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Ask the Alchemist #2

When do I press the cocoa butter out?

I have actually received a lot of variations of this question.  Somewhere along the lines,  the idea has gotten around that you need to press out the cocoa butter from your liqueur, dry refine the chocolate and then add it back.  Or that you are making chocolate by simply mixing cocoa powder and cocoa butter together and dissolving the sugar in.

I’m going to take a moment touch on both of those, then get back to the question at hand.  There is some basis for the first  thought.  In some processes, most common in milk chocolate,  cocoa, sugar and milk powder (if it’s a milk chocolate) are combined together into what is referred to as ‘crumb’.  This is then refined with….wait for it…a refiner.  This is distinctly different from a Melanger.  A Melanger refines (reduces particle size) and conches (aerates, mixes, oxidizes, etc) your chocolate at the same time and is what is commonly used on the small scale of chocolate making (ok, to be fair, it’s the ONLY option on the small scale currently).  A refiner on the other hand only refines the chocolate, usually by means of multiple rollers under very high pressure.  Once the chocolate crumb is smooth, cocoa butter is added (‘crumb’ by the way because with the proportions used the mixture is crumbly) to allow it to flow, and then it is added to the conche.  (And no, I have not found practical roller mill for home chocolate making).  As for making chocolate by mixing cocoa powder (that someone else made), cocoa butter (that someone else pressed) and sugar….well, that is a question for another time, but I will say I did it once (with the use of a Melanger and good quality ingredients) and can’t see doing it again as the result was bland, one dimensional and not good at all.  Now, back to the question.

This is one way it can be done…note, I did not say one way you can do it.  This is a pretty traditional way on a small scale, but the principal is sound.  And expensive.  You roast the beans, grind the beans into liqueur, place it in a bag (or two), place that into a heavy hydraulic press, and a few thousand pounds later (and very often after the addition of quite a bit of heat to get it to 140-160 F), you have cocoa butter (about 35-45% by weight of bean).   Simple huh?  No?  Okay.  Chocolate Alchemy is about approachable methods of making small scale chocolate and you won’t find that here as I’ll admit it is not very approachable.  Rather cool, yes, but not approachable.

So, there is another method known as the Broma Process.  In many ways, it is not a lot different from the various methods of removing the whey from cheese.  You put the cocoa to be pressed in a bag, hang it, and let gravity do the job.  Because cocoa butter is solid at room temperature, you need to heat the cocoa mass.   So, that is how you would go about it at home….and get maybe 10-20% cocoa butter – there is a lot of (interstitial attraction (google is your friend folks) so recovery is very low) .  Now, as I am wont to do, I immediately think of how to improve this, and moving right on to other cheese making techniques seem to be the way to go.  Like an actual cheese press.

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And personally, what I would do is place either the hanging bag or the press itself into a cooler or insulated box, along with a heating pad, and let it go for a day.  I’ve not tried this, and I am nearly sure there were be some technical issues to fine tune along the way, but that is how I would (and will.  It is on my ‘to do’ list) attempt it.

That all said, my pat answer when I am asked ‘when do I press out the cocoa butter’ is ‘you don’t’.  On a small scale, there is no real practical reason.  We don’t work with crumb, nor do we have a way to.  You never want less cocoa butter in your chocolate.  Many time you want more, but to get 4 oz of cocoa butter to add to your  5 lb batch of chocolate (as an example), you are going to need to press 2-3 lbs of cocoa (recalling the poor recovery of at home Broma Process) and then have a mound of cocoa cake that without a dry refiner to turn it into cocoa powder (yep, that is where cocoa powder comes from, a WASTE product of cocoa butter), you really will not have a lot of use for.  WAY easier (yes, I know it’s not all about easy, but that is a consideration you have to admit) to just buy the cocoa butter you need.

But of course, I will be the first to admit it’s fun to play around, experiment and see what you can do.  I think the above will get you going if you want to try.  Just don’t think  you have to press the cocoa butter out to make chocolate.

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New Origin - Organic Nicaragua 2012

That brings the currently number of cocoa bean offerings to a baker's dozen. "..... As a chocolate, the nuttiness stays on, along with the richness of medjool dates, molasses and interesting tobacco (leaf not smoke) notes...."

As always, it's available Retail, Wholesale, and both raw and roasted.

And I have confirmation that the alluded to container of Venezuelan are just about to hit the water.  It is all loaded and should arrive and be available sometime late September.  At which point another 4-5 cocoa bean types will be available. ven-container.jpg

And one other thing I will toss out there.  I have been experimenting with the Premier Wonder stone wet grinder.

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I've actually been using one continuously for a year now.  Totally unmodified.  And it is working fantastic as a Melanger.  Why isn't it on the site you ask?  Well, there is an up side and a down side.  The up side is that it is UNDER $200.  And will refine 7-8 lbs of chocolate.  The down side is that the manufacture will not warranty it for chocolate.  So, if you go get it, mums the word about what you are using it for.  The don't say they exclude chocolate, but when they noticed the name (Chocolate Alchemy) they asked and I don't lie, and they said it would not be sold with a warranty.  So, as I said, mums the word.

That all said, I've run it hard.  It takes (warmed) nibs into liqueur great and fast.  It does not over heat.  It can run days on end.  And it's both half the weight (25 lbs total) and less than have the price of the 'official' Melangers but refines almost the same amount (about 80%).

So, if you get one, I would LOVE hearing about it.  Mine of course is just a single data point, but it's been great.

BTW, Psst, if you are into it, we are also now (finally) on Facebook.  If not, no worries, everything will still be posted here and via e-mail as before.

Cheers

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Ask the Alchemist #1

Queue music

drum roll please

curtain opening

I'd like to announce what I hope will be a weekly, and on-going, new tradition.  Ask the Alchemist.  I answer questions.  I do it every single day.  As many of you hear, it's why I am here.  It is never an imposition.  Questions are never stupid (that is NOT a challenge).  I love doing it.  Teaching.  Passing along what I know.  And researching when I don't know something.  Over the years, I've tried to keep a weekly, or monthly or quarterly tradition going...and often one thing or another happens and it falls by the way side.  Well, I've noticed i can and do answer questions a lot, and I keep up on it, and it feels right that I can do this.  So, here it is.  "Ask the Alchemist".  Every Wednesday, I will post a question I have received along with the answer.  In some cases it may point you to more detailed answers somewhere else, but the base answer will be here.  At some point down the road I will probably actively solicit questions, but until then I will be pulling from a store of questions that I have been collecting, whose answers will be both informative and entertaining if I get so lucky.

Without further ado,

Ask the Alchemist #1

“Can I use the traditionally method of hand grinding with a metate or large mortar and pestle to make chocolate? “

Well, this really requires picking the question apart, and trying to divine the intended meaning.  Why?  Because otherwise “Yes” is a boring answer and vastly misleading.  “No” – also boring and again misleading.

So, what I suspect you mean is ‘Can I make modern chocolate with a traditional Metate?’.  The answer to this is no.  Note "modern" does not go well with "traditional" in this case. It’s mostly because a traditional metate was never used to make modern chocolate.  It was used to pulverize the cocoa beans into a mass, often along with sugar and spices, that was then rolled into balls, and then grated into a hot liquid to make traditional ‘hot chocolate’.  In the balls, it was coarse and gritty and not modern chocolate.

As for the mortar and pestle….well, given the relation to alchemy and all, I certainly understand why this comes up (I myself even think of it and have tossed it around as a logo) but a mortar and pestle just does not work.   I have tried on many an occasion to make it work, but the little ones you can routinely find for the kitchen can hardly even get you to a coarse cocoa meal (and only hold 2-3 oz if you are really lucky).  Big (and expensive) ones can get you a bit further, but basically, the dynamics are such that it just does not work, as romantic as it may be.

Basically, keep in mind what is going on here.  You are trying to grind cocoa and sugar between two hunks of rock, down to under 50 microns.  A Melanger does this with a motor and at a bare minimum, it takes 12 hours of continuous grinding.    Can you grind by hand for 12 hours?  My hats off to you if you can, but I can’t and have yet to meet anyone that can.

So, if you want to try your hand at literally making ‘traditional’ chocolate with a metate, make sure you heat it up first, and give it a try.  It’s actually kind of a blast. And quite a lot of sweaty work.  Just don’t expect modern chocolate.  But I would not recommend the mortar and pestle at all.

Now,  keep in mind that the very first hand made chocolate I ever tasted was made with a metate and prepared as hot chocolate – and it was fantastic.  So  fantastic in fact that it eventually lead me to start Chocolate Alchemy.  But that is a story for another time (psst, right here if you would like to read it)

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New Ecuador and Honduras Cocoa beans

Both new beans are now available.  Currently I am designating them as 'Sustainably sourced' ("SS" maybe) - somewhere between Fair Trade and Direct Trade in that no brokers are being used, and I am dealing with the people who are working directly with the farmers and co-ops.  Premiums well in excess of minimum commodity and even Fair trade prices are have been paid.  I hope you enjoy them. Ecuador Mindo - Organic - 2011 Honduras - 2012

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Upcoming beans

I am back from China and catching up on orders, e-mails and such.  Once that is all taken care of, I will have two new beans available, both being sourced one step closer to the farmers.  Not quite direct trade (although well above FT prices), but in both cases from micro lots that were purchased from those who worked directly with the farmers.   Here is a little about the one from Mindo Ecuador "Mindo selects only certified organic, shade grown Nacional beans. We also select only the healthy beans. We see the beans in the fruit and do not purchase beans that are not in excellent condition. The beans that we refuse are sold to cocoa bean brokers. We pay twice the going rate for the healthiest of beans as the farmers are used to selling the unhealthy beans for the same price as the good beans. Mindo ferments the beans themselves in clean cedar boxes and we dry the beans on elevated drying beds away from dirt and debris, unlike most beans in the world that are unfermented and dried along side of the road. Fermentation mellows the flavor and begins to develop the precursors to what we know as chocolate flavor. "

The other is a Trinatario from Honduras.  Great fruit and chocolate.  More on both later when they go up.

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No shipping dates 6/13/2012 - 6/24/2012

As previously mentioned, Chocolate Alchemy will be closed while I am traveling to China to put the final coding and production touches on the Brazen Brewer. I will be leaving both the Retail and Wholesale shopping carts active.  Feel free to order. Any orders in before 10 am PST 6/13 will ship that day.  Anything after that will not ship until I return.

Likewise, e-mail communication will be hit or miss.  Expect I will not be able to answer anything until I return.

Alchemist John

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New beans and the new exciting news - and one week closure

First off, although not terribly exciting, I need to announce Chocolate Alchemy will be closed from  June 15 - June 23.  I will be heading out to China on a technical consulting trip and will mostly be not available.  I may or may not be able to answer e-mails, but under no circumstances can any orders ship during that window. But, if you want to stock up before then,  there are two new beans in, both Retail and Wholesale, and of course, roasted and raw. "La Red" from the Dominican Republic - Raw and Roasted .  It has a solid, soft chocolate flavor, with tamarind and soft (as opposed to sharp) citrus (mostly lemon), with the occasional hint of banana.  The roasted nib aroma particularly has a tamarind note.  There is also other 'thick' flavors like caramel, toffee and caramelized sugar.

Venezuelan Sur del Lago -  Raw and  Roasted.  It is a complex, well-rounded cocoa that can make a luscious chocolate bursting with flavor accented by subtle hints of red berry fruit, dry cashew, toffee, caramel, a touch of pepper and most important, chocolate.

And with that note of  a return of a great Venezuelan cocoa, I'll move right on into more exciting Venezuelan news. A couple years ago Chocolate Alchemy carried a few varieties of Venezuelan  Cocoa that you may remember.  Mantuano, Patanemo, Rio Caribe and that wonderful cedary Porcelano.  Well, those came from a company that is now going by Tisano.  The owner of this company is Patrick Pineda.  Fantastic gentleman.  He and other will be on a panel, The Myths, History and Future of Venezuelan Cacao, at the FCIA (Fine Chocolate Industry Association) 2012 Summer Event.

How and why this is relative is that Chocolate Alchemy is currently working to be the distributor of the cocoa Tisano is about to bring in.  Very exciting.  Patrick really says it best, so here is the latest I have direct from him:

"We are working to buy from Four Co-Ops buying direct from the farms :
1) Tricheras - Former Hacienda broken up and the land is now owned by the farmers. They have a great drying patio and fermentiation rooms. Solid Trinatario.
2) Mantuano - Former Indian Villiage turned Hacienda for Coffee and Cacao now owned by the local farmers. They are about to finish building a centralized depot / collections center with drying patios.
3) Patanemo - Former Slave villiage - the slaves ran away from the surrounding haciendas and hid in the mountains and started a little town called 'Pas Tenemos' - We have Peace, which over time turned to Patanemo. A great Criollo pale white beans with specks of pink. We work with the co-op here doing centralized collections, fermentation and drying.
4) Cumboto - Also a former slave founded villiage tucked away deep in the canyons of the Henri Pettier National Park. The Farmers @ Cumboto were the guys that were running the Ocumare Co-Op before it got taken over by the government. It is a small villiage just outside of Ocumare - they have the same genetic varietals and consistency of the Ocumare you have grown to know and love.
 
5) AMAZONAS - This is a rich forastero full of flavour and considered to be a wild grown cacao from what many believe the birthplace of cacao. Amazonas is grown by an indigenous community two days canoe trip from the nearest road. We have to travel two days against the current in order to reach the town and purchase the cacao.
 
Tisano is working hands on with these farming regions and co-ops to promote new heirloom varietals of single origin cacao and support the farming communities by paying above fair trade prices and directly purchasing from the co-ops. 

We are also actively involved with development project to ensure quality and output of these regions continues to increase while always following organic and sustainable farming practices.
Our big initiative for 2012 is the creation of low cost drying beds that ensure beans do not go moldy and output can increase per farm to make the farmers earn more income per hour spent on the harvest."
If all goes right, many if not all (and maybe more) these will be in and available by the end of July.  I am actively taking orders if you know or think you want large quantities.  Please contact me directly for more information, pricing, etc.

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New Bean alert

Two new cocoa beans are recently in and available.  Both are available raw and roasted, and one of them I have decided to offer as a Brewing Cocoa. Bolivia - Organic 2011 - A couple months ago I had a beautiful, tiny wild Criollo from Bolivia.  It sold out very fast.  The is a different bean.  It's more traditional in pretty much all aspects.  It's traditionally grown, is of average size (95-100 g/100 beans)

Raw & Roasted

Ghana - 2011 It has hints of light biscuit, a little vanilla and of course the rather characteristic and “classic” earthy chocolate aroma.

Raw, Roasted & Brewing Cocoa

And of course, all of these are available in Wholesale if that is your need (excepting the brewing cocoa that is).

Finally, I will be heading out of town on Thursday for SCAA (Specialty Coffee Association of America) annual convention.  Consequently on shipping on those days, and likewise I won't be answering e-mails.  I'll be back and shipping on Monday.

And I will point out that I am going (aside from the fact that I love coffee as much as chocolate) that I have been working as a technical adviser/consultant/developer on a new product that Behmor Inc is bring out - The Brazen Brewer  -  and it looks very promising that it will work very nicely for brewing Cocoa!.  Check it out.  The Brazen Brewer.  And if you will be at the show, don't forget to vote for the People's Choice awards (yes, I am shamelessly promoting this) - Text ECON2 to 86677 to vote for Behmor Inc.

Enjoy and see you next week.

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Website Migration

The site will be migrating today to a new server.  There may (or may not) be some small periods of down time. Also, I've been updating some of the Alchemist Notebook pages - they are not linked in, but you can view them directly here:

Roasting

Cracking and Winnowing (with history of the Aether, plans, and more)

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Does size really matter?

David and Goliath? Me and Mini-Me?

Bigger is better?

The tiny powerhouse?

Frankenstein vs....damn can't think of a small monster.

Well, I really wanted a good one-liner there, but inspiration eludes me.  So I'm just jump into what I want to talk about.  Cocoa bean sizes.  As is the definition of 'average', most cocoa beans you will find and buy are of average size.  This generally means they are 90-110 beans/100 grams - industry convention and standard.  What I have for you today are two great examples of the two far ends of the bell curve.

size1.JPG compare.JPG

What you have here is a tiny wild harvested Bolivian Organic Criollo at a bean count of 160 beans/100 g and a huge Guatemalan Trinatario at 50-55 beans/100 grams.  Below is 100 grams of each:

compare-1.JPG

What does this mean?  Well, many things…and not much.  Huh?  Let me explain.

Neither will be inherently better or worse first off.  The small one isn’t inferior, nor is it packed with flavor because it is small.  Likewise, the large one isn’t large and tasteless, but neither is it better because of it’s size.  Both are simply notable.

In this case, the Guatemalan has a nice rustic flavor, kind of nutty and carries a unique bitterness, but also some great savory notes.  The wild Bolivian…well, in a word, just makes me happy.  It’s pretty mild, being Criollo, but has great flavors.  Toffee, very soft fruits, butter and blueberries.  And it melds all together seamlessly…and makes me smile.  Plus it’s so damn cute.

OK, from a practical standpoint, you may find the Guatemalan’s may not feed as well in the Crankandstein, whereas the Bolivia will feed great, but both will crack just fine in the Champion.  After that, you will find they both basically winnow the same.  You might expect that because the Bolivian is so small, there ratio of husk to nib would be high, giving you less nib than normal…but thankfully that is not the case since it is a Criollo and one with a particularly light thin husk.  Both turn out to give right around 80% nib.

Finally, I should make a note that both of these are of a limited nature.  When they are gone, they may well be gone for good.

I really hope you try them, enjoy them and that they make you happy.

And as a reminder, Refurbished Behmor 1600s are now readily available.

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Catching up

Everything is back up and running after being down for more than I expected.  TWO failed hard drives....but nothing lost.  It will probably take me a few days to catch up on all orders and e-mail.  Any roasted or brewing cocoa will be delayed a little longer simply due to time constraints.  Thank you in advance for understanding.  Hopefully those can go out by Wednesday, or at worst Thursday. Thanks.

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Technical delays

Hi folks.  This is not how I wanted to head out of town and to the Chocolate Fest, but.... I am having computer issues, and my main system is going into the shop while I am away.  Unforunately that leaves me unable to fulfill a handful of orders or tell people directly that their orders are delayed.  My apologies.  That said, orders from January 17 (order number 7362 and higher) on won't be going out until I return on Monday, or possibly Tuesday.

And likewise I will not be answering e-mail until I am back.

On a better note, there will  be new Behmor 1600's available next week (I've made them available now) and a brand new origin cocoa - from Guatemala. 

This particular cocoa is very round and big with a nice mild flavor.  They come from a coop in Cahabn, Guatemala. Cahabn lies in the Alta Verapaz mountain chain in the state of Coban.  The people in the coop that grow these beans are from the indigenous tribe Kekchi Maya who are used to consuming cocoa in drink form as done in their culture for thousands of years.  They were in the past paid only very little for their cocoa by local brokers but now a contract has been drawn up which allows them to receive 4 times the price more.  All this extra money goes direct to the coop.  Much of the money pays for school for the children of the coop's members.  The extra income from their cocoa also will allow these people to plant more cocoa trees in some of the deforested lands in their area.

Until the other side.

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Chocolate Fest 2012

I will be attending Chocolate Fest in Portland on January 20-21.  Drop me a line if you will be there - we can see about meeting up and talking and tasting real chocolate. BTW - no booth - I'm 'just' attending.  (hint, look for the chocolate colored kilt)

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