Think of this as the start of a FAQ. I also want to note there are some oddly phrased questions below and I’m leaving them as written, not to make fun of anyone as it is pretty obvious they are from folks who do not speak English as their first language and being monolingual myself, I applaud them for writing in. Their English is worlds better than my Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin or Italian.

While ordering my cocoa beans from a supplier, I came across a couple of unfamiliar terms known as 1. Bean count 110/100gm and 2. Fermented bean percentage 85%. Kindly shed some light into this topic and please let me know if these are acceptable values for making good quality chocolate.

Depending how long you have been with the Chocolate Alchemy maker's family (yes, if you are reading this, you are part of the CA family), this may be an "at last, they are back" announcement or something you have never had the opportunity to experience. In either case, for me it is really exciting. It has been nearly 10 years since I have had beans from Venezuela and over a decade since I had the one from the Cuyagua region.

It has been too long since we have had either a new bean or crop in and today I'm happy to announce both.

A warm welcome and hello the new year everyone. I’ve quite a bit to let you know about so I hope you can take a few minutes to dig in.

Ruby chocolate anyone?

Do you have a recipe for or experience with making candied whole cocoa beans? I ate some in Costa Rica that were really good and I’d like to make my own. It’s definitely not rocket science, but I botched my first try and my second attempt wasn’t very good, so figured I’d check to see if you had any experience with it.

This is going to be a little rambling with a little of this and a little of that. I’ll get to the Ask the Alchemist after a couple announcements.

I wrote an article yesterday. It was kind of a venting rant session for me. Call it therapy. But I started having doubts that I might be just railing at the world and it wasn’t useful or delivered the message I wanted.

I have been making your milk chocolate using your suggested 25% blend of cocoa, sugar, milk power, and cocoa butter. I'm curious what the best way would be to try different percentages without messing up the end product?

“I see you have beans from a couple years ago. Are they still good? I would prefer fresher beans.”

“I spend so much time sorting my beans and lose probably 20% because they are different sizes and some are not fermented well. What really clean beans can you recommend?”

On 7/9/20 we are trying out a new shipping system

We are starting a new bean to bar factory in the industry so I would like to know what is the best cocoa nibs there is to order for making chocolate? And what equipment do we need?  Can you supply me with a recipe for making the best chocolate?

Another Great video on brewing cocoa. Have a few questions.

1. I am embarking on cacao for weight loss and all the health benefits. I was told that if your roast or heat the cocoa beans they lose a lot of phytonutrients. I live in India and my cocoa beans are thoroughly sun dried and the skins are easy to remove. Do I still need to roast them.

We have a nice selection of the new crops of 4 different long time origins.

Hi John! I apologize if I am inquiring at the wrong time; I'm not sure who is managing emails right now. I hope all is well and you are having a nice recovery! If you are able to reply, I had a few questions.

One thing I can’t find an answer about is how I should go about sorting my beans.  I have tried a bunch of different ways and nothing really seems to improve my chocolate every time.  I see so many chocolate makers sorting but just can’t figure it out.  Please help!!

 I attended the NW Chocolate Festival and wanted to follow up with you on a few things:

How should I roast beans from Mexico?