Forum Activity for @Clay

Matt -

You might want to look into the small business nutrition labeling exemption. As a small business (under something like 500 employees and $50,000,000 in sales) you are not required to put a nutrition label on a package, especially if it it's small. And I think federal law trumps state law on this. You do however, have to have the nutrition information available and it has to be easily accessible. But, I am not a lawyer and you should check.

That said, some retail outlets will demand it, along with UPC codes. Ingredients labels with allergen statements should be considered mandatory no matter what the regs require. 

As you are in the US you only need to really worry about internationalization if you find yourself selling outside the US. As near as I know there are no special requirements unless you are wholesaling to a retailer unless the retailer requires it for liability reasons.

Jason -

For such small quantities learn to do it by hand if you can't afford the machines. The experience you gain learning to hand temper will pay huge dividends going forward. In the end, machines can only do what you tell them to do. If they don't produce correct results and you don't know what tempering looks and feels like then you are not in a position to know why the machine "failed" to temper properly. 

It's not the machine's fault, actually. They are not artificially intelligent and cannot read your mind or evalaute the chocolate they are being asked to temper. They don't know the external temperature, or humidity, or anything like that. So they can't react to changes in ambient environment, for example, that will affect temper.

Finally - and I really don't want to dissuade you from pursuing your chocolate dreams, at this stage if the difference in price between a Rev 1 and a Rev 2 is straining your budget then wait and save until it's not an issue for you.

:: Clay

Brad:

If you go to the Academy of Chocolate web site you will find the criteria for what constitutes "bean-to-bar." Specifically:

BEST DARK BEAN TO BAR (%)

Open to manufacturers who use cocoa beans (as opposed to cocoa liquor, paste, or couverture) as their raw material in any of the three specifications below.

Please specify on the entry form which best describes your bean to bar product. This is for office information only and will not be disclosed to the judges. [Emphasis in the original.]

• Tree to Bar. Made from beans managed by the producer. This is the end-to-end process of manufacturing owned and controlled by a single business.
• Tree to Factory. Management of cacao at the source with a third party manufacturing the bean to bar process.
• Factory Roast to Conch [sic]. Bar made from beans purchased from a grower or an intermediary. All manufacturing processes i.e. roasting, grinding, refining and conching owned and controlled by a single business.

IMO, these "distinctions" make it possible for virtually everyone to claim to be bean to bar. As I interpret the guidelines, I could make a phone call to ECOM and get a container of beans - sight unseen - delivered to ICAM and have chocolate made and I would qualify.

WRT to Papa Chocolat - if Callebaut sources the beans and someone else makes the chocolate for them then it fits under the Factory Roast definition. That said, I can see how Original Beans, Idilio, and Åkesson fit the definition - they source beans and have the chocolate made for them - Factory Roast again. But it's harder for me to see how some others fit. And I am fairly knowledgeable.

To me, bean-to-bar means – at the very minimum – all stages of the transformation of raw cocoa beans into finished chocolate are performed under the direct supervision and control of the company claiming so. Secondarily, it means that the company actually has to sell product (bars) at retail in a package with their own name on it. 

I have long had a problem with the phrase bean-to-bar because of this malleability and I strongly encourage the Academy of Chocolate to take a long, hard, look at their classification criteria before the next installment of the Awards. This is because, in the long run, the context of the guidelines will get stripped from the award itself when it appears on a box or wrapper and the uninformed consumer will not see the asterisk that a knowledgeable professional might.

:: Clay

Please let me know if you've got a guitar cutter that you're willing to sell. I live in the Bay Area and if you're local, will gladly pick it up.

Ideally, I'd like a Dedy 7.5 mm base with a 15mm and/or 22.5 mm frame Guitar Cutter, please.

Thanks,

Annalynn

Larry,

Thanks for the warm welcome and the tips on the Dedy. The more I look into a guitar cutter, the more I'm inclined to purchase a Dedy and it sounds like I should go with the 7mm.

I've only been around TheChocolateLife for a week and I love it already!

Now, I'm on a hunt for that guitar cutter.

Cheers,

Annalynn

Hello,

I'm slowly accumulating equipment for the purpose of making dark chocolate.  Some equipment will be affordable; others, like a good tempering machine, probably won't be.  I've read good reviews of the Rev 2 temperer, but it is a little too expensive at this point, and the Rev 1 seems to have mixed reviews.  Any hints or clues about different low-tech tools for tempering chocolate would be greatly appreciated!

thanks,

Jason

I'd like to learn more about caramel making as well as panning and cream centers.

Annalynn,

I haven't used a guitar with the plastic base, but I was able to pick up a used guitar on here. It is a dedy. I love that thing. As a high-demand item it retained it's value and while we were able to pick it up for a few hundred bucks below retail, it wasn't cheap by any stretch.

As you can imagine, having the guitar helped us make far better use of our time. It saves a lot of time in cutting the pieces of candy and it is great that they come out uniformly shaped.

I think one of the best things about the metal framed guitar is how easy it is to clean. - I imagine that a plactic base one would have little pieces of chocolate, ganache, fondant, or whatever else you are cutting that would get stuck down inside the grooves. Yuck. Cleaning that out would take awhile.  With the metal frame, you just wash the top and bottom. - the grooves aren't an issue because they are only as deep as the metal is thick.

The dedy's come in two spacings 5mm and 7.5mm. this is the spacing of the grooves in the base. Depending on the width of your final piece, you may want one or the other. i.e. you can do 22.5mm on a 7.5mm base, but not on a 5mm base. Please keep that in mind as you look for a used one.

Welcome to TheChocolateLife. It's great here.

Larry

Thanks, Clay. I haven't heard/read great things about the plastic pieces. Sounds like I may need to wait for a used guitar. Hopefully something reasonable pops up soon. 

Annalynn -

There are not many options for small guitar cutters. One is available through Chef Rubber (www.chefrubber.com). Click on the Search box and type ' guitar ' into the search box on the next page. The mini-guitar plus accessories are listed there.

They are still not cheap, and one difference between this and larger options is that the base is plastic, not metal.

Final price - motivated to sell!

$500 plus we split shipping from Seattle. (Continental USA, Canada only)

if outside that area, you pay shipping. 

Sold 

My name is Jason and I really really like artisan dark chocolate!  My introduction to the world of craft chocolate was in May 2014.  I'm hoping to make some small batches of chocolate for family and friends over the winter, so I'm sure I'll have many questions to ask.  Looking forward to interacting with members here at The Chocolate Life!

btw, sorry about the way my profile pic is tilted.  I haven't figured out how to correct this

Trying to find some thing like this in the UK , would probably fly to the U.S. for it.

very little available here apart from callebaut courses and I'm looking for something more in depth .

Does anyone recommend or have any experience of the valrhona week long course ?

I need some advice in relation to Meltaways. I have had issues with Meltaway centers dipped in dark chocolate displaying bloom within a couple of weeks of dipping. Research has revealed this is a common problem and can be rectified by adding some milk chocolate to the dark chocolate for dipping .

I would like to avoid this if I can , is there any other way of preventing the bloom , anything I can use as a barrier ?

Id be really grateful for any advice anyone can offer .

Thanks in advance (and with anticipation haha) 

Dallas, you are completely missing the point here.

The point I'm making here has nothing to do with Bernard Callebaut as a person.  It has to do with HONESTY, ACCOUNTABILITY, AND FAIR PLAY in competition.

What REAL bean to bar manufacturer didn't win the award because a competitor lied and submitted product made by a large company?  Was the misrepresentation fair to them? Why should THEY be deprived of an award for their hard work?

Why would I want to compete if nobody is honestly representing themselves or at the very least there is no accountability or audit system?

What is the value of such a competition if people can cheat with impunity?

Forget Bernard Callebaut for a minute.  What if I said "Information has come to light which can prove that company X didn't actually make the chocolate they submitted and won an award with?"

Does it hold any less merit than my original post?

I don't think so.

It just so happens that I make a point of knowing my competitors in my market, what they do, what they don't do, and that my friend is simply intelligent business, and it just so happens that in this case the fraudulent submission is made by Bernard.

Over the years I've publicly pointed a lot of fingers at other people too.  If you lied in a competition and I found out about it I'd publicly slap you wherever I could too.  Somebody has to.  There's too much deception in this industry done in the name of selling chocolate to the consumer.

Brad

Brad, what has Bernard done to you personally that causes you to constantly attack him and his products? I would think one's time would be better spent improving their own product and offerings, than to belittle and criticize others in the industry. Have you actually worked for him, and he slighted you, in some way? Bernard has done a lot to put chocolate confections on the map in Calgary. Props are due, and respect is earned for what he's done over the past 30+ years in the city. 

If you think your products stack up, why not submit them to be judged? What have you got to lose? As you stated to me personally, your products qualty speak (taste) for themselves, and taste rules...why not throw them into the ring and see how they stack up? 

I currently use the Spectra 65. I don't have a good way to heat the nibs or the bowl, so I just use a heat gun to warm everything once I've added a small amount of nib. I usually run it for about 10 minutes or so and find that that heats things up enough to keep everything flowing until heat from friction takes over.

Over the years, many people have asked me to enter my chocolate into competitions.  My answer has been a resounding "ABSOLUTELY NOT" for many reasons - one of which is that there is no "audit" step with respect to submissions.

Simply put: contestants can submit anything without being required to prove that they actually made the product.

Case in Point:  This past April, the "Academy of Chocolate" held a competition where chocolate makers and chocolatiers from all over the world submitted entries to be judged.

These contestants spent cumulatively THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS to get their creations to the competition.  They also spent hundreds, if not thousands of hours crafting their wares to be judged.

...BUT DID THEY ALL???

WHO VALIDATED THEIR WORK???  After all, if the winners are going to proudly celebrate their awards in order to entice more consumers to buy their wares over their peers', shouldn't there be some kind of audit - some kind of proof that they actually did what they were awarded for doing?

...and what if it was revealed that competitors fraudulently submitted entries simply to be able to use the perceived "prestige" created by the contest and it's award?  Would that not taint ALL of the contestants' awards?

I don't know.  I think it would.

What I do know is this:  In April, Papa Chocolat of Calgary (aka Bernard Callebaut the person) submitted an entry in the 80% Bean to Bar Category.  That entry he claimed was his Peruvian.

What I also know is that Bernard Callebaut (aka Papa Chocolat) has never made an ounce of chocolate in his entire life, and currently buys his couverture from ICAM Spa.  Ironically one of the 70%'s that ICAM Spa produces is Peruvian.  Now... Add a little liquor to it, mix it up, and presto!  You have an 80%.

Does that make his submission Bean To Bar?  ABSOLUTELY NOT.

Could it be a mistake?  ABSOLUTELY NOT.  This man is the grandson of Eugenious Callebaut himself, and owned a successful chocolatier company with 20 stores for 25 years.  HE ABSOLUTELY KNOWS THE DIFFERENCE.

Does his blatant disregard for the rules taint all the hard work that HONEST artisans are doing?   ABSOLUTELY

I got into this business because of slimy, deceptive practices of people like Bernard Callebaut, and I will continue to speak out against them, because if even one single customer of mine sees his website, sees that award, and questions my claims, the poison taints MY business and MY hard work.

I truly hope the Academy of Chocolate sees this, does something about Bernard's lies, and sets the record straight.

Respectfully

Brad Churchill, a guy who REALLY DOES MAKE CHOCOLATE.

I find that preheating both the stone and the nibs (and keeping some heat on the bowl once in use) is very helpful.  I've never used the Spectra 100, but suspect the easiest way to do so may be to build a frame around it, and place a small portable heater inside it.

Speed is going to be a function of the details of your environment (how warm it is), your ingredients (how much fat is in them), and your formulation (lower fat formulas or those w/o emulsifiers will require a different approach than high fat, emulsified formulations).

Hi all,

We recently got our Spectra 100 set up and had a couple of questions.

(1) How do you pre-heat the bowl and wheels?

(2) Or do you just preheat nibs?

(3) Any suggestions on speed for first and second day?

Thanks,

ab

Hallo Ewald,

I know it is an older thread but if still available or if you have more info for me I would appreciate it.

met vriendelijke groet

Emile (emile (at) zartpralinen . at)

We are using the beans from Kokoa Kamilli, an excellent quality bean.

They are from Tanzania

That's an impressive collection of chocolate wrappers you have!  I see Lindt wrappers in there; I've eaten Lindt dark chocolate before.  Hopefully I can try some chocolate bars from other countries so that I will have those wrappers in my collection, too.   I will email you shortly.

best wishes,

Jason

Jason,

I'm really interested in exchange. Are you collector of every chocolate wrappers? Here you can see my album with wrappers for exchange:

https://picasaweb.google.com/100249768236254534179/WrappersForExchange

My collection contains not so much american wrappers so it's not hard to please me If you want you can write email to me (hercules176@gmail.com)

Best wishes

Mateusz

Hi Teresa,

I don't know how much is your budget. My name is tony from YOQ, Chinese best chocolate making machine supplier.If you still have the need, pls contact me by skype or what's up. I will give you more detailed infomation and hope useful toyou

Tony

skype: yoqtony

what'sup: +86 15150501878

email: cleopatra.tong@gmail.com

I'm just starting my chocolatier business from home and I'm looking for a mini guitar. I would also like to hear your thoughts/opinions about which brand to purchase and experience.

Thanks,

Annalynn

If you still need an enrober. I have a great Perfect Air-2 for sale. Lets talk.

To start with I may question if there would be an easily detectable difference between beans that have been roasted at 100-110C with the only difference being 18 or 20 minutes roasting time.

I may be wrong.

If you would like a suggestion:

Start with 10 minutes at 75C, raise temperature to 100C, hold for 15 minutes, raise to 130C hold for 10 minutes, discharge and cool immediatelty by blowing cold air (use a fan?).

You may try extending time at 130C to 15 minutes or raising the temp to 135C or 140C.

As always in life Your Mileage May Vary.

Hi Lesley,

I am also located in California and I am interrested in the Selmi if it become again availlable otherwise do you have more equipement or tools you would like to sell?

You can email me direct at cocoaglobe@gmail.com

Thank you

Hello Dallas,

Someone is wanting to put a deposit down for the machine and purchase it right away. You mentioned to me to go ahead with this if someone does want to buy it in the mean time.  I will keep you posted if the deal does not go through.  Thank you again for your interest and I hope someone else on here can help you find what you are looking for.  All the best with your new shop and new venture!~Lesley

Nicole,

So bummed to miss out on your guitar cutter. I saw your post the other day (my account just became active today) and I missed your update by about 5 minutes.

Enjoy your travels!

Best regards,

Annalynn

Hi everyone!

I'm Annalynn and I live in the San Francisco Bay Area. My day job is that of a Human Resources Professional, but I've decided to pursue chocolate making on the side again, like I did when I was attending university. I'm, literally, just getting started and I'm doing everything from home.

I would love to connect with a lot of people in the chocolate community and look forward to collaborating with  and getting to know you.

I'm certain I'll have a slew of questions in the beginning and hope you don't mind providing some guidance.

Best regards,

Annalynn

I've just started roasting new samples of Oko Caribe, trying a total of 8 combinations described below. Hopefully some of you will have suggestions for things to try.

First, about the equipment: I use perforated cheats in a commercial convection oven with excellent air flow, a single layer of beans on each pan. Prior to this I had used a Gene Roaster, a Behmor and a home oven. The Gene Cafe and oven get similar results at equivalent temperatures, often 20% below the reading needed for a similar roast profile on a conventional oven.

On to the specifics: in previous experiments I found that some cocoas do better with a drying / pre-heat phase. I use 20 minutes at 65C, the lowest available setting for my oven. For each temperature I have two sheets, one that goes through the pre-heating phase and one that does not. This time beans were removed at 18 and 20 minutes.

For the roast tests I was joined by a friend with a great palate. We hand-shelled beans from each sample and mixed nibs (I'm thinking of using a mortal & pestle next time) to get a representative sample without getting too wired.

Results:

pre-heated, 100C:

  18m: floral notes with peanut, coffee, fudge and brownie

  20m: more chocolate flavour, notes of espresso

100C:

  18m: sticky shells, beans still hard. Peanut, strong acid, green banana

  20m: brazil nuts (!?). fairly astringent but with a nice bourbon / malt, a slight smoke.

pre-heated, 110C:

  18m: nutty. spice notes: nutmeg, clove. some harsh acids. "warm"

  20m: minty, pepper aftertaste, less acidic, not very astringent.

110C:

  18m: pretzel (!?). Fruity acids, a favourite.

  20m: coconut. astringent; spice and espresso.

The next tests will be "no pre-heating, 22 minutes @ 100C" and "10m pre-heat, 12m @ 118C".

Is there anything else you would try for roast profiles or to change my protocol? Thanks in advance.

Long shelf life of chocolate products (products to be stored at 18-20C) is achieved by formulating recipes in a way that would keep "water activity" low. Product with water activity below 0.6 will not spoil as there is not enough available water for microorganism to multiply (it does not kill them, just stops them reproducing) and there is no need to add any preservatives. 

We make a very wide range of centres like ganaches, fruit based, nut based, with cream (we boil the fresh cream) with shelf life between 4 and 6 months.

A bit more info on water activity:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_activity

Reduced to 300. 

hi, I'm sorry to bring this up again, but it is a very interesting discussion. It appears you are all saying you cannot have quality chocolates with a 6 month shelf life. Whilst I understand what you're saying, I believe it can be achieved. I know an importer of fine chocolates, and one VERY reputable European chocolatier (I won't mention names for privacy sake, but I promise, it's not Godiva or something similar lol) makes chocolates (with ganache and all crazy fillings), with a shelf life of 6 months. These guys have won many presitigious awards in the chocolate industry. The chocolates are manufactured for praline bars in retail shops, so I am lucky to have access to the boxes they come in (where I can see the ingredients). The only "weird" ingredient they use is glucose syrup. Otherwise, it's all natural flavours. And the ganaches are made with cream, too. They are among the best and most natural tasting chocolates I've ever had, and I've sampled a lot of chocolates!

Unfortunately there's no single defined solution for you.  There are simply too many variables.  Are you going to sell wholesale?  Are you going to sell online?  Are you simply going to offer your products exclusively out of your store?  These all require different labelling, and the requirements difffer from state to state, and province to province.

Welcome to beaurocracy.

I've never made vegan white chocolate, but obviously the key issue would be the need to swap out the milk powder with a vegan ingredient. From what I understand soy powder is the usual choice. The taste would not be equivalent, but this is often the case with vegan foods. You'll have to experiment to get something you like.

As for the sweetner, I'm not sure why you are planning on using coconut sugar. If you are doing it to avoid the bone char issue you can accomplish that by simply going with organic sugar, since certified organic sugar cannot be filtered through bone char. Also, I'm guessing that organic sugar is less expensive than coconut sugar as well as easier to find.

Most likely your state Department of Agriculture handles the licensing for food processing. At least that's the way it works here in Oregon. In any case the relevant agency where you live will send you that info once you tell them you want to get licensed. I know that here in Oregon they actually want to see your packaging before they license you in order to make sure you've done it correctly. Again, in your state things may work differently so check. If they don't offer the info make sure you ask for it. There are specific requirements, but it's really not that complicated. Also, if you are a small business you are exempt from some of the requirements. 

In the meantime you might try this link. It has way more info than you actually need for your chocolate, but it's a good place to start:  http://www.fda.gov/downloads/Food/GuidanceRegulation/UCM265446.pdf

Hi all,

I was wondering if anyone can help me out with information about FDA regulations on packaging a food product like chocolate. It can't be as simple as just nutritional info and a foil wrapper. I want to start selling my chocolate but also don't want to get fined or even sued. I've read through the FDA website but it seems so generalized.  Any information of refernces will be greatly appreciated! Thanks.

Matt