Forum Activity for @Clay

Roger -

It is a good idea - and it belongs in the Classifieds section.

Doing it this way requires that I "police" every post where someone asks to buy or sell beans outside that single post, point them to the correct post, and close down the one where the question is asked (unless it's a blog in which case there's nothing I can do).

I mention that because we tried to create a single "official bean-to-bar chocolate maker" thread and in the end it turned out to be too much work to force all new entries into the single "official" thread.

Blog/discussion software is not the best tool to this. If anyone has some programming skills and wants to work on some useful database tools I would be happy to work on this.

Roger:

Interesting idea ... and one that I will think about some more if/as people chime in on this.

A generic "Where to Buy" category makes sense to me in a general discussion area.

There is a whole Classifieds section where an "I want to buy/sell cocoa beans" makes a lot of sense and it would be highly specific. I could close this discussion and point to one there.

A "Where to Buy Cocoa Beans" in the main discussion are seems redundant to me.

Anyone have any strong opinions one way or the other?

Roger:

There are many sources for cocoa beans. One I recommend is a new sponsor of TheChocolateLife - Meridian Cacao .

:: Clay

I don't entirely understand what you are looking for. A hot pan for nuts to cover with chocolate? Roast? Caramelize (that is, make pralin)?

Panning is the process of covering a center with chocolate or sugar, or some other coating.

Here's a site for a US company that sells machines for cooking nuts in sugar . Here's the web site of the company that makes them (they're in Munich, Germany).

Here's a site for a German company that makes machines for roasting nuts and cooking them in sugar.

One of the challenges is that in order for it to be called milk chocolate here in the US, it has to have dairy in it:

(4) Dairy ingredients:
(i) Cream, milkfat, butter;
(ii) Milk, concentrated milk, evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk, dried milk; and
(iii) Skim milk, concentrated skim milk, evaporated skim milk, sweetened condensed skim milk, nonfat dry milk;

Callebaut might not be selling it here in the US for labeling reasons.If you import it from Canada you should be careful how you label it.Calling it "dairy-free milk chocolate" won't work - at least as far as the FDA is concerned. That's why some companies refer to "mylk" chocolate.

There are a couple of bean-to-bar companies I know that use coconut milk powder and it's really quite good. Not making it as couverture to sell, though. Askinosie uses goat's milk and while it is goat-y it's not too goat-y.

It is possible to make.

Tom:

I missed Nick's mention of 90gr molds and so your math is correct ... but only by assuming you can get every single gram of chocolate out of the machine. In my experience, that is simply not possible, and it is misleading to suggest that it is. This is a situation where your being preciseis misleading. 125 molds, maybe. 130 molds I could even get down with, but exactly 133 molds, sorry.

You explained why someone would not want to empty the bowl - the dosing becomes less accurate as the bowl empties. But there is another, and far better, reason not to empty the bowl that has to do with throughput. Even if Selmi does make an accessory to keep the bowl pressure more constant.

Also, in my experience talking with many owners of Selmi machines, the tempering is rarely perfectand often starts to suffer when the bowl starts emptying during normal production. This is because there is a very small mass of chocolate in the bottom of bowl near the melt point and you are dumping tempered chocolate into the bowl (which can be 10C or more cooler) and there is no chance to melt out all the crystals before it goes through the tempering pipe again. This can lead very quickly to over crystallization. I understand the mechanics and physics of these continuous tempering machines quite well.

And yes, the augers can be removed from FBM machines and they can be washed with water.

And still, Tom, you misunderstand. I can have biases. I don't have to be perfectly neutral about everything (or anything!). I get to have opinions and I get to express them freely. One of the reasons TheChocolateLife now counts nearly 7,500 members in over 140 countries is that I do have opinions, and I do express them. People want to know what I think. Here's one - there's nothing magic in the air or water (or equipment or cocoa beans) that automagically makes chocolate made in Belgium better than chocolate made anywhere else -- just because it comes from Belgium. It's just marketing hype.I think that the small batch bean-to-bar craft chocolate movement is making a lot of the really interesting chocolate in the world right now.

I don't keep it a secret that I sell equipment. I started to sell equipment in part to cover the costs of hosting the site and because I wanted to get out of the business of shipping chocolate bars. It's right up front on the home page of the site that I sell equipment, and what I equipment I sell. There is no hidden agenda and the site does not exist just to sell equipment. I sell Chocovision tempering machines, I've sold Bakon melters, I've sold CocoaTown grinders. I've even sold a couple of Selmi Pluses (through Tomric). More importantly (for me and for ChocolateLife members), FBM worked with me to create a program that made it possible for me offermeaningful discounts on continuous tempering equipment to ChocolateLife members around the world.

And, rest assured, I do my very best to make sure ChocolateLife members are educated about equipment purchases large and small.

Tom -

You still have not explained what is "new" about the "new generation" of machines that makes it possible to deposit inclusions so easily.

The size range you are talking about, 2-3mm, and the percentage you are talking about - 20% - is something that can easily be handled by a number of other machines, including those from FBM, and have been capable for some time.

So, I am curious to know what's so new about the new generation machines that sets them apart from the old generation machines where working with inclusions was not possible.

Nick - Just FYI, the number of tablets per batch Tom gives (133) is a kind of strange number as the Color has a 12kg working bowl. The number of bars you get depends on the volume of the mold cavity. If you were depositing 80gr bars you'd get more out of 12kg than 133. Also, these are continuous tempering machines so there should be no concept of "batch." For a number of reasons you never want to get close to emptying the bowl during normal production. This will introduce variability into the weight of the deposit and cause changes in temperature that will affect tempering and the viscosity of the chocolate.

Continuous tempering machines operate under very different principles than batch machines and the two should not be confused or mixed.

:: Clay

Nick:

What sizes are the inclusions and what's the ratio of chocolate to inclusion? That'd help us understand better what you're working with and how we might be able to help you address your production challenges.

Assuming, of course, that you aren't looking to spend $20,000 to solve the issue.

:: Clay

Tom:

I don't see any mention of the ability of your "new generation" of machines to handle inclusions. Can you please let the community know what the maximum size of inclusions your machines can handle (in mm) and what the max percentage of inclusions that can be handled (ratio of chocolate to inclusions) and of the inclusions are handled both with the measured depositor and with the depositor plates.

I don't really mind too much your not actually answering Nick's question - but it is not okay just to post a link to an equipment vendor's site where the answer to the question is not immediately apparent.

I hope you understand.

:: Clay

Tom:

I couldn't get your link to work for me. I went to Google Books and then entered " Restoring Chocolate's Old-Time Flavor" into the search box and found the text you mentioned. Here's a link that should work .

What a great find! I am l ooking forward to reading this.

Brad:

While I appreciate your offer to the members, I make the money to support TheChocolateLife community by offering advertising and sponsorship programs to companies that want to sell products and services to members.

By making your offer without contacting me first you have undermined some of the relationships I have with advertisers and sponsors. I am closing down comments to this post for that reason.

Your advertising your product in this way is the same - from my perspective - as if I owned a chocolate store and you walked into that store and started selling your products. I can only assume that if I walked into your storefront in Calgary and started selling someone else's chocolate that you'd have a problem with that.We have had this discussion before - in private and in public. TheChocolateLife is my place of business and I ask that you respect that and consider that fact when making posts.

If you want to offer your product commercially to ChocolateLife members you can ... through the proper channels. One of the things I look for is a pricing structure that provides a discount to ChocolateLife members PLUS a commission to me for referring any business.

:: Clay

PS.Classifieds is for USED equipment so if you want to sell off youroldmachines you can.

Paul:

There's another way to think about this.

Chocolate will continue to crystallize at a constant temperature (that's why it tends to thicken over the course of a day in a tempering machine even if nothing else changes).Cooling the chocolate induces faster crystallization. This cooling might be very local (within a few mm of the surface of your frozen center), but it can effect a very real change in the chocolate over time as the crystals are mixed in and spread.

So - while the temperature might not change "significantly," you are inducing faster crystal formation in the chocolate that's left behind in the bowl.

Paul:

The thing that occurs to me right away is that your centers are coming from the freezer and they're cooling the chocolate really, really quickly causing the cocoa butter to crystallize a lot faster than you expect.

First thought is to raise the temperature of the chocolate to as high as you possibly can and still keep it in temper. After dipping a couple of centers, stir the chocolate and check to see what temperature it is, and adjust accordingly.

Now - this may introduce other issues, such as the shells cracking because of the differential in temperatures.

Emily:

I've been on the tech-help side of these things after you've tried ninety-eleven ways to try to fix things and nothing seems to work.

Although not relevant to your problem, I got some panicky emails the week before Valentine's Day from someone who'd purchased a specialty chocolate holding cabinet through me. They pressed a button on the front during cleaning and changed the temperature and it would no longer reach and hold the correct temperature - too warm! ... and it had work flawlessly for three years. They tore it apart, cleaned the insides, had tech help from the company on the phone for hours and in the end, the solution was exactly what my initial thought was: in the three years they had never checked the refrigerant level. The refrigeration repair tech who came in diagnosed the problem in about 2 minutes and within another 15 minutes the cabinet was back up and working. The moral of the story there is that the pre-season checkup now includes not only a cleaning but also recharging the system.

I imagine that it will be something that either has never happened before in the history of this machine (I've run into that scenario) OR it will be something so obvious in hindsight (like the above) that everyone will be slapping their foreheads.

Please let us know how things turn out!

Carley -

Give Puratos a call and ask if there is another distributor in your area. While they may not schedule truck deliveries like Sysco there should be something close enough that you're not shipping pallets from NJ.

As for how many cases/pallet it depends on what size(s) and form factors the product comes in. I know Guittard has a 500lb minimum and they sell in 500gr bars (E Guittard line), 5kg boxes, and 25 and 50 lb boxes not to mention in bags and drums. So, depending on what you order, the number of cases can vary considerably.

Vahid:

What is wrong with the machines? Are they not functioning in the same way? There is no way anyone can help if we don't know what's wrong.

Have you contacted Chocovision.

Martin:

Here is a link to the machine in question , for everyone.

The 3RT 12C is not a continuous tempering machine (neither is the 6T series), it is a batch tempering machine. From the page:

12 kg. of chocolate is melted to 45 degree C in 60-90 minutes. It is then cooled and tempered to 31 degree C in app. 20 minutes.

Once the 12kg of chocolate is used, it will take a minimum of 20 minutes to get a new batch of 12kg of tempered chocolate (assuming chocolate at 45C is poured into the tempering machine) otherwise you are looking at 80-90 minutes between batches working from solid chocolate. From everything I have heard, the Chocomas are dependable machines that do what they do. However, note that the these machines do not include depositors or vibrating tables so if those features are important to you you need to factor those into the total cost.

Both the Selmi One and FBM Aura are continuous tempering machines. They are roughly comparable in terms of basic capabilities. Major differences are in working bowl capacity and form factor (the One is floor-standing and the Aura is bench-top).

With the Aura's 4kg working bowl you can be ready to work in about 30 minutes from a cold start and take up to about 10kg per hour out of the working bowl without having to interrupt production for more than a few minutes at a time. This is one of the major advantages of continuous tempering - greater throughput. I would also say that more consistent crystallization is also possible.

In my opinion, based on everything I know about the internal workings of the two machines FBM machines are better engineered and built than Selmi machines. The Aura is about 2000 Euros cheaper than the One (before the ChocolateLife member discount on FBM). From a throughput perspective, the closer comparison is the FBM Prima which is slightly less expensive (after ChocolateLife member discount) than the One. The Prima does have the advantage of accepting an enrober attachment, which neither the One nor the Color can.

Hey everyone. If you want to put together buying groups for products from companies that are NOT supporters of TheChocolateLife please contact me first. If you are not sure if a company is a supporter of TheChocolateLife - please contact me first.

There may be a conflict with an existing supporter of TheChocolateLife.
I may be able to help get a better discount and/or a better product.

Please keep in mind that the commissions I make selling products to the ChocolateLife community make it possible for me to run the community free of charge.

Thanks for your understanding,
:: Clay

Salt is noted for its ability to reduce bitterness in some contexts. Try adding tiny (!) amounts of salt to a cup of espresso, mix, and take a small sip. Do this a couple of times and pay attention to the sensation of bitterness as it changes.

Allie:

Apart from the fact that I have not idea what "appertains" are and I don't see a reference to them on the web site, there's nothing in the company's claims that is not possible. (And strictly speaking, it would be sorbitol not sorbitals).

What I would take away from the description is that the chocolate will be very intense. For most people, 90%+ chocolates are very much acquired tastes and most people find it very difficult to eat more than a very small portion at a time.

But - just ground cocoa beans and salt? It's a legitimate recipe - though again, strictly speaking, most "Himalayan" salt is mined in Pakistan.

Brad:

I read the OP to say they wanted to try something new and different (i.e., not a ladle - which I also interpreted to mean not a measuring cup) to transfer the chocolate from an existing bain marie (not in buying a new machine). I also read Olivier's profile and he's from Switzerland and I learn now in Chile, so the suggestion of a comparatively low-tech concept that could be implemented many ways turned out to be especially appropriate.

Replacing the siphon hose is trivial; I was pointing out anapproachto solving the problem of finding a new and different way to dispense hot chocolate, not suggesting a specific piece of equipment.

NN2R (no need to respond) to me on this. If you have something in line with what Olivier was asking for, please feel free to respond to the spiritof his OP.

Olivier -

You are right - there's nothing I can find in the way of pipettes and basters that are larger than about 40-60mls.

I wonder if a siphon like this one might work.

It will do about 1 pint (about 475ml) in three strokes, once primed. You could move the supply hose from the chocolate to a container of water to clean (by pumping) after each serving. With the right mounting hardware something like this could be pretty cool for serving hot chocolate.

30% is way too low for chocolate. 50-55% is about right.

I suspect a combination of approaches will work. I would hate to invest $5k in a big dehumidifier and find out it doesn't work.

When working with the Moso bags (you might be able to find a local supplier for something similar in bulk and you could use another wood - bamboo is used because it's so fast growing) I always make sure to increase air circulation if I can and make sure the bag is in the airstream. They are small, but I used one for a self-made walk-in cooler of about 80 cu meters and had no problem, in part because there was very little air transfer. They are surprisingly effective. And cheap. Hanging one in the bowl and covering it up would remove excess moisture from the air in the bowl for sure.

Colin -

Try using quantities of bamboo bio-char. I ran across this company a couple of years ago and have used this product in a number of installations where the problem was not quite as severe as the one you're describing. This is a US company but I know they source their bamboo bio-char in SE Asia.

They are quite cheap (the large bags retail for US$23 each) and are good for about 50 cubic meters. You might need four or five or more to address the problem - but they are still really cheap and they require no energy. You could get many more than you need and instead of cycling them monthly, cycle them weekly.

BTW - these bags are also good in refrigerated display cases where there is no humidity control as well as for any application where refrigeration is required and humidity is a problem.

Javier -

I was not far from you last week -- in and around Piura and Lima.

Any "batch" tempering machine, like the Chocovision (including X3210 or Delta) need seed chocolate. This means that in order to temper properly you need already-tempered chocolate. If you are making chocolate bean-to-bar this means that you probably have to table temper the chocolate by hand for at least the first batch.

As you are already tempering by hand, this should not be an issue for you.

As for the difference between the two, it's really a question of how much you need to produce in a day, you match the working bowl capacity to your production. Chocovision offers a baffle that takes the Delta from about 4.25kg to about 8kg, and they also make a larger machine - at about 15kg and I hear there are even larger machines being worked on. With a Rev Delta and the holey baffle you should be able to temper 25kg per day or so.

Hilliards say The Little Dipper can do a max of about 12kg per day.

The difference in capacity could make it easy to choose one over the other.

Have you contacted Pacari directly? Are you sure you understand correctly?

It may be as you suspect, that they are using un-roasted beans to make the butter so that's why the consider it to be raw. If they're processing it to 100C then it's not raw by the definition of the raw chocolate community. That doesn't make their definition unconventional, you're just speaking different languages. You are speaking the language of the raw foodist community, they are speaking the language of cocoa processors.

I have a much more interesting question for you - and this is something I pose to everyone in the raw chocolate world when they start asking about cocoa butter: what is the evidence for any negative chemical changes in the cocoa butter that occur during processing at a higher (than 47 or thereabouts) temperature?

You can say it kills "living" enzymes (virtually all raw foodists do say that in my experience) ... but no one has ever been able to show me any credible, independent laboratory analysis of the differences between cocoa butters pressed from the same lot of beans that differ only in the temperature at which they were pressed. And no, neither David Wolff nor Gabriel Cousens meet the standard of credible and independent.

I would love to know if there are differences so I can talk about them knowledgeably, which is why I ask. I personally am not a fan of the taste of most of the raw chocolates I have tasted so, to me, I wonder if my sacrificing my pleasure in eating "cooked" chocolate is worth any supposed meaningful differences in health benefits.

Harry:

I believe you can purchase Ecuadorian product in bulk from Pacari - I am not sure if they supply the full range of what you're looking for.

Another source (Indonesia) is Big Tree Farms.

You are in the UK so I don't know how much harder this makes it for you. I can get both Pacari and BigTree products in the US.

Having just spent a couple of days in Piura (I am writing this in a hotel room in Miraflores, Lima), I would be interested in knowing what you mean when you say, "their interpretation of raw is unconventional to say the least."

Brian -

I am the agent for ChocolateLife members worldwide. Please send me a message and I will send you the information you need.

:: Clay

There are a lot of great recipes for caramels that can be piped, but if what you want is chewy that might be a little more difficult to pipe.

Another place to look is Jean-Pierre Wybauw's books. My only "problem" with his books is that the flavors of the recipes are definitely old school and tend to be sweet. The techniques are really dead on, though.

And you are on the right track - caramel texture is as much a matter of temperature as it is of ingredients list. I have a recipe (uses sweetened condensed milk) that I make that can be quite soft at room temp but when I let it cook another couple of degrees it's a very different animal. I tend to make it thick/chewy and then warm and soften with cream to get the exact consistency I am looking for.

Brad -

I think that's more than a little disingenuous. Customers don't really care about the total universe of recipes you have, they care about what they can buy today. They don't care if you used to make it, or are going to make it, or if it's a special treat that you make and offer up according to some schedule only you know.

They want to know what they can buy today. As near as I can tell, that's about 800 items. It's still a lot, but it's not 1175 (or even 1000). So why not be straight and up front about it?

Why not tell people that at any given time there are more than 799 (to pick a random number) combinations from a menu that numbers over 1150 - it's still way more than almost anyone else offers.

Anything else is less than 100% honest, IMO.

Brad:

I did a little math on your truffle flavor options. Looks like:

17 different flavors for the centers
2 different chocolate options
23 different options for toppings (including nothing)

That's 782 different combination (17x2x23), far fewer than the 1,100 number you mention on your site. If I add in all the other items (caf, gifts, bars) I don't make it past 810 items.

That's still a lot - but unless I am missing something, it's far short of the combinations on offer.

Brad:

I have to agree with others who state that the site is not very smart phone friendly. I visited the site on an iPhone 4s and in landscape mode viewing the entire contents of pages (bottom scrolling) is difficult. On the catalog page (and this is not just an issue on the phone but on my laptop) the text in the blue bar across the top is not completely visible. From a usability perspective, the "I Promise" page should be shown only once in each visit. Or, if you want to, rotate the photo each view during a visit.

However, the larger issue for me is the overall tone of much of the writing and what appears to be the core from which it is written.

I think it safe to say that most people who get into the chocolate business get into it because they love chocolate. From what I read on your "about the choklatier" page, you got into chocolate because you got pissed off. I mean, really angry. Your anger is still palpable in your writing, now, what, nearly eight years after the incident? What I get from your tone is that you are not the "bad boy" of chocolate that you think you are - you come across as the angry petulant child of chocolate.

I find the expressed point of view tiresome. Immediately tiresome. Based on the content and tone of the writing of your current web site, I would never, ever, do business with you. And, if asked for my opinion, I could not recommend that anyone do business with you.

The other reason I cannot make a recommendation to others to engage in commerce with you is, of course, that I have never tasted any of your confections so I can't render an opinion on them. Nor am I ever likely to because oh - I can't actually buy them without traveling to Calgary. I did a little research and I can't find any other reviewer whose opinion I trust that has ever reviewed your products. So I can't even cite them.

My advice to you - if you really care and are serious about really, really listening to what ChocolateLife members have to say, is:

Chill out.
It's just chocolate.
You're not solving world hunger or campaigning for world peace.

Take a deep breath and repeat after me, "It's just chocolate. It's just chocolate. It's just chocolate. It's justchocolate." Now consider rewriting your web site by appealing to your customer' love for chocolate - not as an outlet for your anger. It is a matter ofwhat you say -- andhow you say it.

My $.04 (considering inflation and the exchange rate)

To Marisa and the entire ChocolateLife community:

In the almost exactly 5 years since I started TheChocolateLife, I have only had to remove one post, and the few posts that I have redacted are because portions of them violated the terms and spirit of the community guidelines.

Removing and redacting posts is something I am extremely reluctant to even consider doing as I open myself to criticism of censorship. The last thing I want is for members to think I quash opinions I do not agree with. Those who know me -- and who've followed some of the more inflammatory discussions that have appeared on the site over the past five years -- know that I go above and beyond in my desire to be a fair moderator - tolerating things that I probably should not. There are stretches when I spend more time behind the scenes than I do out in front.

In the only other instance where I removed a post I did so onlybecause, after review, I felt that there were potential legal ramifications affecting me personally that I was unwilling to be exposed to. I am deleting the text of Marisa's post for exactly those same reasons. After review and thinking about this overnight, I feel the potential for legal exposure that I am unwilling to risk.

There are many things Icouldsay -- but I feel it prudent not to inject myself into the matter, thereby achieving what I hope to avoid.

Interestingly, several members of TheChocolateLife community are involved in disputes involving money with people who also just happen to be members of TheChocolateLife community. Fortunately, those aggrieved members chose to get in contact with me privately to discuss the issues so that I was aware of them - and to seek counsel on how to proceed and resolve the matters amicably.

Marisa, I am disappointed that you have been a member of the community for nearly a year and that this is your first public contribution. If you would care to message me PRIVATELY I would be happy to hear what you have to say. I cannot promise any sort of relief or mediation, of course, but I am happy to listen (or read) what you have to say.

:: Clay

Emgee:

I know what you mean about the sweetness of Tanariva and I think that using it as a base for something with a salty/nutty inclusion is a fabulous idea. Try something weird, maybe a roasted/salted sunflower seed butter studded with roasted sunflower seeds (unsalted) and sprinkled with a smoked coarse salt. You could also consider mixing the butter with the melted chocolate to make a spread. Sun-duja!

Another thing that occurred to me would be to use the Tanariva as milk in a "dark milk" blend chocolate. You don't want to use something really fruity like Manjari, but using it to lighten up Coeur de Guanaja (or even regular Guanaja) could be really interesting.

And - on a complete other note - try pairing the Tanariva with Brooklyn Brewery's Pennant Pale Ale. Classic English pale ale malty/yeasty/bready - served temps in the 50s, not ice cold - goes extremely well with the Tanariva. I did this for a pairing event last holidays (2011, not 2012) and it was the dark-horse hit of the pairings.

Greg:

Unfortunately, it's impossible to tell what the alcohol content of these are from the descriptions on the Chef Rubber site. You'll either need to go to the manufacturer's site or call Chef Rubber customer support. I had a tough sourcing problem that they were able to help me with.

Gold standard for flavors, though, is Amoretti . They are expensive but everyone I know says they are worth the difference when flavor is important. If you look at the details tab for their products it will let you know if there is alcohol.

They have generic extracts (e.g., rum) and often taste-alikes for premium brands (e.g., Amaretto, Kahlua) and often have both water and oil soluble versions of the same flavor.

Amoretti also makes edible perfume sprays - you can add aromas to the outside of pieces just before serving them. It sounds weird but it's way cool.

Daniel -

I had forgotten Christophe was in Montreal. Doubleplusgood recommendation to that.

Daniela:

Absent any specific recommendations (I haven't been to Montreal in quite a while), you might want to try Chocomap and ChocoLocate. Both are databases of chocolate stores. Coupled with a Google search (chocolate +Montreal) and Yelp that's at least a start.

Here is a list from Chowhound.

Michael -

You are right to be skeptical ... he cosmetic stuff may be safe enough to put on skin, but it might not be safe enough to eat. ALWAYS check to make sure that you're using food-safe versions of ingredients. While the titanium oxide may be safe you also have to look at what's in the carrier medium.

Meg:

You can go to Sears or some other appliance store and get a chest freezer. These are way cheaper than commercial freezers for the capacity. You can find a ~15cu. ft. chest freezer for under $500.

Then use a temperature controller to raise the temp above freezing. 35-45F will extend the shelf life considerably without worrying about freezing changing the texture (through ice crystal formation).

Johnson ControlsA419ABC-1Ctemperature controller available on eBay and other places - wiring diagram . Here is a forum discussion (brewing) that talks about using these controllers. You can order them for $70 or less.

Meg:

It can be lower than 55% - that's ideal - but not too much lower. I was in Phoenix (Scottsdale, actually) a couple of years ago for a competition and we had the reverse problem. The humidity was so high it was affecting the sugar work. The resort had two golf courses, two pools, a water feature out front, and grass landscaping. There was a lot of moisture in the air.

You also need to think about the presentation of the items in the case. You want to make it look full, knowing that some items will sell much faster than others. So buying to stock the case could mean that as you start to sell the case could start to look empty in a lopsided kind of way. Good merchandising will be one key to your success.

Meg:

Welcome to Your ChocolateLife!

The shelf life of individual chocolates (bonbons) can vary widely. Some might last 2-3 weeks from the date of manufacture, some 3-6 weeks, some 3-6 months, and some longer. It depends on the recipe and they way they are made. There are lots of techniques that can be used to extend shelf life that don't involve ingredients that are obviously preservatives. For example, using an invert sugar will bind the water in the recipe making it harder for microorganisms to grow and spoil the piece. Alternatively, the maker could use a vacuum mixer (e.g., a Stephan).

The only thing to do is to inquire of the maker as to their recommendations and then skew your purchasing to rely on more items with longer shelf life. Short shelf life items are good, but you risk throwing them away if you can't sell them in time.

Ideally, the store is cooled to between 68-74F .. and is humidity controlled, ideally to around 55% RH. This is fine for storing chocolate bars and you'll get months and months for both dark and milk at these temps. The shorter-shelf-life items will be in the case, cooled to 60F or thereabouts. I don't like cases that move around a lot of air as this can cause the chocolates to go stale more quickly. I've been experimenting with using a small chiller to pipe cold water under a marble slab (built like a radiant-heat floor, but cooled) as the cooling source for a cabinet. The base would act as a thermal mass to regulate temperature cost effectively.

It's always handy to have some 45F-55F storage (a chest freezer with a temperature override device is a cheap option) for longer-term storage. You could put bonbons in here to extend their shelf life. It's important that you control humidity as water condensing on the bonbons or bars can ruin them quickly.

Thank you Brad for all your contributions this year. Enjoy your time in the mountains!