Hello All,

I'm posting again after a long time. I unfortunately had to abandon the idea of Bean to bar due to cost constraints. In order to reduce my cost on machinery i was wondering if its possible to process cocoa powder, cocoa butter and sugar into chocolate using a stone grinder or conch. Also i read somewhere on here that if the cocoa powder is added at the beginning of the refining process the chocolate has a "slick" or "rubbery" mouth feel due to the particle size of the cocoa powder getting even smaller than it already is. Is this true?? If this is the case does it make sense to refine the sugar and butter first and add the cocoa powder at a later stage??

With regards to the formulation i'm guessing i would need to double the amount of cocoa butter to compensate for the fat content lost if i was starting from the bean??

Looking forward to your valuable advice.

Regards

updated by @chirag-bhatia: 04/09/15 17:23:21

Chocolate is made by grinding beans up to form liquor. You make cocoa powder by squeezing that liquor very hard until most of the fat comes out.

Not only will you find that trying to re-convert powder+butter into liquor will result in a suboptimal product, you'll find that the equipment requirements necessary to do so are likely more expensive than simply making chocolate; plus the product you end up with, legally, isn't going to be able to be called chocolate in most place i'm afraid.

ThanksSebastian, i really appreciate the reply, in your opinion, what is the the machinery i would need, i don't have much experience, but theoretically, couldn't i "reconstitute" the ingredients in a santha or other such stone mill?

I have been delving into Raw chocolate confectionery . I Have been combining Cocoa Powder and cocoa butter and dehydrated raw cane juice powder ... with a 400w cuisinart immersion blender I have created "chocolate" which I then temper and pipe into discs for sale... they are not at all what you would expect a bean to bar chocolate to be, but I am very happy with the result, not at all grainy or sandy , very smooth mouthfeel and melt. The white is a challenge , I was asked for a vegan raw white , so I used Maca and some mesquite powder along with the dehydrated cane juice powder and vanilla bean... I have sold about 50lbs in the past 4 months and have had nothing but good responses.... So, in short, and with all due respect to our Bean to Bar experts, my answer would be yes... you can produce a blended chocolate confection from cocoa powder and cocoa butter... but don't expect couverture quality... it's more a novelty than anything else.

you'll need all the same equipment you need for chocolate mfr (as you'll still need to particle size reduce sugar and milk, and emulsify), PLUS you'll need something similar to a high shear mixer to get the cocoa butter and cocoa solids to 'recombine' - note you're going to have a difficult time recombining the cocoa solids and butter in a way that gets them to be the same as the original liquor from which they were derived..

Sorry Paul, but you can'tcall what you're doing"raw chocolate". It's not raw. Period. Here's why:

1. Cocoa powder and cocoa butter, when processed, FAR exceed the 120 degree threshold commonly accepted in the "raw" food industry.

2. If it tastes like chocolate it isn't raw. Cocoa beans, when unroasted taste like crap, and absolutely NOTHING like chocolate. Coffee beans when unroasted don't taste like coffee, and bread when untoasted doesn't taste like toast. It's a heat triggered chemical reaction (called a Maillard reaction)that changes the protiens in the food to create the coffee flavour, the chocolate flavour, and the toast flavour. That heat must be above 170 degrees F - high enough to kill pathogens, change the flavour and negate the ability to call it raw.

Oh... one other thing....

You use the term "vegan raw white".... Did you know that a significant amount of cane sugar is processed using bone char? It isn't in the ingredient list on the sugar bag, but sure negates the whole "vegan" marketing schtick.

Here are some links:

http://www.lantic.ca/faq.php?lg=en#4

http://www.sucrose.com/bonechar.html

You seem like a guy who cares about what you market and sell. It's important to do your research into terms you wish to use, and the ingredients that could negate the ability to use those terms. I have found that vegans and raw foodies are often well read, and will call you on it. Be prepared.

Cheers

Brad

I hear you Brad... I was for the longest time ready to call someone out on the "raw" issue... I am very conscious of walk the talk ideal. That's how I like to work, hence my use of "quotation marks" when responding to the discussion above. How raw is raw? That's the question. I had so many requests for raw and I said I don't believe raw is really completely raw and recounted the process of fermentation etc... I have seen temperature guides vary from 104f to 118f for a product to qualify. I have researched my brands of cocoa butter and cocoa powder... both certified raw and organic. The cocoa powder is definitely different in flavour I concede.... on this issue I've kind of put my hands over my ears and gone with it . I live a largely Vegan lifestyle diet-wise as my partner is 100% vegan so I'm aware of the hidden surprises . The sugar I use is freeze-dried cane juice, powdered, and certified vegan and organic. The White was originally vegan and now is sweetened with raw freeze-dried honey... also certified raw and organic. I've tried to find temperature info regarding manufacturing temperatures but nothing is forthcoming.

On my site I removed the word >chocolate< from my "raw cacao confectionery " because as you said... it isn't.

Thanks for the links too.. bookmarked them .