The new crop of Ecuador Palo Santo has arrived and it is delightfully lively.

First question: Am I safe to roast all (or the majority) of my cocoa at this Behmor setting/time?
Second question: When I winnow with the Champion (so far I have only hand-winnowed) and then use the Sylph,

Closed due to weather

I’m not joking around today, we’re talking about a sensitive topic in the Chocolate Industry. Cocoa Moths.

What the DUCK dude? It’s that time of year again.

How does latent moisture in your ingredients (like Cocoa beans) change the working properties of your chocolate? Alchemist john ran some experiments to find out.

The Alchemist answers some common questions about using and making Cocoa Butter Silk.

“A year ago I took a chocolate tasting class from the IICCT.  During a tasting in the class, the instructor said that he tasted a little rancid cocoa butter in one of the samples.  He said that it is something that many of the tasters are starting to notice during some tastings.  So, if rancid cocoa butter is an issue, what temperature are we supposed to be storing it at?”

Did you know?

This sugar article has technically been in the making for over a decade and I realized it was time to finally put it all together and fill in some gaps in my knowledge.  To that end we made a bunch of chocolate, both dark and milk, with a wide array of sugars.  Here is our cast of characters.

After such a long and in depth viscosity discussion last week, I think we all deserve a simple speed round of Q and A.

Imagine you have a big, thick, gooey slime. Now, if you try to push your hand through the slime, it resists and feels sticky. That’s because the slime doesn’t like to move quickly when you apply force to it. We call this “viscosity.”

First up, our super popular 'it hardly stays in stock'

The subtle peated umami seems to throw some people for a loop. If it isn’t clear, I love it. Please go check it out!

The Flux winnower is here!

Alchemist: How much chocolate have you made?

Petitioner:  You nailed it there! I'm new and haven't made any chocolate yet. My background is manufacturing and I'm just completing an MBA. I am going to be hiring a consultant for picking the right taste profile for my business. My apologies if these questions seem quite ignorant.

This is going to be one of those Rambling Alchemist kinds of posts where I give you a whack of updates.

Order $100 or over will get free Economy shipping in the 48 USA States. The shipments will be insured but shipped by whatever the least expensive method is.

Tempering silk butter is the bomb.

You would make a ton of sales if you would invent a way to make a melanger for under $100.  Why don’t you do that?  The market could really use it or a cheaper way to refine chocolate.

Why the hell didn’t I think of making a $100 melanger...oh wait....