Forum Activity for @Ash Maki

Superheated steam roasters

Posted in: Opinion

from what I am hearing/reading roasting with super heated steam in something like the roastech r100e can achieve similar results as a medium roast in an oven but maintains a much higher level of polyphenols and supposedly up to 40% less loss of flavanols... I would look at the fat not being degraded as a good thing... I guess just wondering how a 40% less loss would effect the flavor... One might assume that that would be better and there would be more room to pull out the flavor you are looking for... Really don't know just trying to learn more...

Superheated steam roasters

Posted in: Opinion

Well, i suppose that depends on what your definition of "better" is 8-) If you want a dark roast flavor profile, this is not the road you should take. If you want a lighter roast, it has it's merits - is it better? Well, especially when it comes to flavor - that's for you to decide!

Same for health - what do you mean by nutritional profile? Fat is part of the nutritional profile - this will do nothing to degrade fat. If you mean flavanols - well, generally speaking, water and heat are the enemy of flavanols.

The more precise you can be in your definition of what 'better' means, the more informed response we'll be able to provide.

Superheated steam roasters

Posted in: Opinion

On the bit of a larger scale... anybody have any experience with something like roastecksR100E?

[ Editor's Note: That's the Roastech R100E. ]

Superheated steam roasters

Posted in: Opinion

Also, if you can find it, Moffat makes (or used to) cookie racks for their ovens that allow 8 full sized sheet pans. Or you can just add some simple brackets to achieve the same thing. I did it for mine and the temp distribution throughout is pretty uniform.

Superheated steam roasters

Posted in: Opinion

This is a very small (consumer) version of what is often referred to as a "combi" oven and that is often found in commercial kitchens. What makes the Sharp a little different from most combis is that it also includes a microwave cooking option, something that is not found in most commercial combis.

You can achieve an improved level of microbial kill by using a combi oven with steam for a portion of the roasting cycle. You can get the oven quite hot, add the beans on trays, start the steam, and roast for a relatively short time. At which point you can remove the beans to let them cool and turn the oven down to a much lower temperature for the remainder of the roasting cycle. This way you can effectively achieve a lower roast profile while getting the benefit of the microbial kill step.

One thing to consider is that once the beans are cooled you could crack and winnow them before putting the nib back in the roaster. This could mean much shorter roast times as well as more even roasts.

If you want a larger oven, something like a Moffatt E32D5 will give you the steam option with a five full-size sheet pan capacity.

Superheated steam roasters

Posted in: Opinion

Pretty well micro scale but...

Superheated steam roasters

Posted in: Opinion

What about something like the little steam ovens from sharp sharp ax-1200?

Superheated steam roasters

Posted in: Opinion

I suppose my next question would be then using steam can you achieve a better flavor and maintain more of the nutrition as it says in a few of the reports I have been recently reading? as you have said on the light and medium profile anyways? Almost all of the roasted chocolate I try pretty much taste burnt to me... I would hope to get a medium roast without the burnt chocolate flavor coming through while maintaining as much nutritional value as possible... I notice a big difference in the way raw cacao makes me feel but do understand the need for heat in the chocolate making process... There for I would hope to compromise with a method that maintains the highest values of nutrition and flavor...

Superheated steam roasters

Posted in: Opinion

I wouldn't say it's new - i'd used them for many years, but not on a small scale. Excellent way to achieve an effective micro kill and get a low to medium roast profile. Anytime your'e working with superheated steam and pressures on a small scale, your costs are going to be 3x higher than if you were simply due to the safety elements necessary to prevent your roaster from turning into a bomb.

Superheated steam roasters

Posted in: Opinion

Hi there, anybody have experience with the new method of superheated steam roasting? Or the roasters them selves and wether or not it would be practical to acquire a roaster for small scale production... I have read that it is a way to maintain maximum nutrition and health benefit...

updated by @Ash Maki: 04/14/15 03:05:25

Conche question

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

Conche question

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

Variable. More then a couple of mm but less than the width of a finger (i know someone who knows that firsthand (pun intended) from putting his fingers where they shouldn't be while equipment is running).

Conche question

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

Can anyone tell me the gap size between the blades and wall of a Frisse or Thouet type conche?

Thanks

updated by @Mike3: 04/11/25 09:27:36

Starter cultures for fermentation

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

Interesting. I'll be up in NYC a bit next week, and more so the week after.. I'll have to look for some.

Peru in July - are you going down for the chocolate trade show? Someone offered to pay my way for a week if i came down to speak - and i'd love to - but i'm afraid it's not good timing for my family. Next time 8-)

Starter cultures for fermentation

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

Sebastian:

I will check into the pH levels with our master distiller when I am in Peru in July and get back to you.

Solbeso is now available in the US. We're registered for sale in New York and Florida and I think we can ship to 48 of the 50 states if you're not in NY or FL. LMK and I can send you the names of our retail partners who ship.

It's an interesting liquid. It has no taste of cacao/chocolate, but is reminiscent of pulp. 40% ABV, so it's formulated for use in cocktails but can be drunk neat or over ice (it behaves a lot like a brown spirit - water softens it and opens it up). Good cocktails are in the sours and international sours families. One of our signature cocktails is called a Beso Picante - hot kiss. Solbeso, lemon juice, orange liqueur, and heat -- cayenne pepper, habaero bitters, muddled jalapeo/cucumber ...

Solbeso also makes a great Michelada. We did one at Taproom 307 here in NYC during Beer Week -- the Midnight Sun Michelada -- that was lime juice, Solbeso, spicy tomato water (from pico de gallo), and a splash of Worcestershire. Shake, pour into a pint glass (salt-rimmed if desired), fill with a black IPA, and garnish with a pickled jalapeo slice and a lime wedge.

It also goes great as a beer shot/boilermaker with Cusquea lager.

:: Clay

Starter cultures for fermentation

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

One of the tricky things to manage - especially at larger fermentaries where the cacao isn't grown where it's fermented - is to be sure to manage the freshness of the beans. The second you split open a pod - fermentation begins. Jungles are wonderfully effective incubators, and there's yeast, mold, and bacteria everywhere, just waiting for you to open a sugary pod up and let them begin to feast. Typically the farmers open the pods, collect enough to transport, and then transport - if you're able for receive these beans w/in 8 or so hours of them first being opened, you're going to still have a high bris level (sugars), which is your primary indicator of how much fermentation has progressed. Acidity doesn't really start to play a part until the secondary and tertiary fermentations of lactic and acetic kick in - if you're observing pulp (juice) pH in the 3 range, it's a very clear indicator that either fermentation has been underway for some time (i.e. the beans were harvested before you think they were), or there's a significant disease/pest impact at play. I suspect that if you were to go to the farms and trace the supply chain, starting the clock from when the first pod is cut open to the time it arrives at the fermentation center, you'd find the time is considerably longer than 4 hours...

Edit - huh i've never seen solbeso - is it available in the US?

Starter cultures for fermentation

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

Sebastian:

T0 is when the pod is opened?

In our experience in fermenting juice for Solbeso, by the time it arrives at the collection center between 4 and 8 hours later, pH of the juice has dropped considerably into the range I mentioned.

Starter cultures for fermentation

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

The Rizeks are going to be the most advanced of the non-privatized folks to work with on this topic - they've got a very nice set up there that a member of this board helped them build in fact. Marcello Corno would be your main technical contact there, and they have a small micro laboratory on site at their main production facility. As noted, yeast selection doesn't really matter as long as the strain is viable, and it only needs to be viable for a portion of the fermentation as it will be quickly outcompeted by the other two phases. I've just reviewed some of my historical pulp pH data - now - and this is critical - assuming you've got relatively fresh pods, undiseased, you're going to have a 95% probability that your T0 pH will be between 4.74 and 4.93. That pH will drop over time as the acetobacter and lactobacter kick in, to be sure, but by the time that occurs that yeast's job is done (it's main functional job is to convert sugar to alcohol - which is important for a number of reasons) - but once that's done, it doesn't matter if the yeast lives or not.

Starter cultures for fermentation

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

Tibor -

Vicente Norero in Ecuador -- Camino Verde -- is offering several different fermentations from the same beans so I know that there is someone doing this on production scale and you can buy the beans and taste the differences.

Also, I have heard that the Rizeks in the Dominican Republic have been doing the same for some of their clients. I have not visited either facility so I don't know any of the specifics.

There are commercial sources for yeasts for the various alcohol industries - beer, wine, and spirits. Wyeast Labs is one source I know that several of my beer, wine, and mead friends use. If you wanna go all serious and stuff on this project, Lallemand may be a place to try.

One thing to consider when sourcing yeast for fermenting cacao pulp is that the pulp has a pH in the 3.5 range so you're going to want a yeast that is comfortable working at this level of acidity -- not all yeasts are.

Starter cultures for fermentation

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

The three things you'll need are yeast, lactic acid bacteria, and acetobacter, very concentrated. remember that naturally, there are dozens/hundreds of strains out there that are all competing with one another. At the end of the day, it usually doesn't really matter a great deal which strains you have (there are a few exceptions, but not nearly as many as you'd might expect with the thousands of combinations). while the callebaut work is actually being done, it's really more for marketing than affecting actual large scale results. others have been doing this type of thing for many, many years and are significantly more progressed in their understanding and usage of these techniques than callebaut.

Any brew house can give you the yeast, i've never looked for retail available acetobacter or lactobacter, but i'm sure they're available as well. It's important to understand the fundamentals of fermentation before starting to try to tweak the components of fermentation, so i'd encourage you to be certain you've got the basics of that down first otherwise you're going to just get frustrated and not understand why.

Starter cultures for fermentation

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

I have heard that Barry Callebaut is working with starter cultures for their fermentation that gives great and consistent results for their fermented beans.(like yoghurt, beer, wine, cheese makers)

I am not so much interested in the consistency part, however the it is very exciting opportunity to create required flavour profile for the beans, like microbreweries do with their yeasts. It gives the opportunity to work with desired cultures, not just whatever "falls" and multiplies in your batch of beans.

Does anybody have any info on this? Should it be possible to use starter cultures used in other products like beer? Where can I find cultures that I can experiment with?

updated by @Tibor Baan: 04/11/25 09:27:36

Keeping from blooming ~ in silicone molds

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

Thanks Brad I will try this!

Keeping from blooming ~ in silicone molds

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

The problem you're running into is that the silicone is insulating the chocolate and keeping it warm too long at temperatures which create different types of crystals. Your silicone molds need to be cool.

Keeping from blooming ~ in silicone molds

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

Does lecithin help chocolate keep its temper? Or is there anything that helps prevent bloom? I use silicone molds and the chocolate starts turning a lighter color after a couple weeks. Chocolate from the same batch that I pour into polycarbonate molds stays fine, only the silicone ones bloom. Are there any suggestions for this? Thanks!

updated by @Juliana Desmond: 04/11/25 09:27:36

Medical Marijuana / Chocolate please share your experiences

Posted in: Opinion

Personally all my experience is with butter various nut oils , olive oil and tinctures. That said I have found that roughly 190 degrees sees the least degradation of the cannabinoids. One process that may be of use is to actually make an alcohol tincture and then evaporate out he alcohol with low heat creating an extract. The extract can then be added in measured doses to warm cocoa butter, though it likely will need to be warmed first to aid in it mixing uniformly throughout the butter. Naturally the strength is going to vary by plant strain, and harvest so each batch has to be individually tested, but once evaporated it is easy to test for potency and determine the appropriate quantity of extract per batch of chocolate.

One thing to note is that using a super tincturing method is best. That is where you grind the plant matter and then add the alcohol until the plant is submerged by a good inch (typically 750ml of 195 proof alcohol to 1 ounce of mmj) blend well and place in a 3qt pot. place on ELECTRIC heating coil and slowly bring to med. low heat wherein you start to get pin bubbles forming. Lower the heat to maintain just a pin bubble and stir occasionally. Heat thusly for 12 minutes ( sometimes the plant may urge you to stop at 10 minutes or continue to 15 minutes - that's between you and the plant) remove from the heat and poor off into a jar. After it cools, strain and squeeze the last of the alcohol out of the plant matter. Notice you now have an emerald green tincture. Now you can use the tincture for in liquid filled bon bons and such or add to chocolate recipes wherein the low heat levels will naturally evaporate off the rest of the alcohol.

It is interesting to know that if you use 90-100 proof alcohol and the same process, you can actually kill the THC while keeping the rest of the cannabinoids such as CBD. This tincture comes out very tanic looking - brownish, rather than green. If you use dense couch lock type strains such as NYC Diesel or Bubblegum, or other heavy Indicas, you will get a powerful aid for insomnia, relaxing of smooth muscle cramps, aid for indigestion, stomach upset and wasting syndrome. It will also aid in the relief of menstrual cramping and other symptoms as well as for the easing of tension headaches - all with out the psychoactive high. I have not tried it myself but I would guess it might give aid in the other health issues in which CBD has proven to be effective medicine. Since this tincture has a higher water content it is going to be a bit more tricky to use in chocolate recipes, though you could likely pre-evaporate, and thus concentrate the tincture moving it toward an extract.

Medical Marijuana / Chocolate please share your experiences

Posted in: Opinion

Just dissolve the cannabis oil in melted cocoa butter instead of MCT oil, and mix thoroughlyinto the chocolate with a stick blender, before tempering.

I forgot to mention that the cannabis oil must be decarboxylated for edibles. This is done by slowly heating the oil to about 210-220F, until you see small, uniform bubbles appear. Continue for about 3-5 mins or until the bubbles stop. Now your oil is ready for proper processing by the human digestive system.

Medical Marijuana / Chocolate please share your experiences

Posted in: Opinion

Cheebs

Thanks for the detailed information. At this point in time we are more interested in producing a bar. So the next question do you add the oil to the chocolate as the chocolate is being tempered? or after the chocolate is tempered? or does it matter? My goal is to produce a bar with a consistant amount of THC of CBD

Thanks

Medical Marijuana / Chocolate please share your experiences

Posted in: Opinion

Cannabis chocolate is already very common in Holland, where it's mostly sold as a souvenir. It's just a matter of time until it becomes a popular product in legal and medical states in the US.

My suggestion for achieving controlled and repeatable results is to skip the infusion process altogether, and use already extracted cannabis oils. The ones made by reputable companies have been tested for potency and purity.

My personal experience with chocolate medical edibles was making a few batches of bonbons with a cannabis oil ganache filling. For the filling I just dissolved some CO2 extracted oil (4 grams for every 32 bonbons) in MCT oil, and then incorporated that into the melted chocolate. Ganache was made as any other. This was for a double-lung transplant patient who could no longer use inhalation as a delivery system. He wanted them mostly for anxiety relief, so these were made with a high-THC oil, but it can certainly be substituted with a high-CBD oil for other medical needs.

Medical Marijuana / Chocolate please share your experiences

Posted in: Opinion

I won another award.

Medical Marijuana / Chocolate please share your experiences

Posted in: Opinion

1. What do you want to know?

2. It already has

:D

Medical Marijuana / Chocolate please share your experiences

Posted in: Opinion

That's pretty slick.

Medical Marijuana / Chocolate please share your experiences

Posted in: Opinion

pour-n-pack is a single use, eco-friendly solution designed to produce and package chocolate bars. here is the youtube video showing how its used

Pour-n-pack april 2013.

Best

Paul

Medical Marijuana / Chocolate please share your experiences

Posted in: Opinion

Sure, send me a pm and we can discuss that in private.

The little elf is my daughter during her first Christmas.

That bar looks interesting. I've been pretty disappointed at everything called "chocolate" I have seen here in Washington. My experiences are pretty limited when it comes to that, but from what I saw, there was one company in the Seattle area selling medicated chocolates, and it was NOT chocolate. I didn't even want to try one after seeing hydrogenated oils in the ingredients.

What is your pour-n-pack program? I'm assuming you're in either California or Colorado?

Medical Marijuana / Chocolate please share your experiences

Posted in: Opinion

Tom

I do believe you have a very unique opportunity. Would like to chat with you. Can we exchange phone numbers? By the way, who is the little elf?

Best

Paul

The pic attached is a bar made by a customer using our pour-n-pack program.

Medical Marijuana / Chocolate please share your experiences

Posted in: Opinion

I do not currently have any practical experience making THC infused chocolates, but I have been looking into it pretty hard. I've done plenty of infused outlets and butters for medical purposes, but never cocoa butter. Being in Washington, I have a pretty unique opportunity. I have all the equipment to make bean to bar chocolate, I just need to devise a safe, reliable and consistent way to infuse the cocoa butter with the cannabis.I'm thinking the lowest cost option would be to infuse the cocoa butter directly with the dried plant matter. I think a sous vide system, vacuum-sealing the coca butter and flowers together. Heat to ~200 for 8 hours and then strain the cocoa butter to remove plant matter, and then send a small sample to get tested for potency. Washington state laws require every infused product to be tested for potency, so each infusion should be of as much cocoa butter as is practical, since potency testing must be done by a state licensed lab.

Medical Marijuana / Chocolate please share your experiences

Posted in: Opinion

I haven't made any of these products myself (not since college anyway), but in regard to your second question I think that answer is a very big yes. There are already a number of companies doing this. A quick Google search will bring up a slew of them.

I think the biggest holdup at the moment is that the legal issues still aren't worked out. For example Colorado is working on legislation that would require marijuana-infused food products to limit themselves to specific amounts of THC per serving, and I think most States are going to want to see something like this. This makes sense, but controlling for specific amounts of THC per serving strikes me as something that's going to be beyond the ability of most small-batch producers. Somebody's going to have to figure that out however, at which point I think this will turn into a niche, but sizable, market.

Medical Marijuana / Chocolate please share your experiences

Posted in: Opinion

As the debate heats up regarding the recreational use of marijuana, it is legal in 23 states for it use for medical reasons. Can any share there experiences with the group in making chocolate infused with marijuana. Second, do you think as more and more states legalize its recreational use, we will see more edible products, especially chocolate, becoming a "new" product category?

updated by @Paul DeFruscio2: 04/10/15 10:08:42

Whats going on with my chocolates?? Quality Control-Appearance concerns

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

Thank you for taking the time to respond. Great Info from you two.

Whats going on with my chocolates?? Quality Control-Appearance concerns

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

There's nothing wrong with it. When you go to temper it, the fat will melt out and, assuming you achieve proper temper, the spots will go away.

To stop the heat streaking, once you're at temper, use a spatula to thoroughly mix up the tempered chocolate, let it sit a couple of minutes, and do it again. You're trying to get a consistent temperature in all the chocolate. If there's a lightbulb or some heat source that's coming on durign this time, turn it off.

For the sugar bloom, you're going to need to stop the condensation - end of story. W/o seeing the setup myself, it's hard to say exactly what's wrong, but it will boil down to controlling your relative humidity and temperatures. There are condensation charts out there on the web that'll help you understand - at a given RH of your room or cabinet - at which point it becomes cold enough for condensation to form.

Whats going on with my chocolates?? Quality Control-Appearance concerns

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

Its untempered, fresh from the grinder

Whats going on with my chocolates?? Quality Control-Appearance concerns

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

That is fat bloom, caused by untempered, or incompletely tempered, chocolate. Not to say there' sno moisture present (it's hard to tell from the photo), but i'd bet you your next batch of chocolate that what is visable in this photo is fat bloom.

Whats going on with my chocolates?? Quality Control-Appearance concerns

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, Techniques

I did get a new baffle but I still have the issue. I am thinking about sending in my tempering machine to have them just look it over.

I am convinced it is moisture coming from somewhere on my production line. Maybe a few places. Here are a few more pics. After I grind the chocolate I store it in ziploc bags which I then store until we are ready to temper.

On these pics you will see what appears to be moisture that was caused by sealing the bags too soon. Does it look that way to you?

Also, What is the best way to store chocolate that has just come out of the grinder?