Chocolate Alchemy

New Label and New Products

Alchemist John — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 23:23:37 +0000

The first thing is that we are transitioning into some new labels. Will it affect the flavor of the product? Nope. Why do it? Well, it’s been 5 years with basic labels, we finished our taxes (yeah, wild round of applause for all of you who did also), have decided will stay in business (like there was really any question) and simply wanted a new and sharper look. For a while you will see both labels as we work out logistics. For now, they will be on the new products.

With that in mind, we have 3 new products. Two types of milk powder (Goat and Soy) and an Organic/Fair Trade Cane sugar. The Goat Milk Powder is a whole milk powder and from Meyenburg. The Soy Milk Powder is “Better than Milk”. The Cane Sugar is from Wholesome Sweeteners. It is considered unrefined because refined and organic don’t seem to play well together, but it has a very neutral flavor.

I also have a very limited supply (about 20) of some very heavy duty commercial molds. They are what I am calling “Aztec” molds. 72 cavity 0.2 oz trapezoidal shapes. When they are gone, they are gone.

Finally, look for a couple new beans next month. A piquant and smoky Papua New Guinea and some Fair Trade Ghana again. And maybe (don’t hold your breath, but do cross your fingers) some more Ocumare from Venezuela.

Alchemist John — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 02:43:38 +0000

There are a couple of refurbished Behmors available for those who have been waiting.

Chocolate Making 101

Alchemist John — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 18:20:07 +0000

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.

New Origin and Water FAQ

Alchemist John — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 12:24:26 +0000

Every week I field questions about the necessity of the Melanger and whether the sugar can dissolved in “just a little” water to eliminate a step. Basically, you can’t do that. Or more to the point, if you do, what you will end up with is not classic chocolate. This Water and Chocolate FAQ gives a bit more detail.

Also, we have a new cocoa bean in and with it comes a new origin. We now have a full bodied, peppery, Fair trade certified bean (very important here) from the Ivory Coast. That’s right - the infamous Ivory Coast. I refused to even taste Ivory Coast samples without a guarantee of the conditions of the harvest (meaning the workers). Being Fair Trade takes care of that. With that in place, this is a great time to taste a new origin and some different flavors. Go check out the Review.

Melangers and Shipping

Alchemist John — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 18:14:44 +0000

The new Melangers are in and all back orders have been filled. Also, all the larger units (Spectra 20 and 40) have been sold. There will be more in around May. If you would like to reserve a unit (or more), please contact me via email. The Spectra 20 is $1000 and the Spectra 40 is $1600. Both prices include s/h for the 48 USA states.

As for shipping, rates may look a little confusing for a bit. We are in the middle of implementing live UPS and USPS rates, so the choices may look odd until we fully implement. For instance you may have the following as a set of options:
UPS Ground $7.85

USPS Flat rate $9.00

4-5 lbs $8.45

UPS 3 day Select $17.56

That third one is our current system but would still ship UPS (unless you have a PO Box of course). The others are real live rates. Choose whatever you want (who am I to say you can’t pay more in shipping if you want ). One caveat and sincere request. Please make sure your shipping address is correct. We (the developer and I) have found a bug that if you have a typo in your address (Cresthill vs Crest hill for instance) the software will return a lower than actual value (not sure why, that is why it is a bug). If that happens you will see a double charge on your credit card when your order is shipped as the shipping amount is adjusted.

Also, on other caveat, I am leaving the various Rush shipping options available, but PLEASE contact me know if you need something fast. Right now if you were to choose Next Day Air, I would ship it Next Day Air BUT can NOT guarantee it would go out the same or next business day - the 48-72 hour shipping rule of thumb still applies. I will bend over backwards to TRY and get it out the next day (we never ship same day without notice - orders from the previous day are packed the day after they come in at the earliest) but communication is the key. We don’t get that many rush orders, but I thought you should be informed.