Daily musings and writings from the Alchemist
I have a decision I am trying to make, and would like your input. Customer and non-customers alike. Please head over to the Forum and let me know what you think. I am here for you and don't want to offer or do something that goes against the grain.Thank you.
Refurbished Behmors will be available this weekend.
I don't take advertisements, and the following isn't per se(no money exchanged hands), but I am tossing in my support for it. Have a look. It could be lots of fun.Last Minute Special Offer: Come explore the origins of chocolate in Belize at Cotton Tree Lodge’s Chocolate Week. I live in New York and am a part owner of Cotton Tree Lodge in Belize and will be leading the May 17-24 Chocolate Week trip. Since we still have some availability, I am offering a severely discounted last minute special rate (40% off) to my fellow Chocolate Alchemy members. There are currently 6 spaces available. Check out http://www.cottontreelodge.com/belizetours/belize-tours-chocolate.htm for more details. Flights to Belize City are also extremely reasonable right now. I have found fares from $272-452 round trip including taxes from most US cities. Feel free to contact me directly at 212-529-8622 or jeff@cottontreelodge.com for more info. Hope to see you in Belize! Jeff
Just to re-iterate, this is from Jeff Pzena, a long time Chocolate Alchemy customer. Please contact him, not myself - I don't know any more than the above.
Have fun.
I am back from my mother's memorial service, and like is (mostly) back to normal. All orders that have come in since we were closed should go out Monday. Thank you again for all your understanding. So far, I like the results of the flat rate pricing for the Peru beans. With that in mind, I have put up special for the month of May for Papua New Guinea. Flat rate, at a reduced rate. $8.95/lb regardless of quatity. I hope you enjoy them and the price.
Refurbished Behmors will be available sometime this week. Just keep an eye. I suspect demand to be high, so turn around time may lengthen a bit. If it is too high, they may go temporarily out of stock just so I can keep up. If you wish to be on a waiting list, feel free to let me know and I will be glad to queue you up.
Happy chocolate making.
Hello all. We just caught up from the previous closure and now there is more upheaval here. On Monday my mother died and I will be traveling to Florida to take care of the memorial service and all of the associated details. Chocolate Alchemy will not be shipping again for approximately the next 2 weeks starting Friday, April 17. I hope and expect all orders that are in to to caught up by then. As usual, I will leave the store open. I will have limited access to email if you have an emergency, but absolutely no ability to ship anything.
On the lighter side, new spare parts and test coffee have arived and upon getting back and caught up, I will be offering refurbished Behmors again.
Hi folks. It has taken me a week longer to catch up than I wanted, but all orders since last Friday have now been packed and are shipping out today. Surgery recovery for Penelope is still proceeding so order fulfillment will continue to be a little sporatic but it is happening.
I hope everyone had a pleasent Easter, regardless your your religious preferences. Great day for GOOD homemade chocolate.
I hope to be able to offer up a few refurbished Behmors this week. It all depends how the schedule and my energy go. Happy chocolate making everyone.
I am back in town. Unfortunately, on the way back I and my daughter picked up something and spent the entire weekend in bed instead of catching up on orders.There have been numerous requests and questions as to when the refurbished Behmors will be available again. Probably another week to 10 days. I need to catch up on orders, my me and my family's health in order and then I will make them available. I am trying to avoid making them available only to have them set on hold for 2-3 weeks. That's it for now. Thank you everyone for all the kind words and emails. They are greatly appreciated.
Just a few notes before I am gone for a bit. The first of course is that we will be closed for the next week while I am taking care of family medical issues. As I type this, all orders that came in before 5 am, Friday 27, PST, have been packed and shipped. Any that come in today onward for the next week will not be processed untill I return. I am leaving the shopping cart turned on. Likewise, I mostly will be out of e-mail contact. I wish I could give some alternatives, but I can't. If you have general questions, as opposed to problems, eta questions and the like that only I can answer, consider stopping by the Forum. They are fellow chocolate makers and have a wealth of information.
The new crop of Panama is now in and available.
That is all for now. Thank you for all your kind e-mails, calls, words and thought. And understanding and patience.
Thank you.
We have a new large and beautiful lot of cocoa from Peru. It is Organic, Fair trade and has quite a lot of Criollo character to it, not to mention paper thin husk. Plus soft fruit aromas and flavors like banana and mango. I have a limited supply so I am also trying a new flat rate pricing scheme - $8.99/lb across the board. I will try it out for a month and evaluate it at that point. Maybe it will stay that way. Maybe I will cycle another bean to that pricing. Maybe I will keep it the way it is. Let me know what you think. I now have parts in for the Behmors, so will make those available again soon. I may hold off until I am back from my partner's hospital stay. I am not sure yet.
If you are not sure what I am referring to, please read this. The short of it is that my partner has had another reoccurance of cancer, and we are all hip deep in doctors, treatment, etc.
Some of you may have noticed a bit of delay in some of your orders. I have tried to keep up, and not put this announcement up, but I am simply getting behind. So, here is what I know so far, in regards to how shipping, orders, etc will be affected.
Surgery is scheduled the week of March 23 30. There will be NO orders at all shipped that week. I will leave the store open, you can place orders, etc, but I will be out of town with no ability to ship, and limited ability to respond to e-mails and problems if they occur. Previously it was the week of the 23rd, but it was pushed back and I will be shipping.
Getting ready for surgery will require me to also not ship new orders next Monday-Wednesday. You probably WILL see shipping notifications as I process the orders but it is only that. Getting the order ready. Nothing will actually ship before then. All orders currently in I hope to have out by next Monday on my trip out of town.
I don't yet know what the week of the 30th will hold. I am not sure what the following week will hold for us here.
Please be patient. Ask questions if you have them. I will do my best, but as before, my family comes first. I hope you understand.
Thank you.
Hi folks. I just wanted to put up a general note. I am busy repairing and testing a bunch of Behmors for existing orders, and processing and packing other orders also. But none of this will ship until next Wednesday, regardless of the automated confirmations you get. I have to be out of town starting tomorrow until then on family medical business. Your understanding and patience is really appreciated.
I have another refurbished Behmor in less than pristine condition. The Good - no roasts on it except the one QC roast and I am offering it at a further discount. The Bad - UPS returned this on with their own special touch. They banged the left side and door pretty well. It is fully functional, but the door isn't super smooth (they cracked a plastic bit) but should not get worse.
The Ugly - I replaced the left panel, but the frame is still not 100% perfect and there are some scratches.
The last one like this went in about 30 minutes. First come, first serve. Enter UPSDENT in the discount code at checkout for a $25 discount making it $174.00 plus shipping.
Also, a new origin will be in this week. A beautifully prepared Trinatario from Peru. Reminds me a bit of the Panama (who's new crop will be in at the end of the month).
And Santha now has stock of Melangers again. I am still waiting to hear what spare parts are available.
It's been a bit I know. New beans should be in within the next month. Some new Panama, hopefully some Ocumare and Cuyagua, plus two new origins, Nicaragua and Peru.
Also, I am offering what I hope are some very incentive laden deals on the Behmor. I have currently decided to not restock new Behmor for a few reasons. Room, sales (lack there of), and better deals elsewhere that I just can't complete with. But what I can do is this. Refurbished are now coming with your choice of 2-4 lbs of cocoa or coffee so you can get a feel for the roasting process a little more stress free. There is also a new smaller grid drum available that I am offering for free. And, last but not least, I have dropped the shipping weight so shipping costs will also be less. Just choose what combination you want and away you go. Oh, and because I have had the question quite a bit, the small drum cylinder is meant for smaller coffee beans, not cocoa nibs. The nibs still fall through too much.
Finally, on a first come, first serve basis, I have one Refurbished roaster that has a nasty dent on the front top. It doesn't affect roasting at all - it just isn't pretty. I don't feel right selling it for even the $199, so I am offering it up with a discount code. At checkout, (last page), if you enter the Discount Code: DENT it will take $25 off the total. Again, first come first serve. If the code doesn't work, someone got to it before you.
