"It is dark as the AlChemist walks along the corridor, rough stone under his feet, air warmed from well smoldering hearth fires stirring his cowl. He opens a hewn timber door, worn smooth at the threshold over years of use. He breaths deeply the comforting smells of this laboratory. Hints of wood and smoke linger in the air from the last time he roasted raw materials for his elixirs. Another smell, heady and almost intoxicating, brings a smile to his face as he remembers the smell wafting up as he was last grinding his pastes and powders. He looks about. Everything is in place. The roasting drum is cool in the hearth. The mortars and pestles are laid out neat and tidy, only a small amount of deep brown paste marring their finish. The cracking mill is sitting ready, waiting for the next batch to be crushed fresh out of the roaster. It is time to begin his magic, his devotion, his passion, his Alchemy, yet again. He prepares himself for the work ahead. The roasting, the cracking, the winnowing, the grinding, the mixing. The transformation of base materials into something more than they were. The transformation of cocoa beans to chocolate, the work of Chocolate Alchemy."
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I have put together an article on tempering. In it you will find one I wrote some time ago about some of the theory behind all those temperatures you have to worry about during tempering. New now is an illustrated explanation to tempering.
My hope in both of those is that it will make […]
Filed under: Alchemist's Mussings, Tempering | No Comments »
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 […]
Filed under: Products, Cocoa Beans, Roasting, Refining & Conching, What's new & Updates, Grinding, Cracking & Winnowing, Alchemist's Mussings | 2 Comments »
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. […]
Filed under: Products, Roasting, What's new & Updates, Alchemist's Mussings | 3 Comments »
That’s all. Believe it or not, the Alchemist does more than just chocolate. The family did pumpkin carving last night. Here’s my contribution.
Oh, and if you have never seen the Alchemist, well, I can’t exactly say this is a representative image.
Also, we finally have our Server set back up. Corrections […]
Filed under: Alchemist's Mussings | No Comments »
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 […]
Filed under: Products, Cocoa Beans, What's new & Updates, Alchemist's Mussings | 1 Comment »
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 […]
Filed under: Products, Cocoa Beans, Roasting, What's new & Updates, Alchemist's Mussings | No Comments »
