I agree with Miguel about buying used equipment. Unless it's refurbished or I was planning on refurbishing it, I wouldn't buy used. This is the "rough service" stuff like a melangeur or conche/refiner. Basic chocolate equipment like tempering machines and such I believe it's OK (and have done so) to buy used.

For starter operations, Chocolate Alchemy has a decent array of equipment.

What machines are you looking for specifically? What is the hourly or daily production you are expecting to get with it?

To tell the truth, buying used chocolate machinery is very tricky and you need to check very deeply on your purchase.

Right know I just know of two companies that would sell used equipment.

- MTE Bifaro in Italy.

- Union Machinery in the States.

many thanks, Miguel
Hi thanks for the reply, I'm starting on this issue and I have many doubts. another question where I can get used machines?

Hello Mariano,

You can find some directions and basic recipes on this link at the ChocolateAlchemy .

Hey Jim,

I did sell in a small fair once and it was terrible for me, I was not prepared and some of my chocolate melted. The cooler idea might work, you could use a wine cooler, make sure it has temperature and relative humidity control and of course include an estimated electricity consumption for the wine cooler to your costs.

Good luck

I have a question, I'm new to this and want to know what the standard chocolate recipe, percentage of sugar, cocoa butter, cocoa liquor?apology to put me in your conversation jim!

Hello Miquel,

Thank you for your help. There certainly is plenty of Palm oil in the area, the landscape is ugly with palm plantations for the oil.

I am very newly into this and do see farmer's markets as a possible outlet as well as a source for locating wholesale accounts. I will work on my "tempering" and experiment with shelf life. The good news is it really seldom gets over 80 degrees Fahrenheit here.

I thought if I did fairs, farmer's markets I might keep it in a cooler. At the moment, I am thinking about using a mylar packaging that I use for my freshly roasted coffee. I can seal it tight and then keep it out of ANY sunlight.

Again, thank you kindly.

Jim

Not really. Cocoa Butter will actually make it be more unstable. What big companies do is that they add a little bit (maybe no more than 5%) of palm oil to increase the melting point, but I don't see that as an option.

I live in Dominican Republic so I face the exact same problem and I have noticed that if WELL tempered the chocolate could stay hard for quite a while, make sure it doesn't have direct sunlight tho.

Are you considering to sell your products in fairs or some other outdoor activities?

I'm not sure how many stupid questions we are allowed? But here goes. Does the amount of Cocoa Butter added make a difference in the stabilization of the chocolate in warm weather? I live in Costa Rica, will be making and selling my chocolate here where it is always warm (thank God). Any other tricks for making chocolate less susceptible to heat?

Thank you all for your help, I ordered some cocoa butter on eBay and will try using that in my next batch. Lots of experimenting but all good! GO Costa Rica in today's world cup game!!

In case you want to know about getting your own cocoa butter in future. To do that you need a press that basically pushes the cocoa liquor extracting the greasy part which is cocoa butter and leaving a cocoa cake that is actually broken into pieces and pulverized to get cocoa powder.

have fun, and post your results!

Thank you Sebastian, it's a learning curve buit lots of fun.

Jim

You'll want cocoa butter that has been taken from someone else's liquor to add to your own.

So, I made my first couple batches of Chocolate a week ago and even with all my mistakes, it was GREAT. Maybe like a hot dog when you are camping...better than a rib eye at home. Anyway as I move forward and plan for my next batches, I was going to make cocoa butter to add to my chocolate. I was surprised to find that the information on making my own cocoa butter was basically extract it from the chocolate I was planning to return it to.

Am I missing something here?