Raw chocolate, conching, roasted beans and experiments....

It seems to be generally known I don't promote raw chocolate.  It's not that I don't approve of it (although I have some issues about it), it more that I just don't really care for it and even more so, just don't 'get it'.  Although they are not my words, there is an article that I and many others contributed to that spells out quite accurately what I think about it. The 'Truth' about raw chocolate

Item 2.  Conching.  Or maybe  conching vs refining.  I don't actually have any definitive to report here, but circumstance has started me on an experiment.  I'm on day five of a test involving using the Melanger as a conch only - no refining.  The short story is that I removed the tension nut from the Melanger with the intention of pouring up my finished test chocolate...and promptly forgot it.  12 hours later I discovered it was still running, the temperature had dropped from about 118 (note to those experimenting with raw chocolate - the Santha Melanger can refine at or under 118 F if your recipe has a lower enough viscosity) to about 110 F and stabilized.  I pulled a small sample and noted it had not over refined, but had changed in flavor...hrm...sounds a lot like conching.  I've continued to pull a sample every 12 hours and will vertically taste them and report back.

Item 3 - roasted beans.  I now have an old Royal #5 roaster on site, and all beans will soon be available roasted in 15-25 lb batches.  If you have a need now, before I get them officially offered, just drop me a line and I will be happy to accommodate.

Items 4 - experiments.  Mostly thinking out load of things to come.

Long vs short roast times. Again, circumstance tossed me an interesting piece of data.  When I tested out the large roaster I purchased, I did it without any controls.  The result was 20 lbs of beans roasted in about 8 minutes.  Later I repeated the roast with control and doubled the roast time.  Hands down, in blind tastings of the resulting chocolate, the 8 minute roast was preferred.  More fruity, body and a better overall dynamic chocolate.  One time fluke?  more testing...

More conching after my vertical tasting. Broma cocoa butter production.  This is a heated, gravity 'pressing'.  People have asked, I don't know, so I'll experiment and report back.

Winnowing - AFTER I have the current design to the shop, I have two other designs I want to play with.

I'm sure there are more, but that's it for now.

All American Chocolate - Cocoa from Hawaii

Well, to be accurate, I should really say cocoa grown in the USA.   I have a small amount of cocoa from Hawaii.  Specifically from Waialua estate on Oahu.  It's a tiny bean (see below) with a bold chocolate flavor.  Big chocolate flavor, dark notes, macadamia nut, soft lemon.  Check out the whole review.  Also, you won't find it wholesale.  If you have an interest (they come in tiny 75 lb bags), drop me a note, and we can talk about individual cases.  If there is enough interest, I'll bring more in.

On other fronts, my prototype cracker is working well.  I've had to make some minor adjustments in the top feeder.  I had to do some minor redesign as it was not working well with certain beans with a moderate preparation (PNG and the Conacado for instance).  I know many people are very anxious about both the cracker and the winnower, but design, research and inventing isn't a fast or linear path.  Or when it is, it's very expensive.  Just to give you a flavor of what I've done when I brought in the first design of the cracker.

Total failure.  It would not feed the beans.  I made a 30 degree change in articulate to the rollers, and it fed.  From hand testing it, I calculated how fast it fed, and worked out the gear ratios needed for optimal feed rate to the winnower when coupled to the Champion.  10 days later I had those gears and it was installed.

It worked great...for some beans.  Anything with hint of odd prep would not feed.  Days later I had a modification designed for the feeder - the difference of 3/16".  30 days later I had the part in hand.  I installed it and yippee, it feed everything...too fast.  The previous ratios didn't work  I articulated the feed angle 6 degrees - much better.  Now nearly everything feeds and at a better rate.  But still too fast for the winnow.

New gear ratio calculations were performed.  Parts ordered.  They are here and I am waiting for time to install.  Will that work?  Probably.  For sure?  Who knows.  It's an iterative process.  I'll be sure to let you know.  And although it doesn't show much, here is the current set up in my lab.  This week I hope to add a 2nd set of gears.

Odds and ends

The drawings of the newest (and hopefully final) version of the deluxe cracker have been sent to the shop for quoting and production.  Maybe I'll get some quick photos up to show it off. There is a new bean from the Dominican Republic in.  It will be up and available over the weekend.  It has a richness, and umami not unlike Carenero Superior, and quite a bit different than Conacado.

And just something to consider - Unsweetened Milk chocolate.  I made some the other day as a special request (yes I do take and fulfill some special requests) and it was surprisingly good.  The lactose from the milk powder is quite a bit of sugar actually and it was interesting.

On the other side of that, I am always getting questions about chocolate made from cocoa powder and cocoa butter.  Is it possible?  Of course.  Do I recommend?  Of course not.  Why?  Well, I tried a batch from the best cocoa powder I could find (a couple really, one being Dagoba) and the final chocolate left a lot to be desired.  Cooked (like boiled milk) was the main impression I was left with.  The cocoa powder was just to processed.  The other was a 'raw' cocoa powder (although it was roasted - don't ask me why it was labeled raw) and it was just down right disgusting.

Look for the new Dominican in a day or so.

Winnower update

Yes, it's been a long time coming, but it is coming along.  I've made a few discoveries (both good and less than good) along the way. 1)  The new Deluxe cracker (not yet available) that I designed to give a more even crack for the winnower works great.

2)  With the new cracker, due to the extreme evenness of the nibs and husk, I was able to reduce my air flow over 50%.  This amazed me.

3)  The new cracker is quite a bit more expensive than I had planned (high $100's).  I am working on scaling it down to the bare necessities to do the job, and am re-working the assembly technique in order to bring it back to the 'approachable' price level.

4)  Material introduction (cracked nibs and husk) are critical for through put and keeping a non-turbulent flow inside the winnowing chamber.  After 3 attempts, I have a new feeder (less expensive and simpler than before - round of applause) that delivers the material in a steady, evenly distributed  stream.

5)  I am looking into some alternative materials for the cracker.  It must be food safe, durable and hopefully affordable.  Stainless steel is 'easy' from a choice stand point, but it is expensive.  Down the road, it WILL be an option, but I'm looking into using some new hard food safe plastics.  Beta testers will be just that - testers to determine if the material(s) will hold up.  A clear, thick, hard food safe acrylic was suggested by my machinist.  It would certainly have a wow factor.  We will see.

6)  I've decided that when the winnower is offered, there will be two models.  One with just a feeder, where you must crack the beans however you wish.  One with the deluxe cracker.  Why?  Price really.  With just the feeder, you will loose efficiency and have to screen the nibs (what I do now) and sometimes (depending on the bean) run the leavings through a second time.  Basically you put in sweat equity instead of hard cash.  With the cracker you will gain through put, (no screening, no second pass) but will have to pay for it.

That's it for now.  It's coming together.

New Cocoa beans and butter

I have some interesting offerings coming up.  A selection of various Ghana and Indonesian cocoa that I had the opportunity to share with you.  I am still working out how I am going to offer it.  Maybe as micro lots.  Maybe some as blends.  Stay tuned. And as far as opportunities go, the same thing happened with 3 lots of cocoa butter.  Look for the standard Cocoa butter, plus two new deodorized ones.  The first deodorized one is similar to what I currently have, and has a touch of color and aroma (just a little mind you).  The new one is much paler and odorless.  Perfect for those that want just oil added to their chocolate without ANYTHING to change the flavor.  Both are organic.  I've wondered for some time what the deodorization process is - it is washing with hot water.  No chemicals, charcoal, solvents or the like.  Just water.  Nice.  Look for those by Monday. The winnower continues to proceed.  I found that my cracking (and lack of near perfect consistency) was inhibiting the consistency I wanted in the winnower.  So I've been working on a new deluxe Cracker.  Versions 1 and 2 are past and the beta cracker is being machine as we speak.  Once it's here, I'll incorporate it into the winnower and move forward.

I have been offering Roasted Cocoa beans for the last couple months on a weekly basis and it has gone pretty well, and I've not fallen behind.  With that in mind, I will be making all beans available as roasted in the very near future. And finally, it's been a rough year as you all know.  Shipping has suffered from only being able to ship once a week.  My plan is to get back to 48-72 hour turnaround.

New Products and Services

I've added an additional variation to the Venezuelan Sampler Packs - there is now a 4 lb version, giving you a full pound of each bean to experience, and it's discounted 30% off the base price.  Almost every week I get asked if milk chocolate can be made with fresh milk and I always have to answer no.  We now have in Organic Whole milk powder which is how it is done.  This milk powder has been spray dried which I found gave more of a full milk flavor and very little boiled milk flavor. And there are two up coming items.  I am going to be dropping the price (around 30%) of all the beans at the 25 lb level.  It should put them very close to wholesale bag price.  Very simply, I want you experimenting, playing, enjoying etc, without as many worries about price and rationing and this is something I can do to assist in that.

Finally, I know a lot of you out there would like to make the jump (or even small hop) to production, be it just a small farmers market, or something a little more ambitious.  I know there is a hurdle in both roasting and winnowing larger amounts.  I am working steadily on the winnower (the current focus is a new Cocoa mill which is just now going from prototype to beta version), but until that time, and maybe after, I will be offering all origins as freshly roasted nibs in wholesale quantities.  To me, freshness is a significant part of what makes homemade (or Artisan made) chocolate so special.  So I won't be keeping bags of stale roasted nibs around.  I will be roasting and winnowing them to order.  That will mean a longer turnaround time (7-14 days) at first, but a set schedule will be available also if you desire 30 lbs (for instance) every week or month.  Until I work out all the details, just send me a note (email address is in the Contact link) and I would be  happy to talk it over and get something moving for you.  My goal in this is to make you successful at your endeavors.

New Winnower style

As most people know, I've been working on a winnower for some time now.  Well, so has someone else, and it is rather exciting.  At least I am excited.  It is a very elegant design.  It's based on the principal of a cyclone dust collector. You can see it in action at Brooklyn Cacao .

Now there is the good news and the bad news (as I see it).  It's not scaled for 'us' - either production or cost wise.  That's the bad news.  It produces up to 70 kg/hour - truly stunning.  And it is approximately $35K.  Yes, that's the price and what I consider the bad news.   And to be fair, it is made out 5 mm pyrex glass, stainless steel and include a great new designed 2 stage crack, plus all the motors and blowers you need. The good news is that I am discussions with the inventor of this patent pending design, and we (I dearly hope) to work out a model that is more approachable to our needs.

And, no, I won't be stopping work on my design.

Yes, it's been a bit quiet here

But maybe we could consider it the calm before the storm.  It's taken me a bit to get my bearing here in the new locale.  Many of you have commented that I have not put much up new, or talked a lot.  Well, my plan is to change that, and get things moving and shaking here again. So, before that, I have a few quick, but pertinent announcements.

1)  I will be out of town this weekend (April 15-17) so 'weekend' orders will be delayed going out for an extra couple of days.  And likewise, I will not be around to answer e-mails.  But they will all be answered once I am back.

2)  I will be changing my shipping times back 3-4 day turn around times.  Thank you for all your patience.  I've not liked shipping only once a week, but I did what I had to do to keep things going.

3)  As sort of a gentle lead in, or transition, most of you know I lost my life partner to cancer last year. A dear friend is doing a Relay for Life for the American Cancer Society.  I would officially like those of you so inclined, please donate in memory of Penelope, or of course, anyone else that was been affected by cancer.  Her name is Susan Roland, and you can see here page and donate Here.  It may say she has reached her financial goal - it's in error, so if you see that, please do not let that dissuade you from donating.  Anything of course helps, and thank you.

4) New beans - Finally, finally, finally, I will be getting in some Venezuelan -  And not just Ocumare.  If all goes right, there will be a plumy red wine like Rio Caribe, a succulent Carenero Superior and possibly even two others that I am going to keep under wraps right now.

5) Winnower - it is coming along.  I have the beta unit about 1/2 built and hope to test it out within the next month, AND have a new design that I want to try out - but I will keep on the first on until it is done.

6)  Finally, although it isn't plastered all over the site, and honestly, may even be a little hard to tell, I am here to help you succeed.  If you are thinking of going into a small cottage industry chocolate endeavor, and can't quite pull the logistics together, please ask me how I can help (specifics would be helpful).  Do you want/need large amounts of roasted beans, nibs - full pallets of of beans or single bags on a regular basis?  These are variations I can help with.  Just ask. That's it for now

Happy chocolate making everyone.

A few changes and new items.

It's a day for announcements   Just a lot of things to cover. I'll start off with that we have a new bean in, that we have not had in some time.  The Co-op has really stepped up consistency, so whereas before, this cocoa bean had a good flavor, you had to work a bit for it.  Now, you get nice flavor (soft blackberry, malt and biscuit), it's easy to work with also.  Go check out the new review for the Dominican Republic from Conacado Co-op. I have been wanting to do this next item for some time.  I am venturing into Roasted beans with the assistance of a semi local roaster.   There will be a just a select few for a while, plus a weekly roasting schedule for those that don't want or need 10 lbs.  Just order ahead and they will go out as their week comes around.  And as a small bonus, the  Don Homero that I ran out of a month back or so, will be available until it runs out.  If this goes well, I will cycle all of the cocoa bean stock to roasted availability. I have the next version of the Winnow designed up, and will get parts in the next couple weeks.  After that, it goes to a local shop for beta versions.  A couple months still, but coming up and making progress. And finally, a minor note.  I have reduced (pretty drastically) the Sampler pack prices.  Somehow the prices were a hold over from when beans were more expensive.

Nibs now available

OK, you say that they have always been available.  Well, true and not true.  I have always offered them up to 5 lbs and never as wholesale.  That now changes.  There are Wholesale Nibs now available.  Consider it a test run.  Partly, do they sell, or inversely, if they do, can I keep up. Why am I offering them now?  Well, I have the feeder on my prototype winnower (don't worry beta testers, i have not forgotten you - life just because .....challenging) and I it is currently doing over 2 kg/min.  The best run today (out of 180 lbs of beans in two hours) was 13 lbs of beans in 4.5 mins at a recovery of 80.7%.  Damn fine.

Also, please do read about the pricing.  At first glance they look a bit more expensive than you might expect.  Remember the work involved and that 20% husk is being removed.  Read it over.

And some stock updates.  Sadly, the Carenero Superior fell though.  Sorry all who were as excited as I.  Someone got to it before i could and took the lot.  The new crop of Papua New Guinea should be in this week, and it is a kinder, gentler (for hickory smoked bacon cocoa) cocoa.  A little more depth of flavor than last year.  Also, the Don Homero from Ecuador is also gone.  I hope those that wanted to try it, did try it.  It was unique.  Hopefully it comes around again.  And finally, I just want to pitch the Tanzanian.  I know it doesn't winnow well (even with the new winnower and feeder) but it is really worth the trouble of roasting it yourself.  Check the review out.  There are no signs of the webs mentioned, that I might just take that out of the review.

That's it for now.

Stock changes

We are just about out of the delicate and soft Peru.  No, I don't know if any more will be coming in any time soon.  So, if you have not tried it and have been thinking about it, now is the time.  It probably will not be around next week. The same is true with the Deodorized Cocoa butter.  There are a few pounds left and I am not sure when or if more will be back.  The last supplier was not true to his word and I just won't be getting more there, regardless of how nice it was.  Oh, and the Natural cocoa butter is currently back ordered about a week.  It is on the way, but my little Internet outage a couple weeks ago disrupted that supply train and so it's running behind.  The site shows it in stock - just be aware it isn't but will be next week. Roasted Beans: This area has been empty quite a while.  Look for it getting filled this week.  There will be 10 lb and 25 lb amounts of most of beans we carry (no Peru of course).  These are roasted in a large drum roaster, and 5 lbs may be problematical as I don't want roasted beans setting around getting stale, but nor do I want to just toss them.  Proverbial rock and a hard place.  What do people think of a "Roasted bean of the week" on a set schedule so you can plan ahead?  If that were to work out, I could even offer 1 lb and up.  I may try that.  Give me input.

For the last 5 years I have tried to ship out in a fast and timely manner.   Generally 2-3 days, many orders went out the next day.  That record has mostly gone away with the death of Penelope, my wife.  Although the Order confirmations don't reflect this (yet - but soon), right now I am packing and shipping orders once a week, on the weekends.  It is simply all I can do.  Hopefully you understand.  Regardless, it is how it is.  In a few months, it may change - or not.  Only time will tell.

Finally, the Winnower.  It is mostly at a standstill development wise, although it is getting good use and I am collecting lots of data as to what works and what does not.  I am not advertising, except  this little note for the moment, but I am willing to accept larger orders of nibs (over the 5 lb maximum) currently.  Turn around time is 7-14 days (noting I am only shipping once a week) but I am here to meet your needs and if you need 10 or 20 or 30 lbs of raw (sorry, not roast yet) nibs, drop me an email and we can set up the specifics.  The only catch is that for that amount I will be charging a winnowing fee.  Generally $1-1.5/lb.  Under 5 lbs is still free.

New arrivals & Chocolate Formulator

Madagascar will be back in stock early next week.  I also have a brand new semi-washed (more on that later) Ecuador that is full of clean graham cracker and malt flavors.  A couple weeks after that I am going to be offering up four of the current stock as roasted (with small minimums) and see how that goes. And finally the stock of refurbished Behmors is quickly dwindling but also I am not able to repair them at the speed I want (Penelope is p. rehab after another surgery, so spare time is a myth) but I getting a couple here and there.

The winnower?  Not much with that spare time myth, but I do have a new cracker/mill in mind that I hope to couple with the winnower.

But in a spat of free time, I finished up a Chocolate Formulator in Excel I have used for some time now.  You can down load it and them discuss it over in the Forum or down load it directly below.

Chocolate Alchemy Formulator 

Winnower poll

Please go take our Winnower poll.  I need some customer input. Thanks.

Winnower progress

I did  a bit more fine tuning  today, plus a whole bunch of observations.   I found for the current design, nib introduction, speed, quantity, angle of attack to the air stream and dispersion all have a significant affects on the maximum rate that material can be fed and possibly more importantly, how well separation is achieved.  Also, origin, cracking and type of cocoa all affect the final yield and separation.  137 lbs of beans (100 lbs of nibs) and  3 hours later I can make these observations. Panama is a dream to winnow.  It cracks very evenly.  The husk is small and I was able to introduce the nib/husk mixture at a rate of nearly 2 lbs/min with 75.6% yield and virtually no visable husk in the nibs.

Ghana is pretty good, but the heavier husk of the Forastero like to stay in larger pieces.  Separation was still high at 75.5%, but I could see about 0.5 to 1% husk in the nibs.

Madagascar was difficult.  It is a drier than average bean, so powdered a little more than I expected.  Consequently, the separation was ok with very little visible husk in the nibs, but yield was down to 69%.

Next on the drawing board is the feed mechanism.  It's technically drawn up, but I need to build it next.  After that, I want to experiment a little with the primary chamber design shape.  I was noticing the beginning of some nice circular flow patterns and I am curious is modifying the chamber shape to encourage these might allow me to further increase my feed rate while maintaining a high yield.

Winnower update and closing dates

Winnower:  The winnower is apart, modified, and on the way back to being put back together.  Winnower V.1.2.  It has a more optimized flow path for both the beans and nibs and the introduction point is now optimized.  The plan for V.1.3 is the automated feed mechanism and closed catch basic for the nibs.  After that,  V.2.1 gets built out of metal, and I start working out manufacturing possibilities for the beta units. Closing:  I will be out of town from June 22 to July 9.  E-mail will be very limited.  I will be in Florida dealing with my mother's estate.  As always, I will leave the store open but no orders will ship until the week after July 9.  I will have all orders complete that are currently in house.

Refurbished Behmors:  I am about 3/4 through the waiting list.  Everyone who has asked to be put on or before May 30 has been notified of available units.  Check your email dates.  If you wrote me before May 30, but did not get a notice, please write me as you should have.  A number of people have not responded, so I moved on down the list.

Cocoa butter:  Deodorized Cocoa butter is available.  Unfortunately the supplier and Chocolate Alchemy are not working out, so this is only temporary.

Winnower prototype finished and working

So, how many of you have been hoping for an announcement like this?  I know I certainly have been.  It's all 2x4's, plywood, plexiglass and dryer duct, but it works, and is letting me play around with subtle variations to optimize it.  The plexiglass is a must for seeing what is going on - plus it's just plain cool.  Here's a number of photos that really don't tell you a whole lot.  I am keeping a few details under wraps until I decide the direction I am going to take this.  Be it general plans, paid plans, custom built winnowers or some combination of the above. So, the cracked beans go in       "winnowing happens".  Nibs come out.  like this

Husk gets captured   This is the husk from 40 lbs of test nibs.  I am particularly happy with this husk trap system.  Worked exactly as i wanted.  No husk into the blower wheel at all.  A touch of dust  but again, that is all the dust associated with 40 lbs of nibs. What is left is husk  and nibs .  In a nice close up, you can see virtually no husk in the nibs. 

I am getting anywhere from 72 - 80 % recovery, depending on the bean variety.  That translates to nearly perfect winnowing at about 1 lb/min.  And there appears to be no nibs at all making it into the husk trap.  Currently I am hand feeding the nibs, but I will be adding a Crankandstein to the top and hooking it to a variable speed dril.

What's next?  Refine the design.  Make it in metal.  Probably offer up prototypes for sale to beta testers.  Drop me a line if you are interested.  I don't have an ETA for that.  A few months at least.  In the short term I am going to hammer out the details of a Winnowing Service for Wholesale orders.  Under 5 lbs retail will still be free, but over that I will charge a nominal fee to produce the nibs (which I don't even do right now).

On a slightly different, but related note, the Tanzanian cocoa  is in.  And in some tests yesterday I found out the raw nibs do not crack and winnow well.  Something about just a touch higher moisture causing the husks not to crack off well.  I am seeing about 50% waste from winnowing.  With that in mind, I will not be offering this bean as a raw nib.  It roasts up and winnows just fine that way, but not the other way around.

Chocolate Making 101

My dear partner Penelope put this together, noting that so far there is not one single page outlining the entire chocolate making procedure start to finish.  Well, now there is. Chocolate Making at Home 101

It won't give you everything you need in detail (hence the '101') but gives a great overview.  For all the detailed information follow the links under Alchemist's Notebook to the right.

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.

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.

NewWay to Crack Cocoa Beans

By way of a customer's comment (thank you John H.) I tried cracking some cocoa beans with my Champion Juicer. I had thought of this some time ago, but never pursued it because the Crankandstein Cocoa mill works so well. I just ran the whole cocoa beans through the juicer without the lower plate on. It cracks them with a single pass and shoots them out the bottom. It works with both raw and roasted beans. When I first tried this, I was a little worried about how well it works and whether I had just made the Crankandstein obsolete. Well, after a number of pounds of beans, both raw and roasted, I have the following observations:

• The Champion cracks the beans into smaller pieces than the Cocoa Mill
• There is more dust, and thus more waste with the Champion
• The Champion makes a larger mess while cracking (nibs fly everywhere)
• It takes longer to crack the beans with the Champion (about 1lb/90 sec vs 4-6lb/min)
• The Champion does a better job at separating the husk from the nib in raw unroasted cocoa beans.

And likewise, this leads me to a couple of conclusions.

• The Crankandstein is not obsolete as it is quicker and creates less mess and waste
• If you are only doing a couple of pounds, the Champion may work fine for you.
• If you want to make you own raw nibs (for eating or post roasting), the Champion does a great job

Basically, it is up to you and what your needs are. I found the husk pieces were smaller with the Champion and so winnowing was a little easier, but as I said, there was more dust (husk and nib) that needs to be removed (I shook my nibs in a fine mesh colander for this test) so that takes a little more time. Either way, we have a new tool in out Alchemy arsenal, or more like, a new use for an existing tool.

Please try it out and report back. I am especially interested in those of you who have both a Champion and Crankandstein Cocoa mill.