Forum Activity for @Joe John

after the cacao beans are roasted, do they contain any butter?
is roasting done after the separation of cacao butter from cacao bean (by pressing) or before?

thanks so much @gap. you did explain that very well.

Think of cocoa beans as made up of cocoa powder and cocoa butter. That is what you're eating when you eat beans. The amount of cocoa butter can vary between ~48%-56% depending on where the beans are from. 

A 100% chocolate bar is made from 100% cocoa solids. This could either be 100% cocoa beans (usually that have been roasted) or any combination of cocoa beans and cocoa butter (both are considered cocoa solids and are added together to get the 100% number). Often, but not always, commercial bar makers add additional cocoa butter to a 100% bar - so the bar may be 90% beans/10% ccb or 80% beans/20% ccb.

As for which is more healthy - there is plenty written on this forum and others stating that raw cocoa beans are not a healthy option (google it if you want more info). There are plenty of nasties on raw cocoa beans which are killed by roasting. Also, some people consider cocoa butter (in the right quantities) to be a "healthy" fat which seems to run contrary to your comment above. All depends what you're aiming to get from eating chocolate I guess.

Hi guys, I need to pick your brains on this.

So, I've been hearing people talking about cacao beans (not nibs), to nibble on. I bought a packet for myself to see what's the hype. I usually eat 100% Dark Chocolate ... no emulsifiers, no vegetable fats, no butter, no milk.

Cacao butter is obtained from whole cacao beans, which are fermented, roasted, and then separated from their hulls. About 54–58% of the residue is butter.

Am I right in thinking that the Raw Cacao Beans have Cacao Butter in them, making them less "healthy"? Is it a marketing hype or am I missing something? Some people even "roast them slightly", to give them a classic chocolate taste ... to me, roasting is yet another "kill" of nutritional value, making them closer to a processed 100% chocolate bar, but with a worse taste.

My question is, are Raw Cacao Beans any healthier / better than 100% Dark Chocolate Bars?

The nutritional value of "raw cacao beans", which I bought, has the following nutritional facts (per 100g):

Energy (kcal) ... 583
Fats (g) ... 43,5
- of which Saturated (g) ... 0
Total Carbohydrates (g) ... 35,1
- of which sugars (g) ... 0
Fibre (g) ... 0
Protein (g) ... 12,8
Sodium (mg) ... 0

The nutritional value of the 100% Dark Chocolate Bar (per 100g):

Energy (kcal) ... 609,29
Fats (g) ... 54,82
- of which Saturated (g) ... 33,89
Total Carbohydrates (g) ... 0,81
- of which sugars (g) ... 0,8
Fibre (g) ... 0
Protein (g) ... 11,86
Sodium (mg) ... 0,02

I have to agree!! The EZ has simplified my production, also.

Hi, I've been roasting in a convection oven and doing alright I guess, but I am switching to a drum roaster and was hoping you all could share your final roasting temps?  Thanks!

Hi All-

Although I have tons of experience tempering commercial chocolate, I have had a lot of trouble tempering the chocolate I am making from the bean.  And I am getting ready to start commercial production so I was looking for a way that my staff could easily temper using a machine or by hand, and how I could explain it to them if I couldn't do it myself.  My future staff is likely to have no formal education and even if I had thousands of dollars to buy an automatic tempering machine, I thought it might be hard to train them to take care of it properly.   Anyway, I saw an article about the eztemper machine, and thought, can it really be that easy?  

Yes, it is.  It is amazing!  I pulled the cocoa mass out of the melangers and put into a bowl.  I let it sit for a couple hours until it was 32-33 degrees celcius and added the 1% of seed cocoa butter from the eztemper.  I stirred well and poured directly into molds.  My chocolate came out perfect!  Its going to be so easy for me to train staff with this machine!  So worth the money.  

So, yes, its super awesome!  

Thank you!

The Camera was a Nikon D3S

And the lenses:

Most of the pictures (75%) I took with the
AF-S NIKKOR 24–70 mm 1:2,8G ED

All the macro shots are taken with the
AF-S Micro-NIKKOR 60 mm 1:2,8 (the old one)

And only a few with the
AF-S NIKKOR 70–200 mm 1:2,8G ED VR II

Thanks,
Jochen

That's some impresive photographic and descriptive work! Could you share the camera equipment/lens used?

Sure, Clay: http://www.effector.ch/products_e.htm

I should use the smallest, 6 ltr basin. I see that they call it dipping maschine, I would be tempering and dipping with the same one.

I heve never heard of this type of tempering machine. Can you please post a link to it on the manufacturer's web site?

I'm interested in the Little Dipper. How long have you had it in use? Please send information to Jennifer@ExVotoChocolates.com. Thank you!

Hi Patrick, I am also interested. Please email info to Jennifer@ExVotoChocolates.com. Thank you,

Patrick,

I'm certainly interested as well, if you're able to send any pictures/location/ etc to BlueTableChocolates@gmail.com.

ben Johnson

hello,

do you have an email for the contact? we are interested.

or pm.

THIS ITEM IS SOLD>

I have recently upgraded to a continuous tempering machine and am looking to sell my little dipper. I will let it go for $950 OBO and I will cover shipping within the US.

Please feel free - and thank you!

Jochen

Results of experiments so far - http://forums.egullet.org/topic/151287-eztemper-the-help-you-need-to-achieve-perfectly-tempered-chocolate-fast/?p=2024120

That really is very nice. Do you mind if we share the link around?

You could make a nice thin transfer sheet under chablon piece and place it over the marks.

Hi Kerry,

I will try the different suggestions, although i may just end up leaving it with the weird cirle in the centre for now as the rest has a nice glaze, until i can afford some polycarbonate ones to be made.

Nicely done! I really enjoyed that!

Beautiful! Thank you.

Hello colleagues, I need your advice: I should start using Effector tempering machine: If you use it, do you melt all different sorts of chocolate to 45 C and simply cool down by seeding? Do you use fast mode in melting? If you keep your chocolate warm in it overnight, in which temperature? Which amount of chocolate would be best to melt in it? Full? Any other useful tips? Thank you so much for your help!

That is a great photo journal - thank you very much for sharing

Hi there!

I visited the cocoa in Bahia, Brasil and made a photographic documentary out of it: 

Link to the documentary click here! Enjoy!

Rgds.,
Jochen

I will delve deeper, a quick look on the web sight only stated Canada/USA, thank you 

I will delve deeper, a quick look on the web sight only stated Canada/USA, thank you 

The EZtemper ships worldwide and works with all voltages. It's the only one of it's kind in the world in this price range!

Does anyone know of a similar unit available in the UK? I have been looking at an automatic tempering machine to help speed the process up but this looks like it would be a lot more useful to me overall. Any advice would be much appreciated 

Thank you, I'm attempting another small batch today and will try to fridge them immediately

Its only the side in direct contact with the mould so i think its not cooling quick enough and the immediate chill will hopefully resolve this- i will post my results later!

I've found with things like honeycomb which are great insulators - that I get bloom if I don't get them in the fridge for a few minutes while the chocolate is crystallizing furiously. Milk chocolate seems to be the worst for this.

 Hello, I hope someone can help please

Over the weekend I have tempered over 15kg of both dark and white chocolate using the seeding method with no issue however when I come to the milk chocolate I am having nothing but issues

I am using barry callebeaut, honeycomb( not coated in coco butter) pieces set in the middle, vacume form plastic moulds ( polished)

I am checking the temper before use and it is always fine, the back of the chocolate and the chocolate itself once set is fine but I am still having issues with bloom? Can you get a bad batch from the supllier? 

please can anyone help! I cant upload an image as it wont allow me to? sorry

Food Bloggers of Canada recently published an article of mine on dark-milk chocolate - a category of chocolate that continually fascinates me: http://www.foodbloggersofcanada.com/2015/06/dark-milk-chocolate-a-new-chocolate-category-to-embrace/ This is a bit Canadian-focused, but still relevant to what's been happening the last few years with this trend.

In conjunction with the article, I published a list of dark-milk bars here: http://ultimatechocolateblog.blogspot.ca/2015/06/the-ultimate-list-of-dark-milk.html

If you know of others that are amazing or have great potential - let me know!  (or....feel free to send samples as well )

I have been scanning the chocolate industry again here in North America, and after the rapid launch of numerous bean-to-bar chocolate businesses has come a wave of new retailers (in store and online) selling large selections of bean-to-bar chocolate, as well as chocolate-of-the-month clubs popping up all over the place.  I have put them all in a list here:  http://ultimatechocolateblog.blogspot.ca/2015/07/list-of-specialty-retailers-of-craft.html. Admittedly, my U.K., Europe and Asia, etc. sections are sparse, and I am likely missing a few in North America - so if you know of others, please let me know and I'll get them added!  And if you have been thinking about this new wave of retailers, I'd love to hear some discussion on it! Jeffrey Stern's article on LinkedIn came at the right time while I was researching this, making me wonder what direction the industry will go in: specialty retailers or mass supply of craft chocolate at national chains? Or both?

For the very popular list of U.S. bean-to-bar craft chocolate makers, click here .

For the Canadian list of bean-to-bar craft chocolate makers, click here .

Lists for other parts of the world coming soon!

It is the 'big' flat surface. 8 by 8 cm flat is sufficient to cause a problem with a thermoformed mold which contracts differently than metal or polycarbonate.

You can make the whole surface look the same (however it will be matte not shiny) by using a badger hair brush (or my personal less expensive option - a Japanese varnish brush from Lee Valley). I suppose you could try polishing with ice water as well.

No contact - so the melter is still available. 

Thanks 

There are many cocoa butter benefits. Cocoa Butter(also called theobroma oil) is a pale yellow look alike of regular butter. Cocoa butter comes from the vegetable fat from the cocoa bean. You can eat it, use it as ointment,  use as s pharmaceutical, and plenty more! It does wonders for your body and I will show the benefits of cocoa butter, but first lets see some other things about cocoa butter…….

http://mycocoatree.com/cocoa-butter-benefits/

Cocoa Butter Nutrition Facts:

Serving Size : 1 tablespoon

Calories:  120

Total Fat:  14 grams

Saturated Fat:  8 grams

Polyunsaturated fat:  0.4 grams

Monounsaturated fat:  4.5 grams

Cholesterol:  0 milligrams

Sodium:  0 milligrams

Carbohydrates:  0 grams

Dietary Fiber : 0 grams

Sugar: 0  grams

Protein: 0  grams

source:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocoa_butter  and http://mycocoatree.com/cocoa-butter-benefits/

Facts About Cocoa Butter: 

1.  Cocoa butter fats are great at lasting a long time, it won’t go bad up to about 2 – 5 years.

2.  Cocoa butter is used in mostly all chocolates from white to milk to dark they all contain cocoa butter.

3.  Cocoa butter is made from the residue of roasting, fermenting,  and when they are separated from their hulls. About 50 % of the residue is used to make cocoa butter.

4.  Cocoa butter actually tastes just like cocoa and smells just like it too!

5.  Cocoa butter has a melting point of about 90 – 100 degrees, so you can leave it out at room temperature and it won’t melt.

Cocoa Butter Benefits:

1. Helps Sensitive Skin

If your skin cracks  or it doesn’t do well under climate change. You can use cocoa butter. It helps and soothes the skin of sensitive or dry skin. Most skin lotions have some sort of cocoa butter inside of it.

2. It Can Heal Diseases

It can help heal diseases such as eczema. “Eczema symptoms include itchy, red, and dry skin caused by inflammation. It’s most commonly found in children, although adults can get it” –  http://www.webmd.com/skin-problems-and-treatments/eczema/ . If you have this disease then you can use cocoa butter or lotion that has cocoa butter to help heal it.

3. Lots of Antioxidants 

: Antioxidants help fight free radicals and replenish your skin fro signs of aging or stress. For this you can use it as a lotion, an oil, or just eat it. Like I said before cocoa butter does have a lot of calories, so  would suggest lotion or oil form.

4. Better Shaves

If you use cocoa butter for shaving, it will make the shave more relaxing and smoother. You can use both shave cream or gel with cocoa butter if you wish.

5. Go Away Stretch Marks

Cocoa butter can heal stretch marks or some types of scars. It is actually recommended by doctors for women that are pregnant to use cocoa butter so they won’t get stretch marks after they are through will pregnancy.

6. Have Better Hair

Cocoa butter can help moisturize your hair, heal damaged hair, and help with dry hair. If you have problems with your hair cocoa butter can pretty much fix all of them. This goes for guys too! Guys I know that we want to look good wherever we go. Well your hair is one of the things any girl looks at first. If you have dry hair, unmanageable hair, or anything like that then use cocoa butter!

This is my full article from http://mycocoatree.com/cocoa-butter-benefits/