Problem tempering with Chocovision Rev 2

Isaac Ekblad
12/05/14 01:05:20PM
@isaac-ekblad

I've searched the forums here for help with my problem, but I can't find exactly what I'm looking for, so forgive me if this topic has already been covered and I failed to find it.

A few weeks ago I received my Rev 2 in the mail. Up until then, I'd been tempering by hand, with no problems. I would usually just pour the chocolate out of my Premier Wonder Grinder into a metal bowl, keep it around 95 F, take out a third and work it in another metal bowl until it got to the low 80s (and was very thick), then add it to the 95 F chocolate, agitate, make sure it was below 91 F, and finally pour into the molds. Nine times out of ten, perfect temper.

I got the rev 2 because I'm sick of standing around for 30+ minutes stirring and ending up with a bunch of things to clean and bits of chocolate stuck to my countertops and cabinets. I read here and other places that the Chocovision Rev 2 is able to temper chocolate without having to use seed chocolate. I've tried to do this probably 10 times, with no success. My chocolate is usually between 85%-95% cacao beans with the rest being sugar. I pour it (between 1.5-2.5 lbs) from the Wonder Grinder into the Rev 2 (usually its about 105 F when I put it in), heat to 114, cool as much as I can before it starts going over the edges (usually between 81-82), then bringing it up to around 88.5-90 F. Once it's at the target temperature, I let it stir for a few minutes so that everything is well mixed and agitated, then I pour into molds. No matter what I do, I end up with streaky chocolate. Sometimes the smaller molds will temper alright, but my 1.5 ounce bars never do, nor do my 1/2 LB bars. The ambient temperature is 72 and the humidity is probably high, as I live in a coastal town in Washington State. The one time I used seed chocolate, it tempered perfectly. The problem is that I can't do this every time because I got the machine to experiment with small batches of different origins and I don't ever have already tempered chocolate from the same origin.

I contacted Chocovision and they sent me a new baffle, which I expect will arrive in the next few days, because I noticed that the temperature shown on the machine differs by a few degrees from what my infrared thermometer reads. I have no idea what I could possibly be doing wrong and I am getting exasperated with the machine. I would appreciate any advice. Thanks!