Why is cocoa so much more expensive than coffee? …and… Is there anyone who sells the ground roasted cocoa in quantities of 2 lbs or larger?
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Whats New and Updates
If you are not familiar with Madagascar cocoa, then prepare for a wild ride. It is a real powerhouse. It has generally gained the reputation as an immensely complex cocoa bean with a huge potential. If you are familiar with coffee origins, then I put this akin to a bright, citrusy Kenyen. As always, you can have it however you with. Raw and Roasted, Retail or Wholesale.
With Hurricane Sandy last year, a lot of cocoa and cocoa supply chains were severely disrupted. At nearly half a year later, most everything is back in order, old regulars are back in stock, and some new ones have come also.Belize - Organic and Direct Trade - NEW Origin Dominican Republic "La Red" Organic/DT is back
Dominican Republic "Elvasia" Organic/DT is new also.
Venezuelan Sur del Lago-2012/13 is back
In addition, I have something a touch novel, and I hope helpful. Testing beans. These are vastly inexpensive, and perfect for getting your feel for roasting, experimenting, and getting daring, and maybe, just maybe, having some neat surprises along the way. Now, before anyone asks, there are no certifications on these, I don't know really anything about them except they are composite samples that one of my suppliers had around. Knowing what I do, they passed them onto me (basically at the cost of shipping), and I am passing them on to you at effectively that same cost of shipping and doing business. On the surface, this may look like I have beans that I am offering that could not have supported anyone (i.e. crappy prices to farmers, non-fair trade, dare I even mention slave labor? etc) but the story behind it is that, again, they were sample beans collected over time (i.e. there were no cost associated with except shipping) that simply would have been thrown out, but instead you get to benefit from them, and no one loses and it's frugality all the way around.
Test and evaluation Cocoa beans
That's it for now. But with 17 different beans in stock, I hope that is sufficient for a little while...until the new tongue tingling Madagascar arrives.....
If you are making chocolate at home how can you make sure (if at all) that any harmful bacteria is killed as you can’t heat the chocolate to 165 F/75 C or above as this would ruin the chocolate. I suppose I could always heat the milk with the cocoa butter to the required temp before adding the beans.
Well, it would seem you have a misconception about heating and bacteria. Let’s try and clear those up.
To make chocolate (we are not going to talk about raw chocolate, but this conversation is actually one of my major issues with raw chocolate) you need to roast the cocoa beans. This reaches temperatures well over 250 F/120 C, more than hot enough to ensure any bacteria is killed.
After that, chocolate can still be heated above 75 C. Some chocolates are taken to 80 C without being ruined. Regardless, roasting takes care of it. Further (since you mentioned it), milk powders are already 'safe' and do not need any further heating to take care of bacteria. They (and cocoa butter and sugar) are tested for Salmonella, E. coli, and have a general HPC (hertrotrophic plate count – general bacteria) for which they must pass.
Alright, I think that clears up some of the misconceptions. Let’s talk a little more about roasting and bacteria and making chocolate.
Some years ago I analyzed raw and roasted cocoa beans for both e coli and a general HPC of a variety of cocoa beans I had on hand. I also treated some with some ‘classic’ food safe cleaning agents such as bleach (no, I would not want to eat this either), peroxide, water (general washing) and an over the counter produce wash.
I’ll say right off that I no longer have the actual reports and analysis, but as you will see, the results were so clear, I stopped testing.
All the beans I tested were positive for E. coli (I had previous tested 10 different origins, and picked the 3 that were contaminated – note, these were test beans, and I rejected them, so they were never for sale) and gave a result of TNTC (too numerous to count) for 10 beans in 100 ml of sterile water.
I prepared three roasts of three different beans (yes, 9 roasts).
- 185 F for 60 minutes.
- 250 F for 40 minutes
- 350 for 20 minutes.
I choose those times as they give me something resembling a proper roast flavor (my at-home indicator).I also soaked each of the three origins in the following solutions:
- 0.5% bleach (1:10 of household bleach – ICK)
- 3% peroxide (what you can get readily)
- Produce wash (just following the directions…at twice the concentration)
- Water (sterile).
I let all of them soak 30 minutes (yes, I know, they would not be edible (did you know wet cocoa beans are slimy?), but I was proving a point here…busting a myth here one might say, before mythbusting became cool.)The results you ask?
All the roasted beans were E. coli negative.
All the roasted beans were <10 colony/10 beans (note, this does not mean I saw some colonies, only that of the 100 ml of liquid, we only used 10 ml, so the detection limit goes up – I saw no colonies)
All the cleaning agent washes were UNCHANGED. Positive E. coli and the HPC were all TNTC.
Roasting – Confirmed
Washing solutions – Busted
So, when you hear someone tell you they washed their raw beans for their great raw chocolate, you remember this. (Note: again, I am NOT saying raw chocolate is contaminated – only that treatments do bumkis. The only chance of safe raw chocolate is starting with safe, clean beans).
Moving on. Once you have your clean beans (which you feel pretty damn good about simply because they taste fine – handy isn’t that), the only other thing you need to concern yourself with is cross contamination. You need to keep your raw and roasted cocoa beans separate so you do not cross contaminate them. This means dedicated bowls, spoons, etc. One for the raw, one for the roasted. That kind of thing. And you washed your hands, right? Look at that – mom was right again.
So, will this guarantee your chocolate is bacteria free and safe to eat? Nope. Not unless you actually have it tested. But it DOES give strong evidence that if you follow basic food handling procedures (start with clean product, cook adequately, wash your hands, don’t cross contaminate) you are probably going to be just fine.
Relax. Don’t worry. Have some chocolate.
My process is a bit different so I wonder if you could comment on the adjustments I've made and whether you would expect poor/different results than your normal process. Others may also find some value in the alternate process.
First, I'm using a Whirly Pop popcorn maker on the stove top for the roasting. I drilled a hole in the top so I could insert a thermometer to monitor air temp to control the roast. I previously used this for a coffee roasting project as well with decent results. I got one Whirly Pop in a thrift store for $5 or buy new for $20.
If you can keep the heat low enough, a Whirly pop is great. The main issue is just getting the roast long enough without scorching the outside and having the interior underdone. I've used one myself and liked it - after I knew how to roast. The main reason I don't mention it is that actually describing to someone how to use it is pretty difficult. You knew how to roast coffee. Coffee has good clues - cocoa not so many. I find a tendency to over roast with a surface cooking method like this. But it is possible to get it right. As you did.
Second, I remove the husks by hand one by one. As time consuming as this sounds I find it easy to do while watching TV and can do about 2 pounds per hour. With practice The husk can be removed without the whole, roasted bean fragmenting and slowing you down.
If you like doing it this way, it is hands down the best way to get the most out of your beans with the least waste....but again, I don't advocate it that much because it is SO time intensive. 2 lbs takes me about 1.5 minutes. But never let it be said I would suggest anyone stop anything they enjoy. And I am also not a TV watcher.
Third, once the beans are all de-husked (no need for winnowing by the way) I put them in the stock Cuisinart we had in the kitchen. I found that with the standard blade the beans will grind into a powder very quickly but will start to look damp from released cocoa butter in 2-3 minutes and get fully liquid in 5-8 minutes with about 12-16 ounces at a time in the Cuisanart. So, no need for a Champion juicer in this method. Oh, and I add the sugar in at this stage too so it gets mixed in well and chopped a bit.
I've found that it is possible to burn beans this way if you are not careful. There is a lot of friction produced, and you can get spot burning. And again, very time intensive. The Champion does 5 lbs in the same time with little chance of burning. But if that is what you have around, and you like the flavor, then by all means, there is no reason not to use it. And the Cuisinart DOES have the advantage of not wasting 6 oz like the Champion does. As a minor alternative, you can using it 2-3 minutes, where the cocoa just starts to look damp, and then add it to the Melanger. That is the main change I would actually recommend.
From here I go straight into an Ultra Wet grinder ($80 used on Craigslist - it helps to be near a large Indian community) and let it go for many many hours, tasting periodically.
The Ultra Wet grinder was the starting point of the ECGC line - I liked it a bit. Not a huge fan of the conical wheels (they spray chocolate) but it refines just fine.
The product seems OK though as a novice it is hard to tell. Ive over roasted a couple of pounds but other than that so far so good. Ive stuck with a simple 70% dark chocolate by the way so far.
That is a great place to start. 95% of my chocolate is 75% - basically your recipe plus 5% cocoa butter.
What do you think?
I think you have been very industrious, used what you had on hand, and with very good results. From experience, it's way more work than many people want to put in, but that does not make it right or wrong nor better or worse. It's also very similar to where I started so many years ago. My first attempts were roasting with an air popper (3-4 oz at a time), peeling by hand, and using only the Champion (this was before I discovered Wet Grinders, hacked one, and had Santha start making them for me [yes, for those that don't know, Wet Grinders as small scale Melangers actually started with Chocolate Alchemy - I didn't jump on the proverbial band wagon - I built the band wagon that others jumped onto]). My goal has been approachability and consistency. But there are tons of ways to make chocolate, and you have a very good method there....especially, and most importantly, if you like the result.
That's what I think.
"I am wondering how much waste to plan for when winnowing cocoa beans into nibs so I can plan accordingly with the beans. How does this affect ordering pre-cracked and winnowed nibs from you? "
Very generally speaking, the husk accounts for about 20-25% of the mass of the cocoa bean. So, if you have 1 lb of cocoa beans, you can expect to lose about 3-4 oz. That's why if you order 1 lb of cocoa beans as nibs, you will receive about 12 oz of nibs.
Also, as it is related, you can expect a touch more husk in your raw nibs than roasted nibs as they simply do not winnow as well or as completely. After you roast your raw nibs, you may find you wish to pick out or hand winnow a touch more. That said, a touch of husk in your chocolate is not the end of the world, and you might be surprised just how much is in many commercial chocolates. 0.5% is the number I've often heard batted around. If you weigh out 0.5% husk you will it looks like quite a bit - and quite a bit less than even what is left in raw nibs.
Happy Holidays every one.
We will be closed next week for a much needed break and family time. If you REALLY need something, send me an e-mail and I'll do what I can to accommodate (as I always do), but otherwise, please don't expect any movement on your orders (I'll leave the stores open) until the following week.
Deep, heady, rich, alluring. Do I have you yet? Sometimes a chocolate's gestalt's impression is what lingers, and that's the case here. If you know Chuao, then you are probably not too surprised by this description. If you don't know Chuao, might I suggest, that if at all possible, get acquainted. Ok, that is about as hard as my pitch gets.
And the catch...I have only one bag (which was a pretty penny, hence the steeper than average price), so, if you want some, get it quick.
With Hurricane Sandy, some of my major supply chains have been disrupted. Peru, Ecuador, La Red, Bolivian - they are all in short supply or out. The warehouse storing them was flooded in parts, and damages are still being accessed. At this point, they are projected another 2 weeks to know what is not damaged, but it's not looking good. So, some standard favorites may be in short supply for a little while until new containers are in and available. But there seems to be a balance in life sometimes. With the above beans becoming scarce, I'm please to announce 7 new beans in stock. The long awaited Venezuelan.
These are all Ethically and Sustainably traded. I am planning on using that phrase a bit more. Chocolate Alchemy is working with Tisano who is on the ground in Venezuela, working side by side with the farmers. Since Chocolate Alchemy is not actually there, Direct trade is not quite the right term, and since these are farm purchased, not co-op, they are not eligible for Fair Trade status. Amazonas - a wild harvested cocoa. Wood & chocolate.
Cumboto - this Ocumare strain bean comes from a former slave founded village tucked away deep in the canyons of the Henri Pettier National Park.
Mantuano - Delicate nuts, light berry (apricot and peach), the hint of the sea, and a slight touch of freshly cracked black pepper.
Ocumare - An old favorite, and no exception this year.
Patanemo F1 & F2 - From another former Slave village - 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.
Tricheras - Former Hacienda broken up and the land is now owned by the farmers (one more day or so for the tasting notes)
and finally, although not from Venezuela, I have a small amount of bright, tangy Madagascar in.
I am pleased to present, the Sylph Winnower:
It's been a while coming, but the first (to my knowledge) consumer sized winnower is now available (at least at a not unreasonable price and with a reasonable efficiency and through put).
What you see there is how it comes. You need to supply a cracker (Champion or Cocoa mill) and vacuum. But I know many of you have these already.
I hope that brings a sigh of relief to a number of you who have been winnowing by hand all these years.
Chocolate Alchemy will be closed Friday, September 28 while I am off to Northwest Chocolate Festival, in Seattle, Washington. We will be giving two cocoa roasting demonstrations, Saturday evening and Sunday morning. Please stop by if you are there. It is always great putting faces to the names.
Happy roasting everyone!
My tempered chocolate has bloomed. Is it ruined?
I'm both a little surprised I get this question so often, and saddened that I don't get it because people have just thrown their chocolate away assuming it ruined.
First and foremost, bloomed chocolate is not ruined. You can temper and re-temper it until Bessie has come back from seeing the world.
Feel better? Good. Oh, you threw it out. Oh, so sorry. (sad face).
Well, moving on, there are a few tempering articles around here. The first and primary one, if you have not found it, is in the right column, under the Alchemist's Notebook.
That goes over the basics of the "how to". You can also look and read the following. I've been told it really helps. It's a little more of the 'whys':
I know a lot of you have trouble tempering. My hope and goal is to show you it really is not that hard (at all), and if you can understand how and why it works (or does not work) it will suddenly be less daunting and much easier to do.
From what I have found is people shy away instantly when they try to read about why it works - they see words like crystallization, and Type V crystals and ....well...freak out and stop listening. For me, it's easy - I'm a chemist. I understand that most people don't think like we (chemists) do (shush).
So let's try this. I'm going to give you basic words. They may or may not be fully accurate, but my goal is to get a concept across to you, and once it 'clicks' you can answer the question above without even thinking about it. I want to get you to 'see' what is happening when chocolate tempers.
Alright, some definitions and concepts are in order.
Sugar and salt form particular shapes on the molecular level. These shapes are crystals. Salt crystals and sugar crystals are different shaped crystals but are both crystals. Good? Good!
Cocoa butter, although it is not sugar or salt, can have a shape too. It can and does form crystals. OK? Good.
Cocoa butter can form (at least) 6 different 'shapes'. Why? Think of it this way.
Sugar is like a baseball (on the molecular scale). If you have a whole pile of them, there is really only one or two ways you can make a stack of them where they are stable. Cocoa butter is shaped more like a the bat (baseball bat, not flying bat). It's long. It is not just a rod. You can tell one end from the other. You can make LOTS (6?) of stable stacks of baseball bats. Some are more stable than others, but you can make lots of them. Cocoa butter is the same way. In the same way you can make a stack of baseballs (and make a sugar crystal), you can make stacks of baseball bats (and make cocoa butter crystals).
That building of the bat stack is called crystallization. Breathe. Keep reading.
It's just building a stack of bats - sort of like tinker toys. If you build it right, it will be strong and stable. And you will have 'tempered' the stack of bats.
What happens if you mess up and it falls over or shifts? Is the entire stack ruined? Do you have to throw it away? Nope. Sure, the 'stack' is ruined (the temper) but the bats are fine. You just have to unstack it (melt the cocoa butter (chocolate)) and restack it. And you can do it over, and over, and over (as long as you don't set the bats of fire - or burn your chocolate).
Can you see that? I hope so. That's it. Really.
Now, on a similar note, and analogy, people want to know why each chocolate tempers a little differently.
Well, chocolate is not just a stack of bats (cocoa butter). Cocoa butter, first off, is not just one size of bat. Some of the bats are shorter. Some are longer. Some are a little thicker. Some a little thinner. Go figure. Not fair. Real life. Next, you are not just dealing with bats (cocoa butter). You are tempering chocolate and chocolate has sugar (baseballs). And not all the baseballs are the same size. Some are softballs. Some are tennis balls.
Oh, and heck, there is cocoa in there too. It's not all pretty and even like sugar or cocoa butter. Rock. Gravel. Same rough size, but not pretty (but it is tasty). And one origin may have pea gravel, and another may have 3/4-, and yet another, pretty(ish) river rock.
And you have to make an stable, 'pretty', strong stack of bats, balls, rock, gravel and stones. And you wonder why there is no one perfect, exact, 100% consistent, fool-proof way to temper chocolate? It's obvious isn't it that every stack of bats and balls and rock will be a bit different? That's it. From 100 feet away (out of the molecular level), it looks the same...BUT....IT....IS....NOT. And because it is not the same, you can not use the exact same method to stack every stack.
And so you have to follow this general method of tempering, where you can't really see what is going on, and you don't know what you are starting with (long bats, short bats, river rock?) but if you follow it, most of the time it will work. Some times your ball and bat sculpture will fall over, or really just shift, so lots of bats are showing, and your chocolate blooms. But now you know it's just a stack of balls and bats and rocks and sticks that you can take apart (melt) and put back together (temper) again.
Happy building.
Do I have to use granulated cane sugar to make chocolate? What about refining with alternative sweeteners or making unsweetened milk chocolate?
Well, first and foremost, there is a ton of information over in the forum about this.
Next, there are actually quite a few alternative sugars you can use, to a greater or lesser degree and success. In addition to the classic, sucrose, you can if you desire use maltose (or just malt, or dry malt extract DME if you are brewer), fructose, galactose, etc. If you can find them in granular form, you can use them. Why granular? Well, it's not so much that you want granular for it's own sake, but you do not want "powdered" sugar per se. Why, well, again it is not so much that it is powdered but very often something like corn starch is added to powdered sugars to keep them from caking and you don't want those starches and binders in your chocolate because it has a tendency to make it gummy and/or oddly textured.As for 'alternative sweeteners' or maybe what would be termed artificial sweeteners, the ones usually used are compounds called sugar alcohols. You can identify them most of the time because they end in -tol. As in xyitol, erythritol, maltitiol (the alcohol of malt above) etc. But there are others, used for other reasons. Inulin is a good example. Now, before we get into this, be aware in can be overwhelming. There IS NOT one simple answer. Chocolate is pretty simple. Sugar free chocolate is not.
That said, I found the following response in the forum:
"The main reason you're looking at looking to use inulin with it is because erythritol (etoh) has a very negative heat of solution (-43j if i remember) - which means it's extracts heat from your mouth when it dissolves, and that's what makes it feel cool. Inulin has a slightly positive heat of solution. However, as with everything, there are pluses and minuses. Inulin comes in many shapes and sizes - go with the long chain inulin to minimize gas production. You'll not be able to put enough inulin into it to erase the cooling of the erythritol. look at some other polyol's to mix into it to cut the level of erythritol. erythritol, molecularly, is 3x smaller than tyipcal polyols - which means it's handled by your kidneys for as it's small enough to pass the intestinal barrier and enter your blood stream (other polyols are just the opposite). this means you'll pee it out. sorry to be blunt. most work i've done on it suggests 0.3g/kg of body weight for say maltitol is tolerated well, vs erythritol which is up towards 0.8g/kg body weight for bolus dose situation."
Ok, hopefully I did not lose you there. If I did, the summary is this. There is no perfect artificial sweetener that you can just use in place of sugar. Some cool your mouth. Some heat your mouth. Some have diuretic effects. Some have laxative effects. Some taste bad. And honestly, I have not played with these sweeteners much at all. Maybe someday I will. Right now (and I know this can't work for some people) I simply take the adage "moderation in all things" and don't find a bite of chocolate with standard sucrose every few days that bad. But that is a conversation for another time. This is about what you can use.Moving on. Stevia seems to come up a bit. I personally don't care for the flavor. But some people do. So, putting flavor aside, Stevia is very sweet. As in 300-500 times sweeter than sucrose. Meaning you need very little. But that in itself can be an issue where we have become used to a particular texture and mouth feel to chocolate, and 100% dark chocolate is too hard. Sugar 'bulks' out chocolate. It dissolves in the mouth. If you were to try adding Stevia to 1 lb of chocolate you would use very little. For instance, in 1 lb of 70% chocolate, you need about 5 oz of sucrose. But only 0.016 oz or about 0.5 grams of Stevia in theory to get the same sweetness. Like half a teaspoon if that. And I say theory, because I've not tried this. Now, I recall a Stevia product that bulks up the product, so that it is very close to sucrose in regards to how sweet it is per volume. Meaning I think you might be able to add it as a straight substitute for sucrose and get something workable.
So, you don't have an issue with actual sugars, but don't want highly refined sugars. I won't get into the political, sociological, spiritual, health or other reasons you might have for not using sucrose and just deal with the item at hand. Date sugar, coconut sugar, brown sugar etc. Generally speaking, you can use any and all of these, BUT many of them contain a good bit of moisture and you know water and chocolate do NOT get along. See the FAQ if you don't know. What that means is you may need (or not) to dry these in the oven for some length of time (30 minutes to 2 hours) to make them suitable (i.e. it won't seize) for adding to your chocolate. But basically, they are fine, and have fun.Finally, the other 'other' sweeteners. Syrups. Honey, agave, etc. NO. Clear enough? NO. How's that? Water! NO!. Clear? Good. Now, more detail.
Under no circumstances can you add any water based sweeteners to a Melanger. The sheer will just cause it to seize up. But, you have seen chocolate sweetened with agave or honey? Well, I have seen both of these at various times as fully dehydrated granules. But that isn't quite what we are talking about here, in this paragraph. I have spoken with some people that have used honey and agave syrup in their finished chocolate. I started to say 'successfully' but changed my mind. What they ended up with resembled chocolate, but I found it was not quite 'right'. Most likely it was the odd or lack of temper. The water content disrupted the tempering. Also, I tend to be a purist, and found the other flavors (honey, agave and such) distracting to the flavor of the chocolate. It was not bad, but not classic chocolate either (at least to me). So, now I go back and say 'sure, you can use honey' BUT it may not (and probably will not be) classic chooclate. It will be more fudge like. Less snap. Etc. And when you incorporate it, stir VERY gently. Not using the Melanger still stands. At least that is what I was told. They stirred very gently, added extra cocoa butter to keep it flowing and did not rush it.In summary. You can use other sweeteners.
You can use other refined sugars, but you will probably have to adjust the amount you use because they vary in sweetness.
You can use alternative sweeteners, but you will have to experiment.
You can use alternative sugars, but may need to dry them.
You can NOT use water based sweeteners and get classic chocolate, but can use them if you don't mind 'something different'.
And as a final closing thought...I've tried and like quite a bit, unsweetened milk chocolate. The lactose in the milk does give a touch of sweetness and is an interesting and refreshing change to sweet chocolate.
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.
And one other thing I will toss out there. I have been experimenting with the Premier Wonder stone wet grinder.
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
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
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.
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
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.
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)
Ghana - 2011 It has hints of light biscuit, a little vanilla and of course the rather characteristic and “classic” earthy chocolate aroma.
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.
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:
Cracking and Winnowing (with history of the Aether, plans, and more)
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.
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:
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.