A question everybody can contribute to...

Posted in: Opinion

As a consumer I (we) have been trained to accept that credit/debit card price and cash price should be the same. This is good marketing on the part of card companies. Deviating from this would require endless explaining.That said if I were able to be a consumer of your products, I think I could come inboard with a cash discount or another incentive such as a drawing for a class or box of truffles.Knowing that you have a loyal base and they are accustomed to exceptional clarity I think they could catch on quickly.Would I get the same price for a check as cash?Also just thought of an advantage if the mix of payment methods. Cards are faster than checks and sometimes faster than cash.Great discussion topic.

A question everybody can contribute to...

Posted in: Opinion

Someone recently mentioned to me that they have some sort of square in-store device so they can take advantage of square's low fees. While not an answer to your original question, it may be worth looking into as a way to lessen the difference between cards & cash.

A question everybody can contribute to...

Posted in: Opinion

Thanks Ruth. We actually do offer online ordering, but it's for pick-up in our stores. The online event booking does require credit card use. We have been accepting cards for event booking since day one.

You're right. Square is great for individual proprietors. I see it all the time at farmers markets and outdoor markets.

Cheers. Brad.

A question everybody can contribute to...

Posted in: Opinion

As a consumer, I put everything on a credit card because 1-It is easier, 2-I can track where I spend my money, 3-I get cash back at the end of the year (a percentage of all charges). I rarely carry much cash. I also pay off my card each month so I don't have any fees. I think most people assume the fees are built into the price. As a business owner, I have to accept credit cards. Online sales would be non-existent (I know, you don't do that). Also, at pop-up markets, which I rarely do, they are a necessity. Square is perfect, fees are low, and it is on your smart phone or iPad. Bottom line--I vote for B.

A question everybody can contribute to...

Posted in: Opinion

I am having the following dilemna: My business is about transparency, and I am struggling with the whole issue around accepting credit cards.

Simply put, credit cards are an expensiverip off. Both the consumer and merchant pay to use them. Small merchants pay close to 5% when all is said and done (1.9% to Visa, plus merchant fees, plus their internet connection fees, plus equipment fees, plus bank fees, plus the cost of their time to reconcile everything monthly).

The average consumer has no clue how much businesses are charged, because most merchant agreements have up until recently forbid the merchant from charging service fees at the time of the sale. As a result, most businesses have simply increased their prices across the board, building the fees into the overall cost of their product.

But what about the cash buyer?? 50% of my customers pay in cash. Why should THEY subsidize the person who buys $200 worth of bars on his Master Card?Mr. $200 purchaserdoesn't want to pay ATM fees, but they don't realize that the ATM fee is just $2.50, whereas the cost of that order to them for using their credit card is $10. The merchant certainly isn't going to suck it up.

What's worse is that as a consumer I don't see many merchants giving incentive to pay cash. Instead they are grabbing the extra $$ from the cash customer and hanging on to it. The cash customer is subsidizing the credit card buyer, and to me that's not fair.

The question I have is, AS A CONSUMER, (not a business owner) which option would you feel better with?

A) The price be increased overall by 5%, and cash purchasers offered a 5% discount.

B) The price be what it is and know what you are being charged for the "convenience" of using your card.

Personally, to me A is deceptive, but that's just how I am.

There is no right or wrong answer here. I am just soliciting feedback.

Thanks

Brad.

updated by @Brad Churchill: 04/10/15 16:33:28

Sourcing chocolate in Uganda or Tanzania

Posted in: Classifieds ARCHIVE

Hello Alice, just seen your post inquiring about chocolates. Am from Uganda and i would gladly give you free cocoa beans samples from my farm. It will be cheaper for you to make the chocolates. You can reach me on steve@pinkfoodsindustries.com or Tel: +256-774-133427

Regards,

Stephen Sembuya

C.E.O- PINK FOODS IND

Sourcing chocolate in Uganda or Tanzania

Posted in: Classifieds ARCHIVE

Cacao is actually grown in Uganda and Tanzania, so it ought to be possible to buy cacao beans direct from the farms.

Now if you are only able to work with blocks of chocolate mass, then it must surely be possible to arrange a deal with a chocolate maker, who wants good cacao beans and or a contact locally. to swap one for the other in some way. I know that this may be a lot more involved than you had intended. But otherwise, that is why you have to pay so much more.

I would seriously look at the possibility of working with beans direct from the farm.

Sourcing chocolate in Uganda or Tanzania

Posted in: Classifieds ARCHIVE

Hello all, new to here. I am making homemade chocolates in Kenya, but the cost of chocolate is prohibitive here. Does anyone know where I can get it in Uganda/Tanzania? At the moment I am looking to buy large blocks of 70-80% chocolate.

updated by @Alice Taylor: 04/07/25 13:00:14

I have been using a manual meat grinder. You run the beans through with no Mincing plates in. they crack in the auger Chamber.

I'm not even using a shop vac -- just a regular old vacuum cleaner. There werethree mods I had to make to the Dust Deputy to get it to work as an effective winnower. First, you have tomake some kind of provision to get airflow through the bottom of the DD (I do this by placing a couple ofpieces of polycarbonate (1/2" x 1.5" x 18") between the top of the bucket and the lid -- it lets air flow into the bottom of the DD funnel). Second,you have to extend the exit funnel (I just built a quick extension funnel with poster-board and tape), and third, you want to restrict the airflow on the inlet side when you are feeding. Both of these adjustments serve to increase the verticalairspeedwhich helps to get the husks going up while notbeing so fast that the nibs don't go down...it'sa matter of experimenting a bit and making fine adjustments. Good luck!!!

Classifying after cracking and before winnowing is a great step to increase the efficiency of the winnowing process. I have done it manually as making (or buying) the screens is significantly less expensive than buying a vibratory screener from Kason, Russel-Finex, or elsewhere.

Brooklyn Cacao uses (or at least used; I haven't seen the winnower working close-up for over a year) the vibratory screener because the integrated cracker was over-cracking and cracking unevenly. Putting the entire mass into the winnower resulted in very low yields and/over very low throughput. Things may have changed in the last year in those last two regards, I don't know. I see they are now offering a multi-stage vortex winnower but at something like $70,000 (or so I have been told) I think there are far less expensive ways to achieve similar or greater throughput.

One key is to run as much classified material through the winnower at a time as possible. Constantly changing the settings (the amount of vacuum) leads to inefficiencies.

You want to scalp off the large pieces (only partially cracked, flats), then pass through all the fines (and the germ). Work with the "hearts" fraction.

You can also pre-classify before roasting and before cracking to achieve more consistent results.

updated by @Clay Gordon: 01/22/15 07:43:22

For those who have used a dust deputy for winnowing, what horse power shop vac did you use? I am trying to set up now but am not getting enough upward airflow in my vortex to suck the husks upward into the second bucket. Thanks for your help.

Thanks David! That's very helpful, I've been looking into modifying a regular meat grinder, and it wasn't going to be easy. Would you be willing to share the battery-powered rotisserie drive and drive adaptor you find to work?

This is such a helpful hack, manual winnow feeding is not as much fun as it used to be

Thanks!

I am playing with designs for a winnower which pre classifies the mix and then passes into several gravity separation winnowers (classic down pipe with air draught type). I saw in one of Brooklyn Cacao's videos that they are using a gyratory (vibratory) sieve to classify, I imagine this is before putting the mix through the vortex winnower. Just wondering if anyone has any experience with these sieves? They look like they would be ideal for a winnower setup.

On the KitchenAid food grinder the auger goes through the bearing at the back end and floats free at the exit end, so it runs just fine without the plates in place.

I did find that the KitchenAid mixer, even on low speed, is faster than my winnower can keep up with so I either have to increase the capacity of my winnower (the best solution) or feed more slowly (the immediate solution). To accomplish the latter I found a $15 battery-powered rotisserie drive that is perfect -- I just have to make a drive adaptor to couple the drive to the food grinder. That's a much less expensive option than using a $600 mixer to drive your auger...

Hi David,

Great winnow feeder! I had been thinking about using a meat grinder for this purpose but have not been able to get around modifying the thick metal screen that holds the auger in place on all meat grinders. If this were kept in place the nibs and shells would backup into the machine and not exit. How do you keep the auger in place while at the same time removing the metal screen?

Many thanks for any suggestions!

Yes -but you don't necessarily need to make all the passes at the same time on the same day.

You can focus on the "hearts" fraction in a single pass, knowing that you're not getting the greatest yield. Collect the tails fraction (the heads pass is through a classifier) over a series of roast/crack/winnow steps, and then run several batches of tails through at once.

I think the mistake people make is that they think they have to do all the passes from a single roasting batch before they process the next roasting batch. You have to re-set the winnower for each pass.

Far more efficient if you run multiple batches through at the same setting.

Also - the feeding mechanism is what takes time if you're hand feeding the winnower. Fine some way to automate the feeding and you can get the process started and walk away from it. That's where you'll pick up efficiency after pre-classifying.

I see, I guess at the end of the day I am looking for more efficiency in the time category, but it does seem like all of these options will require multiple passes. Correct?

Steven -

As with everything, your mileage may vary and it all depends on your interest in tinkering and your skill levels. Even with the winnower off Chocolate Alchemy the yield will vary based on many factors - the cracker is just one of them (size variability and residual moisture level and roast level would be other). I would tell you to expect to make multiple passes to get the highest yield. How many passes will depend on your patience.

If you want to put something together yourself so that you can tinker and tune, then this approach works fairly well without requiring a whole bunch of mechanical or construction skills.

You may want to make multiple passes, you may want to pre-classify (or both).

That's the beauty of these approaches - you pick the level of patience you have various parts of the process and make your choices based on that.

All other things being equal, you're going to be able to get roughly the same efficiency out of these various approaches. The Crankandstein and the Champion juicer (as a cracker) each have their own advantages and drawbacks. You would tune your winnower (and process) to match the output of the cracker.

Is it efficient enough to get a crankendstien mill and the shop vac winnower off of chocolate alchemy? Or are these newer ideas going to be much more efficient. I am about to put a winnower together for my first time.

Rochelle -

Cracking on a small scale is a challenge most craft chocolate makers face.

Most people start with a Crankandstein . This machine, too has a reputation for over cracking, but it's one of the best solutions out there that you can buy.

John Nanci, over at Chocolate Alchemy, has been (pun intended) championing using the Champion juicer without the bottom screen as a cracker. (The link is to Amazon US.) From what I hear, people are pretty happy with it but it's not a barn burner in terms of throughput.

On this note I started a new discussion thread in the DIY group about two different approaches to building crackers that should be easy to do, relatively inexpensive, and, more importantly, adjustable.

As with any discussion on cracking and winnowing it's my experience that pre-classifying the output of the cracker before winnowing is one of the most effective techniques you have to increase yield. I have been recommending gold classifying screens designed to fit standard (food-safe) five-gallon buckets. With a little ingenuity these can be stacked, semi-automating the screening process.

I agree with Clay's numbers. Measured a different way, if I start with 10kg of roasted beans, Iestimate that somewhere around 8.8kg is the best ideal-case recovery (that assumes 88% nibs, 12% husk and germ). Starting with 10kg I usually end up with around 7.5kg of useable nibs after winnowing and germ removal -- that works out to about 85% recovery --15% is lost in the winnowing and germ separation processes.

Rochelle -

In Dave's single-stage vortex winnower, the majority of the fines will end up in the second bucket and not end up in the shop vac. But I don't think that's the question you are asking.

The percentage of dust (or fines) will depend mostly on the type of cracker you are using and something to do with the beans - variability in size, residual moisture content/roast. I use a multi-stage classifier to remove all of the fines before winnowing because I find it to be more efficient. But out of 10kg of beans I might get 50-200gr of dust, a mix of fine bean particles, mostly germ, and minute shell fragments.