12th Night, tortes and the aztecs

How's that for a title? I celebrated 12th night last night (secular form actually) and for dessert I prepared a fresh Tabasco (bean of course) based flourless torte - just to die for.   I thought I would share both parts.

69% Dark Tabasco chocolate - 6.25 lbs 5 lbs of Tabasco cocoa

5 oz  Natural cocoa butter

30 oz unrefined cane sugar

Roasted the Tabasco cocoa in two 2.5 lb batchs in the Behmor, Profile p1, 14 minutes roast time.  Cracked the cooled beans in my Cocoa Mill, winnowed them and ground them into liqueur in my Champion Juicer.  I melted my cocoa butter in the Melanger, added the Tabasco liqueur.  I did something I have never tried before which was a little elevated temperature refining.  I put the drum and contents in my oven until everything was 140F.  I heated my sugar to 180 F (and no, is doesn't melt).  I then started the Melanger running and added the sugar.  Brought the whole mass to 155 F.

Now, before you try this at home, I have an aluminum center mount for the wheels (the nylon gets brittle) and have replace the seal on my Melanger (don't ask why I had to do that) so I can take mine over the 150 limit.  If you want to try it, just go to 145 or so and all should be good.

In any case, the extra heat helped to drive off some of the acidity of the beans, but more importantly catalyzed some nice acid induces hydrolysis flavor reactions in the chocolate and really smoothed out the flavor and bumped up the complexity of the chocolate.  The temperature only stayed elevated for 4-5 hours.  I think 8-10 would have been better, but I will have to play with that more.  I considered the chocolate finished at 20 hours.

The chocolate itself has some great liveliness and was deemed almost too sweet by some household tasters.  Says something for a nearly 70% dark chocolate.  I used 1 lb to make the following torte.

Chocolate Torte

1 lb 70% chocolate (homemade is best in my opinion)

2 cups sugar

2 cups butter

8 eggs

(If you like coffee, 6 oz of espresso can be added to the eggs for a Mocha torte)

Preheat  oven to 350 F.  For really even baking, make a 1" water bath with a 12" pan and get that also pre-heating. Pull your espresso and let cool if you want a Mocha torte.  Melt the butter and chocolate together.  Also let cool to room temperature. Butter and dust with cocoa powder a 9"  pan.  I find a springform or cheesecake (removable bottom) pan works well.

Whisk the eggs and sugar together.  Whisk in the espresso if desired.

Fold in the cooled chocolate mixture (chocolate to eggs so you don't set the eggs).  The "batter" may well gel up - kind of odd, but ok and what allowed me to put the nice spiderweb pattern on the torte.

Pour into the prepared pan and put in the oven (in the waterbath if you are doing that).

Bake 45 minutes.  Edges will be set but the middle may jiggle a little.  It's ok.  Remove and let cool.

This supposedly serves 16. It is VERY rich.  I like it the next day best. The rest of the  chocolate we molded up.  I tested out a new mold.  It holds 72 0.2 oz chocolates.  I will be selling a limited amount of these.  Look for them in the next week or so.  Someone (thanks Jasmine) got creative as soon as they were out.

Our Ode to the Aztecs.

We just ran out of Ocumare, and are very low on the Papua New Guinea . But the new Panama should be in Wednesday, and available soon there after.

Behmor 1600 now in stock

Our stock of Behmor 1600's are now in stock and all pre-orders have been shipped out.  I opened up and tested a couple units and there were as expected.  They now have a new clasp on the drum that I like quite a bit.  Much more secure.  I will get a photo up this weekend. You will see two options.  A non-labeled USA model and a Canada model.  The ONLY difference is that I have included and defrayed  a little of the Canadian shipping costs for our friends up north.

A few notes and reminders.

• 2 lbs is my recommended minimum.  Less than that and you run the risk of over roasting.
• Don't forget to register your Behmor online with Behmor.com.  It's is how warranty information is tracked.
• Don't forget to read your manual.  A lot of it is geared for coffee, but it has applicable information.  In particular, don't fail to do an initial "dry burn" before roasting for the first time and while you are not forgetting things, check the underside of the chaff tray for residual sealing plastic.  The factory sometimes leaves a bit and it smokes if you roast it.
• Finally, there are a number of "warning" labels on the roaster that are meant to be removed before roasting.  The glue used sometimes is a little too good.  If it is still tacky after you take it off, a little nail polish remover does a good job of cleaning it up.

And as always, if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask.

Behmor 1600 almost here

We have word that the newest (and ONLY) cocoa roaster has landed. We should have our stock tomorrow and all pre-orders will go out a day after that. I want to open a couple up, try them out, kick the tires and make sure everything is just like the pre-production models I tested. Once I am happy I will take them off pre-order, and they will be fully available. In the mean time, we needed some more space, so this weekend was spent rearranging and building new shelves for the roasters and some other new upcoming products.

By the way, that "thing" on top of the filing cabinet to the left is a Behmor in full "test" mode. I seem to have this thing about tearing equipment apart to know how it works. It's how to keep "on top" of things.

Oh, and yes, that is a Champion to the right. I use them too!

New Cocoa available

The new Mexican Cocoa from Tabasco is in. It has a really wonder Umami character and exemplifies savory. New in is also a very mellow one from Ghana. That's about it for now. The new Behmor 1600 gourmet coffee and Cocoa roaster is due in about a month. I am working on the review, but we are having some picture uploading issues. I will let everyone know when that is up. Overall, I am really please how well it is working. Drop me a line if you want to be on a waiting list.

Melanger's - get them while you can

As a reminder, we drop ship the Alchemist Stone Melanger's direct from Santha.  They have informed us that they will be closing shop for a couple months starting around the 15th of September until around December.  If you have been thinking about getting one or putting off getting a Melanger, now is the time to get one.

New cocoa beans and molds in

We have a new organic 2007 Trinatario from the Dominican Republic in. In many ways it is like the Conacado in that they are from the same origin, but the flavor is a bit richer and the prep is a little cleaner. Check out the full review of the "Hispanola". I also found a new 2 oz bar mold that I decided to offer. A picture is worth a thousand words. (BTW, if you didn't know, clicking on the picture will give you a full size version).

Just in time for Mother's day

Ok, not exactly the perfect Mother's Day mold.  They were meant to be, but the mold company forgot a zero (hey, what's a zero anyway - it's nothing), so we have a limited supply (5 actually) of these.  Not normally what I would offer, cut upon seeing them, they do have a nice bit of detail. On another note, we have sold out of the timer model of the Melanger very quickly.  I hope everyone got one that wanted one.  We still have plenty of the on/off switch models.

New Melangers are in - new beans on the way

The new stock of Melanger's are in and available.  Last year we had a few with 99 hour timers, but they sold out very quickly.  Those are available again, along with the standard on/off switch ones.  Should you get one with a timer or just an on/off switch?  I get that question a lot.  Personally I like the on/off switch.  There is less to  go wrong, and I have never had a time where a few hours more would make that much difference in a chocolate (i.e. shutting off over night).  But they seem very popular, and work just great. As for something to look forward to, we should have a new crop of Ocumare for 2007, in addition to a little of 2006 left.  I just finished taste testing a new bean from the Dominican Republic different from the Conacado.  The prep in the sample is a little cleaner, and the flavor profile is a little earthier.  And if the samples taste ok (one failed already and I turned it down) I hope to be able to offer some Carenero Superior in the coming months.

Finally, if you are looking for some wholesale quantities (150 lb sacks, thinking of starting local market?) of cocoa beans, I can offer both of the ones from the Dominican Republic (one which you have not tasted yet - see above) at a significant  discount (approximately 50%) off retail.  Drop me a note  and I can tell you more.

"Don't mess with our Chocolate"

I have been seeing this for a couple weeks now. If you have not heard, it relates to the FDA changing the Standard of Identity for a Typical Chocolate. The primary change that seems to have everyone up in arms (justifiably so in my opinion also) is the change to allow up to 25.27% of non-cocoa butter oil in "chocolate". You can see the full set of proposed changes Here. Oddly, there is another proposed change that on the surface looks just as bad, but in this case, I have to say I agree with to the point that I understand it. It concerns the allowance of milk substitutes. I get emails weekly from people that want to make their own chocolate free of milk products, mostly due to allergies. If I am reading the proposed change correctly, there primary reason there is no milk free "milk" chocolate is it can't be called chocolate. The change would allow this. I think this portion is great. I have made fantastic soy and even rice "milk" chocolate and I see no reason that as long as it is labeled properly, that it should be able to be called chocolate.

So, please follow the link above and tell the FDA what you think. I am personally against the oil substitution, but all for the alternative milk ingredients.

And on a small update, the Panama cocoa beans are almost out of stock, so if you want to try a smooth cocoa bean, you may wish to try it soon. Also, we are also offering Roasted Cocoa beans. Ocumare, Dominican Republic and Madagascar are the ones currently available.

Finally, the new shipment of Santha Melangers  should be in anytime now and available by the end of next week.  I will be sure to announce their arrival.

A few improvements and changes

Hi, welcome to the new and improved (I sincerely hope) site. A number of months ago, the service we use to manage Chocolate Alchemy site was hacked and became unusable to us. To make a long story short, we are now using Wordpress to handle a portion of the site. That means a number of things to you, my devoted customers and readers.

• We now have a search feature (look in the right column, and down a little) and as I can get them in, all the old archives will be searchable.
• Likewise, new announcements will be categorized for easier browsing.
• I should be posting more updates, because now it is virtually effortless
• If you wish to leave a comment or question, I will see it sooner as I am notified (but you will have to register - sorry about that, but comment spam is terrible).

As always, I have done my best to catch any errors before you do, but if you do see any broken links, please drop me a note or comment and I will get them fixed right away.

And now onto a little exciting news. We are now offering a selection (Madagascar, Dominican Republic, and Ocumare) of Roasted Cocoa Beans. The "catch" is that they are in larger quantities (10 lb minimum) to make it feasible.  If you want more than we offer (either in quantity [like a full 150 lb bag] or origin], drop me a note and I am sure we can work it out to get you the cocoa beans you want.

Finally, I have started to process of setting up a Wholesale shopping cart that will be clear and distinct from the current one.  Look for it a little after tax season.

So, what do you think?

Valentine's Day

As promised, we have a new selection of Valentine's Day Molds. There is a new heart mold, decorative filled mold, and Chocolate Kiss. Plus a new Leaf mold I like a lot.We have also put together a simple Education Kit for teachers, home scholars or anyone doing a project on chocolate. There are no further updates on the Melangers. They are still out of stock until mid-March.

The New Year

Hello, and welcome to the new year. I hope it is going well for you. We are through the holidays, and made it in one piece and getting ready for new things. Due to some unforeseen circumstances at Santha (they are temporarily closed for a trip to India) we are effectively out of stock of the Melangers. At least for USA models. Other models can still ship worldwide (actually, if you wish to pay an $100 or so in shipping, they could be shipped to the USA from India). After that, the latest ETA for the new shipment of Melangers is set the middle of March. Units with the 99 hour timer will then be available.

Are you ready for Valentine's Day? We will have a couple new molds (a couple new hearts and a "kiss") in a week or so. Keep an eye out. Now it the time to start planning that special chocolate to give to your sweety.

Are you maybe looking at starting a little Artisan chocolate company? Sell at the local farmer's market maybe? To help you get going, will are just finishing up the details to offer roasted beans. The "catch" is that they are in 20 pound increments and of only two varieties (Madagascar and Dominican Republic). If you don't need the roasting, then well also offer entire bags (60-65 kg) at a substantial (around 45%) discount off retail. We have always done this, but will soon have pages and links set up.

Finally, I have been testing a small table top rotisserie convection oven. It will roast 3 lb cocoa rather nicely. Not a lot of bells and whistles, but not very expensive either. I will probably be offering these up within the next couple months.

That's it. Let's see what 2007 brings.

Happy Chocolate making.

P.S. The new shopping cart system is going pretty well, and definitely has made my life less hectic. The only two glitches that have been uncovered are this. We have a Flat Rate USPS option. It is for orders under 8 lbs. AND when the order is only cocoa bean and nibs. It will show up if you have other items as it is a weight based system. Please don't choose it if you are ordering other items (molds and cocoa butter seem the most common). They do not always fit. Also, if you desire your cocoa beans as nibs, please select 1 lb as nibs, and increase the quantity to the amount you want. It is NOT like it used to be where you have to leave me notes. If there suggestions how to make these items less confusing, suggestions are welcome. I would hate to decrease options (no USPS or nibs) just to keep the errors down. Thank you everyone.

"Simplicity is Complexity Resolved" part 2

OK, I actually don't have anything to say about Simplicity, but the new dvd's and Digital Thermometer (perfect for tempering) are in Products . Briefly, it measures in both Celsius or Fahrenheit. The temperature range on this thing is amazing: -58 f to +1382 f ! It comes ready to go with a K-type thermocouple and a 9v battery installed. I have checked half a dozen for calibration, and at 0 C and 100 C, it was no more than 1 degree off, if that. Perfect for tempering. They (and the dvd's) are $30.00 each and in my opinion, would make great holiday gifts.

Product update

The new organic and fair trade cocoa beans are now in the shopping system and available with full Reviews. I really hope you enjoy them. In addition, we have two different cocoa butters in. The "natural" cocoa butter is from the Dominican Republic, and is both Fair Trade Certified and Organic. It has the most amazing scent. This makes the most fabulous white chocolate, plus just a great addition to milk and dark chocolates. Going the other direction, the deodorized cocoa butter is now from Brazil, and is a bit more mild in comparision to the previous batch from Costa Rica.

Four new Organic Cocoa Beans

You may have noticed there has not been much apparent activity here lately. I have to tell you it does not reflect what has been going on behind the scenes. I am very pleased to announce that we are now offering four new choices of cocoa beans, all of them Organic and most of them Fair Trade Certified. The full reviews should be up over the weekend and they will be in the shopping cart early next week. If you simply can't wait, email me and I will let you know the pricing and I will happily take orders. The first that I am probably the most pleased about is from the Dominican Republic, specifically the Conacado co-op. If that sounds at all familiar, I am not at all surprised. It is one of the Single Origin chocolates that Dagoba produces. This is the same bean. It has been one of my favorite commercial chocolates and I have been wanting to carry it for some time, partly so I can have some direct comparisons between my chocolate making and a commercial chocolate. It is a luscious bean with a lot of complexity. There is no particular astringency, has a good clean flavor and actually reminds me a bit of the 2004 crop of Carenero Superior.

The next is a fine flavor grade of cocoa from Madagascar. We briefly carried this origin a couple years ago, but sold out very quickly. I had the choice of two different lots this year and choose the one with a little more brightness and slightly better preparation. As I have found characteristic of this origin, there is quite a bit of bright fruit, in particular raspberry. It is a bit more subdued than the 2004 crop. The preparation on this bean is very clean and nice, and has an interesting red tone to the bean. This one is "just" Organic.

I was suitably impressed by a Panama this year. In a similar fashion to Panamanian coffee this has a soft round profile. It doesn't have a huge amount of complexity, but oddly enough it is what I liked about it. There is fruitiness (apple and fig), earthiness (light leather), chocolate (you know this one, but slightly "dutch like") and a little balancing bitterness (just enough to balance). The one thing that stands out is that on first roasting I thought I had either over roasted it, or simply mis-roasted it. But after it rested a few days, the flavors really melded and rounded out. I have mentioned it in passing before that I like to let beans "rest" about 24 hours after roasting before I proceed to cracking or grinding. I would recommend at least 48 on this one.

Finally, I have an origin that I have been per se resisting for some time. It is not really that I have not wanted to carry it, but hands own it has simply been bad every time I have tasted the origin. It seems most places that carry organic cocoa carry this origin, and I have never understood why – it is often bitter, astringent, poorly prepped and quite often just bad , but people buy it in droves because it is (trumpet sounding) ORGANIC. Well, as I have said often enough, I am all for Organic and Fair trade, but what matters to me is taste. Well this year's "Nacional" from Ecuador finally meets my standards of flavor. It is the most fermented Nacional I have seen. It still has a touch of purple, but is not waxing in texture like so many I have tasted. Even roasted lightly it has some "dark" flavors to it. There are some hints of roasted peanut, and the complimentary high notes that go with that. The is some astringency, but it is recognizable as a tannic like flavor, not unlike red wine The preparation is a little rough, a few flat beans, a few overly dried beans (they didn't stir the piles as often as they could have, and the outer beans dried faster) but in general it is ok.

Lastly, I have been receiving a number of requests for wholesale prices. I will be setting up a wholesale page that will be available those of you looking at maybe starting a small cottage industry. Wholesale accounts start at 25 lbs and full 60 kg bags are available at a significant discount off retail prices. I will announce when the page is set up, but in the meantime just e-mail me if you are interested in a wholesale account.

Fair Trade Certified Cocoa

Hopefully you know me well enough by now that you know I don't put a lot of stock into names and labels. That said, I have been trying to get some of this particular stock for some time. First off, I have tasted the chocolate from it, and it is a rather nice chocolate (Divine chocolate if you were wondering). Secondly, and where the "label" thing comes into it is that this is Chocolate Alchemy's first Fair Trade Certified cocoa. We are now certified through TransFair USA to carry and promote any Fair Trade cocoa (or other products) we obtain. I am not going to get into exactly what that means. If you know, great, if not, just enjoy the cocoa beans. They are from a Co-op in Ghana by the name of Kuapa Kokoo. As for the cocoa itself, it is a fully fermented Forastero, although from other indicators, I think there is some mixed blood in this crop. More on that in a bit. The aroma - significantly less astringency than quite a number of Forastero I have tasted. It has hints of light biscuit, a little vanilla and of course the rather characteristic and "classic" earthy chocolate aroma. In this case, the chocolate aroma is actually a rounder than previous years. Then again, I have not offered cocoa from this co-op before. There is also an interesting hint of lightly underripe peach or apricot in the aroma while roasting. I rather liked that. Please go check out the full Review

On a minor other note, we have run out of the Stone Melangers WITH TIMERS. We still have plenty of the on/off switch models.

Crankandstein vs Champion

One of the stages in chocolate making is peeling or separating the husk from the cocoa bean. This can either be done before or after roasting and is usually dependant on what kind of roasting equipment you have and whether you want to roast whole beans or nibs. For doing it at home, I did not like the option of hand peeling. I tried a number of pieces of equipment (meat grinders, rolling pins, grain mills) and either they could not handle the larger beans (in comparison to a grain of wheat) or it crushed the nib and husk so completely that the two powders could not be separated. The long and short of it is that I approached Crankandstein and they were able to modify one of their grain mills for use in cocoa - the Crankandstein Cocoa mill was born - "IT"S ALIVE" - sorry, couldn't help myself. In general, the Cocoa mill is what I suggest and recommend to people when they ask about peeling the cocoa or making nibs. It is a 3 roller mill meaning it has a pair of rollers set a particular gap to draw the cocoa in. One of those initial 2 rollers are also paired with a third roller to standardize the nib size during the crush. Finally, there is a slight differential in the gears between the two sets of roller - the effect of this is the pull the outer husk literally away from the nib as the rollers in each set move at a slightly different speed. The result is that you can crack about 4 lbs of beans in a minute and have a nice even distribution of nib size and large pieces of husk that are relatively easy to separate with a fan or blow dryer.

After a couple of years, the idea came around that it might be possible to use the Champion Juicer to crack the beans into husk also and thereby reduce the amount of equipment (and initial capital expense) needed to make chocolate at home. **Legal Safety Warning: Champion Juicer and Chocolate Alchemy specifically concur and warn that this is a safety hazard - you are exposing the sharp rotating auger to fingers and is NOT recommended for standard use. Do so at your own risk.** After a small amount of experimenting, I determined that by removing the bottom plate and running the cocoa beans through quickly, nibs and husk are shot out the bottom. The result are nibs and husk that are a bit smaller than you get with the Cocoa mill and a fair amount of general dust.

So, "Can I just use the Champion?" you ask. "I can live with smaller nibs, I am to be grinding it up anyway" you say. Well, that is up to you to decide. But what I will do is give you a little more data to make an educated decision upon. I cracked, sieved and winnowed a pound of roasted Cuyagua cocoa in the Cocoa mill and the Champion juicer. I filtered out any "dust" under 1 mm and winnowed the nibs in a bowl with a blow dryer, saving the husk for weighing. Here is what I found.

Cocoa mill vs Champion sieve analysis

Equipment

Nibs %

Husk %

Dust %

Crankandstein Cocoa Mill

81.3

13.8

4.9

Champion Juicer

74.5

12.7

12.8

And for you visually inclined, here are what those percentages look like.

Crankandstein Cocoa mill

Champion Juicer

I think it is obvious from the percentages, but the dust produced from the Cocoa mill is on the left

Same here. The Cocoa milled husk is on the left. Notice how much more intact it is.

What is obvious to me is that the Crankandstein produces less dust, gives larger pieces of husk and can give you less waste in the end. The Champion makes dust of some of the nib that otherwise you could make chocolate with. Now, we are talking about only an ounce or so of "wasted" cocoa, under a dollars worth. Is that worth anything to you? Well, only you can decide that.

I will mention three other pieces of data.

1) From a physical standpoint, I found it easier to winnow the Cocoa milled nibs. The larger pieces of husk blew away much easier and I did not have to contend with dust blowing in my face. Point Cocoa mill.

2) It took seconds to crack that pound of cocoa beans in the Cocoa mill (4-5 lbs/min) but about 1 minute in the Champion. Not a big deal for 1 lbs, but 10 lbs can be tedious. Two vs 10 minutes. Point Cocoa mill.

3) From other experiments, the Cocoa mill does not do a great job on raw/unroasted beans. It usually takes 2-3 passes to separate the husk sufficiently, and then you are still going to pick some out by hand. The Champion rips right through (with dust) raw beans. Point Champion.

And then of course, do you want another piece of equipment? Point Champion. Or is that a point? If you don't have a Champion at all, you can make nibs with the Cocoa mill, winnow well, and use the Santha Stone Melanger as I described below to grind the nibs. Or you have the Champion, crack and grind with it (might as well grind with it if you have it) and refine in the Melanger. Either way you have two pieces of equipment.

My personal recommendation is all three pieces. And no, it is not because I sell them. I don't play those kind of games. My duty here is to present information and tools and help you decide what path you want to take. I like the specialization each piece of equipment brings to the table, and the idea of using the right piece of equipment for the right job. A Mill for cracking - a grinder for grinding, and a Melanger for refining. But in the end, I understand it is a bit of money, and real world practicalities do rear their ugly head. Hopefully, I have given you a bit of information that will help you make an informed decision.

The "New" Stone Melangers are in

In no small part to Chocolate Alchemy, Santha is now calling their motor ventilated wet grinders Chocolate Stone Melangers. So, I will probably start referring to them that way. So if you see mention to the Santha Melanger, or Stone Melanger, it is the Santha Wet Grinder made and adjusted for us chocolate makers. To distinguish it solidly from their other line, they will only be coming in maroon but there is now the choice of a 99 hour electric timer. The regular Melangers will still be $265 (including shipping in the 48 upper US states), but the timers will increase the price to $295. And since I have not spoken about them in a while, the non-timer units are also available in 220 v and we can handle out of country shipping. Shipping varies pretty wildly out of the country, so please write and ask if you want to know the prices. In general non-US units are about $50-100 more due to shipping. In response to a couple of customers innovation (thank you Alan and Brad), I experimented with my Melanger this weekend, testing out how well it handles taking grinding nibs. Both Alan and Brad have modified their Santhas to a larger motor and reported being able to bypass the Champion and liquefy the nibs directly in the Santha. Well, I am pleased to report that the stock Melanger can also do the job. I have not pushed it to a high capacity yet, but check out the photos below of 2 lbs of roasted Cuyagua. The main "trick" is that you run the unit with no spring, or no nut at all. The weight of the rollers does it all and it does not bind up.

	At the beginning, the nibs running freely.And if you have not seen it before, that is the hot new maroon color all Melangers are now coming in.
	15 minutes in and it is just starting to get pasty and sticky
	At 30 minutes, the mass suddenly started to "flow". Still course, but flowing.
	45 minutes and it is quite fluid and getting smoother almost as you watch.
	One hour and we are where we would be with the Champion (except the few nibs that need to be scraped down).

All I did was put the rollers in, without even the top nut. I started the Melanger and poured in my WELL CLEANED (more on this later) nibs. After 15 minutes, I could tell something was happening. Thirty minutes in it started flowing and after an hour, everything was nice and smooth. I added the cap around 15 minutes, but I don't think it matters. I did not add any external heat at all - just the weight of the rollers and friction took care of it.

OK, Great you say - I don't need to buy a Champion Juicer. Well, frankly that depends on you. By using the Melanger only, you need to make sure your nibs are VERY clean of husk because you have nothing filtering it out. In the Champion, the liqueur comes out the bottom, and any husk you have left in, comes out the front. By eliminating the filtering step, the onus is completely on you (if you get nibs from me, they WILL have some husk left) to make sure it is all gone or at a level you can accept. The up side is you don't loose anything to the void in the Champion. If you put in 1 lb 6 oz of nibs, you have 1 lb 6 oz of nibs, not somewhere around a 1 lb like in the Champion. So, until I do more testing, and tasting, I will reserve judgment which method I like best, but regardless, there you go - another option in your Alchemical bag of chocolate making tips and tricks.

And something to look for in the next few days. I have mentioned you can either use the Crankandstein cocoa mill or the Champion juicer (another use for the Champion you may or may not want) to crack nibs. I have done a efficiency test, evaluating dust, husk and nib recovery using the two machines. I will get those numbers and pictures up soon....back to the lab...

you have those teeth but keep licking on my chocolate heart

Ok, so the title is a little odd. I heard the song on the radio today and it stuck with me. Anyway - lots of new stuff. We have two brand new cocoa beans types in.

There is fabulous Criollo from the Cuyagua region (near and like Ocumare) in Venezuela. This is what Criollo is all about and what everyone claims to have (but rarely do). It is fruity, delicate, chocolatey and it is without a touch of bitterness or astringency. The other is virtually the opposite. It is a smoky (dried over wood fires), heavy, deep Forastero (with a little Trinatario) from Papua New Guinea.

We are now carrying de-odorized cocoa butter (in addition to the Natural still) and the molding syringe I use when I make my own chocolates.

2006 Ocumare and Santha

Well, it was a short break. The new crop of Ocumare is in. It is extremely similar to the 2005 crop, to the point that I probably will not get to the review for a little while (technically it is a "late" 2005, and what we had before was early). And just a little other news - we will probably be up and down (especially the ordering system) for the next couple of days. We are moving servers and fixing some minor problems.

Also, if you are thinking about getting a Santha in the near future, you may wish to do so quickly. We have under 10 in stock and the next batch will not be in until around the beginning of May. But when they do come in they will have the much awaited 99 hour timer (the manual switch will also be an option still). I am not going to take them off the cart, but will simply mark them "backordered" and continue to accept orders.

Finally, the Forum seems to be a hit. So if you have not checked it out, please do.