Small Scale Chocolate factory

Hello,

I`m happy to be here and i would like to ask all of you for some advices.

I want to build a chocolate factory to make chocolate from cacao beans to sell it to buisnesses that work with chocolate.

If someone can give me a list of the minimum requiered equipment for a small scale production like 50 kg / day.

links and info are verry apreciated.

I heard that i can start with only 2 machines a tempering machine and a conche machine. Are those enaugh?

What ordinary machines can i use instead of the professional ones that are verry expensive to complete each step of the chocolate making from cacao beans.

Soo long story short i would like to know what are the needed steppes and equipment to make chocolate at a small scale crom cacao beans.

updated by @tudose-emanuel: 04/12/15 04:33:51PM

Hello Tudose, what you heard (conche and tempering machines is enough) is completely wrong. As you know there are other things VERY IMPORTANT to produce chocolate that need to be done before conching and tempering, for example grinding.

Considering that you want to produce 50kg/day and you must grind/refine for at least 20 hours to have a consistent chocolate flavor, you must get a refiner with those capabilities, you could get a Spectra 65 or a Cocoatown ECGC-65, that would allow you to grind, refine and conch at the same time and they are called "universals" because of that.

As for tempering you can purchase a ChocoVision X3210 which will give you around 45kg per day (more if you use the Holey Baffle).

Remember that you must consider also that you must roast, crack and winnow the cacao beans, and more importantly you must storage the finished chocolate carefully, so those are other machinery you must find out and I can't really provide any advise on.

So if i get this right i need the next things:

1. Roaster

2. Winnow

3. Grinder

4. Tempering

Are those enaugh?

And...

Where can i find a full tutorial of how to make chocolate with all the info needed, like grades for roasting and all the particularities of making chocolate?

Thank you for the reply

and what low budget roaster can u reccomend? For winnow i think i will take

Aether Winnower

while there's a great deal of info here, i might suggest you identify a consultant to help, especially if this is meant to be your business and livelihood. there's is no 'full tutorial' describing everything i'm afraid.

The aether is a good winnower designed by John from ChocolateAlchemy, in his website you could find recipes that kinda explain the process and also you can look into making tour own cracker/winnower in his forum.You should follow Sebastian's advice and go ahead and pay for consultancy, Clay from there offer that type of service, not only for the chocolate making process but also for the business development.Hey, you can also look for YouTube videos to better understand chocolate making.

Tudose:

The Chocolate Alchemy web site has one of the most concise and complete explanations of the process. You will find more information in their discussion boards. There is probably as much or more information here on TheChocolateLife but it's not as well organized.

One piece of equipment to consider is a cocoa bean cracker to crush the beans after they have been roasted and before you winnow. One popular cracker is the Crankandstein.

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clay - http://www.thechocolatelife.com/clay/