Updates
Announcment: How to Make Chocolate at Home Video Course is in Pre-Sale
After more than two decades of making chocolate and teaching others to do the same, I'm thrilled to announce a brand-new video course: How to Make Chocolate at Home.
I've spent the last year distilling everything I know — through blog posts, in-person classes, and a week straight of shooting video — into what I dare say is the definitive 101 guide to making chocolate at home, nib to bar. I watched the near-final cut and got chills. It covers everything I've always wanted to share in one place.
The course is available now. Whether you're brand new to chocolate making or you've been chasing answers scattered across the internet, this is the spoon-fed, start-to-finish guide you've been looking for.
ATA #343: When to Upgrade Your Chocolate Equipment — Sylph vs Flux & Behmor vs Yoshan
A practical guide to scaling chocolate equipment without guessing. Learn when Behmor + Sylph is enough, when Yoshan + Flux makes sense, and how weekly output, labor, and bottlenecks shape the right upgrade path.
Ask the Alchemist #333
New Peru Maranon Lot 2 has arrived and let's talk about why cocoa butter is so expensive.
Ask the Alchemist #331
The website update is coming along. Somewhere along the way the questions you submitted to Ask the Alchemist were not coming to me and we only just discovered it. That is partly why I’ve not written anything in the last few weeks. Having found a bunch, I figured I’d take a few simple ones to get us going again.
ATA 330 - Science, The Original #FAFO
This week we answer multiple questions and try to bring some science philosophy into the discussion.
New Beans and a New Chocolate Making Course
It is hard to believe I've not offered a basic chocolate making class in 20 year. I hope to make this and other more in depth ones a more regular thing. This first one I’m giving a small nod to Fathers and Father’s day. Hint hint.
Ask the Alchemist #329
I have 70% dark chocolate and some 100% cocoa mass. Can I add some mass to the 70% to get to 75% dark?
Ask the Alchemist #328
I wonder when beans go out of stock, would it be possible to preserve an archive section with the spider charts, your tasting notes, and roasting notes for these beans?
Ask the Alchemist #327
All markets are built upon the backs of slave labor....until they aren’t
Ask the Alchemist #326
First time maker. We had some issues for sure but the one thing you for sure take for granted is how to work somewhat cleanly, and how to handle liquid chocolate well. We made a serious mess and it was quite a process to get the melanger clean again. So turn that big brain on and dump all your knowledge about working with chocolate and cleaning. Please be gentle with me.