Forum Activity for @Clay

@helion:

Thanks for the kind words ... but it is the community that does most of the important work here by being open and sharing.

50F is too cold. 55F is better.

Do you have a digital hygrometer in your work space? If not, get one. Ideally it will log the humidity over the course of the day and you can download that into a computer and keep track. If not it should measure the current humidity and the peak humidity over the past 24 hours.

A good starting working humidity is ~55%. The closer you can keep the entire work space at that level or below the easier your job will be. Humidity in the air will always condense on a colder surface if the humidity is above the dew point and the temperature of the surface is below the dew point.

Your best approach is to work to keep the ambient environment humidity (temp is ideally ~68-72F) as close to 55% as you can. You can do this with a dehumidifier - try and get one that exhausts the humidity into the warm exhaust air and then pipe the exhaust to the exterior. This will remove the humidity from the space and you will not have to plumb the humidifier to a drain or constantly dump buckets.

Just having a cabinet that lowers the humidity will not address your condensation problem. You can increase the temperature of the cabinet (up to 60F or so) but that will increase the amount of time required to cool. Increasing the airflow may help with that, to some extent, but you do have to remove the heat from the cabinet.

Kim:

I have uploaded the current catalog page for the Prima that lists the prices and accessories. Click on this link to go to the file download page and then click on the PDF icon to download the file.

There is a Prima going to IBIE in October and it's 20% off, plus you pay only shipping from Las Vegas. I am confirming the electrical configuration (might be 3-phase). Another ChocolateLife member has already expressed interest in it, but we can extend the show discount to you, even if we can't offer shipping from Las Vegas.

:: Clay

Will do!

Sarah Ann -

I will get you pricing info to your email within the next 48 hours.

Christopher is right in saying that it can be made quite easily. A Robot Coupe should easily be handle it depending on the consistency you're looking for. Smaller blenders (even Vita Mixes) are underpowered in my experience.

You can also purchase praliné paste. Callebaut is one option, as are Felchlin, Valrhona, and others. I would look to AgriMontana as well (they, along with Domori, are owned Illy) but they make the nut ingredients for Domori. Very good. But - take a look at the ingredients list, especially on cheaper products as they may not be clean label.

Calum -

Vantage House is a UK distributor for Everlasting, which is located in Italy. I am representing Everlasting in the US through another distributor.

The largest unit accepts 20, full-size sheet (US) pans. Temperature control as well as humidity control. These are also fast recovery time units, which means they return to the set temperature and humidity points very quickly. There is also two-door unit which reduces air transfer when opening and closing doors.

These units are designed to crystallize and hold chocolate and do a good job at it. I would use perfed sheet pans. Let me know and I can get some pricing for you.

To address the point @helion brings up: humidity is more of an issue in some locations than others. I don't know where you are located, but in general, being able to control the humidity in the environment is a very good idea. Controlling humidity within the fridge (not just in the room) provides extra control that is valuable, it's not a replacement for humidity control in the working space.

A PID temperature controller is one way to take a fridge that does not operate in the 55F range and get it to operate there. It does this by turning the unit on and off. Robust compressors are an absolute necessity when cycling like this.

Praline is one of the most overloaded words in chocolate, and what you are talking about depends on spelling and pronunciation. The origin of the term is reputed to be the household of the Gilbert Choiseul du Plessis-Praslin, where caramelized nuts were first accidentally cooked.

Praline (pray-leen). The words the Belgians use the way the French use bon bon. Usually a shell-molded piece, but it can refer to hand-rolled and slabbed/enrobed pieces as well.

Praliné (prah-li-nay). This is a caramelized nut paste. However, it can also refer to caramelized nuts (especially when referring to the products of Mazet de Montargis). A coarse (not completely refined) praliné is often referred to as praliné l'ancienne (ancient).

Praline (prah-leen). This is what Christopher is referring to as being from New Orleans. Usually a disk of caramelized sugar (below hard crack) dotted with pecans.

Curly -

FBM is officially closed for most of the month of August. I will reach out to the president and see what can be done. I think that it is highly likely - and we can offer you the 20% discount.

If we can get the order in right when FBM reopens (we can work on that in the next couple of weeks) we can get it made and ship it to you. Would you be planning to come to LV to see the ProXima in operation and get some training on it?

It could make sense to ship the enrober directly to you (you'd be on the hook for international shipping) rather than via LV. Where are you located?

:: Clay

Aly -

Where are you located?

IBIE Show Special Offers

• 20% discount off list price
• Customs cleared (permanent entry)
• Only pay shipping from Las Vegas (plus re-crating fee)
• Ships from Las Vegas after the show (October 8-11)
• OR pick up from LVCC after the show
• ProXima and Maestria are 208~220V 60Hz 3-phase; Prima is  208~220V 60Hz single-phase
  

FBM Prima  - SOLD

FBM ProXima  - SOLD

NEW FBM Maestria60

• 60kg working bowl (was 45kg)
• Prearrangement to accept enrober belt and mold loader
• Craft Chocolate upgrade
• Pneumatic doser w/ auger speed controller

Contact Clay Gordon if you are interested.

Payment must be made in full before the end of the show.

Peter:

FBM has developed a response to your concerns about interrupting the flow of chocolate when depositing into molds.

In most tempering machines that use augers to transport the chocolate through the pipe the flow of chocolate is controlled by starting and stopping the auger. When this happens repeatedly over a short period of time the dwell time of the chocolate in the pipe changes, which can change temper. Plus, because the flow of chocolate is not constant the rate of melting in the bowl is not constant, leading to over-crystallization.

FBM offers, as an option on some of its machine, a pneumatically-controlled doser. When installed, a pneumatic valve (i.e., one that is operated by compressed air) is installed at the top of the tempering pipe. When closed (the default position) the chocolate is diverted down a separate pipe into the working bowl. When the dosing function is activated, the valve opens and the chocolate flows to the mold. After the desired time, the valve closes. In other words, the tempering auger never stops turning and the flow of chocolate is never interrupted. This design eliminates virtually of the drawbacks associated with controlling the flow of chocolate by starting and stopping the auger.

I don't disagree with you about getting a machine that is larger than absolutely necessary, because parameter that affects the consistency of temper include how rapidly the amount of chocolate in the bowl changes and how full the bowl is. It's much harder to maintain temper when the bowl is one-quarter full than when it is full and when you're emptying the bowl faster than the nominal tempering capacity. (FBM's rule of thumb is that the tempering capacity/hr of a machine is 3x the bowl capacity - assuming the bowl is kept full.) However, in my experience, people tend to under-buy capacity because of the expense involved. Having an outboard melter that automatically keeps the working bowl of the tempering machine is a great option to consider if high throughput is required.

FBM also offers three-zone tempering on some of its machines. This can help quite a bit in fine-tuning and maintaining the consistency of temper over the course of work shift.

Of course, the chocolate(s) being used also affect the ability of a machine to reach temper in the first place as well as maintain temper over time.

Not surprisingly, the location of the thermocouples used to measure the temperature come into play, and it is possible that a thermocouple is not properly adjusted within the flow of chocolate. This can lead to difficulty in reaching and maintaining temper.

And, finally, there are differences in software that can account for some of this. FBM has, on its larger machines, a "soft" and a "hard" tempering curve. This refers to how aggressive the chocolate is cooled. In the soft setting the chocolate is cooled more slowly. In the hard tempering setting the chocolate is cooled quickly until it comes to within a set number of degrees above the temper point, and then cools more slowly. Some chocolates do not seem to work well with the more aggressive cooling cycle, so that's why the operator is given a choice.

Yeah, it's a lot to learn, but as I said earlier, the machines are not artificially intelligent. They only do what the operator sets them to do.

You are in the Dominican Republic? Rizek has three FBM machines that I am aware of, and are using them for their Kakaw brand. These are custom-built for them but I am not entirely sure of the extent of the customizations.

FBM machines are designed to be relatively easy to repair  - YMMV - once a problem has been diagnosed, and diagnosis is usually done via Skype w/FBM. Most of the parts can be sourced locally as the manufacturers FBM chooses tend to be global; overnight express freight is. If there is a compressor issue then you need a competent commercial refrigeration repair person to take care of that. Routine maintenance is always a good idea on any machine to stay ahead of potential problems.

No one other than FBM that I know of has offered up any bean-to-bar specific upgrades for their machines.

Batch tempering is an option. Many people in the bean-to-bar community use Savage melters for a variety of reasons, including some former FBM customers. The issues there were that the older machines they purchased were too small (mostly the tempering augers were too short) and when working with high viscosity chocolate it made finding and keeping temper really challenging. We've learned a lot about the variables working with high-viscosity chocolate over the past three years and are constantly improving the software and hardware to address the issues we run into.

The smallest FBM machine I'd recommend for bean-to-bar work is the new Compatta 15. Bigger working bowl, longer tempering auger (same length as in the Unica but smaller in overall diameter). Importantly, you can order the option to change the speed of the auger in 1% increments from the control panel, which is a game changer when it comes to nailing temper. 

FBM has just introduced a new 10kg batch tempering machine, the Quadro 10 . One of the main differences (apart from smaller size with respect to the Savage) is that it uses resistance wiring and a compressor to temper the chocolate instead of running water. This means no plumbing, no water bill, and no wasted water.

I don't think the batch tempering machines are more flexible or produce a better result than continuous tempering machines. They're just different and they impose a different set of operating thinking to use well. A continuous temperer, once you nail temper, will do a better job of keeping a chocolate in temper over the course of a day. Batch tempering machines tend to be slower to reach temper and the operator needs to be aware of changing conditions and manually make changes to maintain temper. (So make sure you have thermometer and hygrometer right by the machine.)

That said, there are always differences in approach and engineering decisions that require you to make a tradeoff. Is a Chocovision Z3 "better" than a Savage 50? Well, if you are not able to run the plumbing the Savage needs, then the Chocovision may be better. However, if you want greater throughput, Savage may be better. I don't know enough about your situation and chocolate to help you with that decision.

Always happy to help as I can ... it's not always a straightforward choice.

Please let me know if there are questions I did not answer completely or at all where you still need some clarification.

Alek -

There are no companies in the US making continuous tempering machines in the same class as the names you mention - Pomati, Selmi, FBM, Savy Goiseau, etc., and Gami, Bakon, Chocolate World ... names you did not mention.

If you can, I advise you to take a look inside the machines to see how they are made. What is the size of the tempering auger and pipe? How is the chocolate warmed and cooled? What safety features are in place to keep the operator from inadvertantly damaging the machine?

If you look at the evolution of the technology you will see that these all operate using a screw to transport chocolate from a working bowl where all the crystals are melted out through a cooled pipe to generate and mix the crystals. There is an originator of the technology and all of the follow-on brands are engineering copies to one extent or another. That's one of the reasons they all look so much alike.

However, it turns out the there are significant differences in things like the shape of the working bowl (e.g., deep and narrow versus wide and shallow), the auger and the pipe (e.g., the diameter of the pipe and the depth of the auger flights), and the position of the temperature sensors among other details, that make a difference with respect to overall tempering performance, including the ability to resist over-tempering over the course of the work day. In addition, some machines are heated and cooled with water jackets, some use heated resistance wire and recirculating cooling gas, and others use a combination of these techniques; and there are advantages and disadvantages to the various approaches. There are machines, from LCM and others, that use different approaches to tempering. The LCM approach, for example, makes it impossible (in their minds) to add a dosing option.

You should also pay close attention to the power of the motor driving the tempering auger (as well as the ratio of the gearbox) if you are going to be tempering two-ingredient (high viscosity) chocolate. I can tell you from experience that some motors are under-powered and will burn out faster than others. Two-ingredient chocolate also tends to be more abrasive than conventional couverture - especially that made in Indian wet-grinders - so that has an impact on the bearings and seals on the tempering motor, gearbox, and pipe.

Continuous tempering machines need to create and maintain a delicate balance of factors to temper and maintain temper. If you are making chocolate from beans, two different batches of the same recipe might not have identical tempering profiles. If they taste at all different and/or have a different mouth feel, the tempering will be different. This is one of the hardest points for some people to wrap their heads around. These machines are not artificially intelligent and they can only do what you tell them to do, and the vast majority of them are designed to work with commercial couverture that tend to be of a lower viscosity.

Other things to consider are the location the machine will be in. If it's in a kitchen that will never be seen by the public, how important is the sheet metal? Are you paying for bling or performance? Which is more important to you?

Another thing to consider is that some machines are made to order (so they can be customized) while most are built in advance and you can only buy stock configurations.

Finally, I have learned to pay attention to the following phrase, " You do not get what you don't pay for. "

Viscosity is not just a matter of temperature (but that's part of it) - mostly a matter of fat percentage: the lower the fat content the higher the viscosity at any given temperature.

1200 RPM? 120, you mean. Why is 116F too hot?

Even with a chain drive it makes a lot of sense to schedule one weekend a month for maintenance. Take off the covers, look closely, vacuum out any dust that may have accumulated, etc. If you don't want to do it monthly, then do it before you enter into critical production periods. If the summer is slow and you start holiday production in September, schedule the maintenance for August so you can take care of it before it becomes an issue that interrupts production. Same for between Christmas and Valentine's Day, etc. It's only a few hours but it can save major frustration and downtime during key periods.

While many people fill the bowl above the axle, that's not a good idea, as it reduces the efficiency of the machine.

Sure, you are processing more product at the same time, but the extra processing time does not seem to be linear: overfilling by 10% increases processing time by greater than 10%.

Viscosity is what is going to affect the longevity of the grinder. The thicker the chocolate the greater the strain on the motor at any given level of pressure.

The belts are likely to go before the motor. Routine maintenance, including changing belts, is an important part of getting the most out of any grinder.

Y -

Most chocolate is made to be eaten more or less immediately, or manufacturers rely on the length of the supply chain (typically months between when a chocolate is made and it ends up on a shelf to be sold) to take care of aging. I think this is one of the reasons that there has not been a lot of research into what happens to the flavor of chocolate as it ages.

I was speaking with an expert on this a couple of weeks ago, and was told that it takes 6-8 weeks for most chocolates to achieve reasonable stability (defined as ~80% of expected flavor change). My own experience suggests that chocolates made from beans with lower levels of fermentations and/or lower roast levels requires more aging than chocolates made from  beans meeting the 80% well-fermented "standard" and that have been roasted harder.

I have not come across any research that explains what happens, but chemical changes are happening, and, as the chocolate continues to crystallize, the release of flavors is also affected.

The answer to the question, "How long?" can only be determined by experimentation using your recipes. I had a chocolate made with Mexican pimienta about 48 hours after it was made and then 10 days after it was made and the flavor of the pimienta was more pronounced, not less.

Aimee -

There are very few  small tempering machines that accept enrobers.

Chocovision makes one that fits some of their machines, but from what I have heard, it does not work all that well. There is no blower (to remove excess chocolate) nor is there a de-tailer, or a proper take-off, so it's messy and slow. It also looks like it's a single curtain so there could be coverage issues. From what I can tell looking at the Chocovision web site they are working on a new one . Perhaps it will have engineering upgrades to address the issues early customers brought up.

Hilliard's offers a couple of size options for their " coaters " based on batch temperers. From the pictures on the site it's hard to tell how complete the base systems are but I don't see what I would consider to be required components for a fully-featured enrober on their smaller systems (e.g., blower, exit section, de-tailer, take-off). That said - there are a lot of them in production so people must like them.

There are a number of manufacturers of continuous tempering machines - you may know names like Selmi and Pomati. I work with one of them (FBM) and to my knowledge FBM is the only company that offers a complete enrobing system on a small continuous temperer - the Prima . 

I say small in relative terms. The Prima has a 10kg (~22lb) working bowl and can temper up to 30kg (~65lbs) of chocolate per hour. The belt is 18cm (about 7") wide. When you think about it, if you need to put 500 pieces per hour (about eight pieces per minute) through the machine and each piece requires 10gr of chocolate to cover it completely, then you only need 5kg of chocolate per hour. Other companies that make continuous tempering machines do not offer enrober belts on machines with bowl capacities of less than 25kg (75kg/hr throughput).

The enrober FBM offers is complete. It comes in two parts, a working section that is comprised of the entry section, bottomer (sometimes called a pre-bottomer), double-curtain veil, net beater, blower, de-tailer rod; and a separate take-off section.

It is not inexpensive, but as people are probably tired of hearing me say, "You don't get what you don't pay for." If you are interested I can introduce you to a dealer who can price one for you.

Steve: 

Post-harvest processing of cacao happens at many different scales, from very small to very large. Ironically, it is the smallest producers who might benefit most from improving the consistency of fermentation and drying ... and they are the least able to afford it. However, one way to figure out how to drive down costs is to start somewhere and put the equipment and techniques into production.

Caitlin - 

Congrats on your journey of discovery ... though I do have to disagree that no one is teaching this stuff. The project I am working on in Mexico includes Zoi Papalexandratou, who has a PhD in cacao fermentation from the University of Brussels. You can go see the results of her work at the Ingemann post-processing center in Las Maderas, Nicaragua. Ingemann offers six different fermentation protocols from the same varietal (Chuno).

There is growing understanding of the contribution of the base chemistry of the bean and the pulp, and how that interacts with the species of yeasts, acetobacter, and lactobacillus that dominant in the region.

I would recommend searching for Zoi's name for research papers she has (co-)authored and then look for papers published by the other cited researchers. You'll see that there is a lot of work being done in this area and that some of that research is being put into production around the world.

In my experience, bean-to-bar chocolate makers need more training on what "properly fermented" truly means ... as the accepted standard of "80% well-fermented probably only applies to bulk varietals destined to be be made into chocolate for mass-market chocolate candies.

:: Clay

Alan -

Cocoa butter is deodorized using one or more of the following methods:

• High temp/pressure steam is used to drive off volatile aromatics.
• Solvent extraction (e.g., hexane).
• Using a flocculant (e.g., diatomaceous earth) to remove proteins (e.g., carotene). You then need to filter out the flocculant, along with any small particles of non-fat cocoa solids that may remain.

If you have a way to get the butter hot (over 70C), agitate it, and blow a lot of hot air over the surface, you may be able to drive off some of the aroma. Using the diatomaceous earth will make it lighter in color, but as I point out you need a filter.

Mark -

FBM will be offering a 10kg batch tempering machine in the very near future. Instead of using running water to maintain temperature it uses a compressor for cooling and electrical resistance wire for heating.

I don't know about a depositor for it, yet. You might be able to fit a Peppy Pumper to the tank. (There is a pump for the Savage tanks made by Savage Bros but people I know who have used both prefer the Peppy Pumper.)

LLY - 

Where are you located?

If I purchase a commercial couverture that has lecithin in it I can incorporate ingredients that need to be ground in (coffee beans for example). I would depend a lot on the ingredients to be ground in.

There is a maximum amount of lecithin that can be added to a recipe before it starts to have the reverse effect, and you want to add the lecithin as late as possible in the process.

Spectral Engines has a new NIR instrument: http://www.spectralengines.com/applications/food-composition that has some interesting (at least to me) aspects.

Unity Scientific also has an NIR instrument - but importantly it has databases of characterized samples that could serve as baseline measurements. I think the machine is under $30k.

Mark -

Raw and Modican chocolate are not necessarily the same thing. 

The whole idea with raw is to purposefully keep the temperature below a certain degree with the specific intent of not killing "living enzymes" or reducing the nutrient content of the beans.

Modican chocolate is a specific style that pre-dates the industrial revolution. It was very difficult to apply enough pressure to reduce particle size. I have never heard that temperature was a control point for Modican chocolate. Can you point me to some manufacturers that state this? Doña Elvira? Antica Dolceria Bonajuto?

Where is the mill located? And who is the maker?

When calculating it's important to know that cocoa beans generally range in fat from 47-53%. Most chocolate manufacturers don't provide the ratio fat to non-fat solids, including any added cocoa butter in their recipes. You can get this information on most commercial couvertures by asking the manufacturer. However, if you do not actually test the bean (or liquor) you don't know the precise fat content so it's impossible to know the ratio of fat to non-fat solids in your product -- and hence, calories from fat and other nutritional data.

James: 

Cocoa mass == cocoa liquor == chocolate liquor == ground up cocoa (nib) with nothing added.

To make cocoa butter/cocoa powder, you put the cocoa mass/liquor into a press and apply heat and pressure to separate them.

Everything from the cocoa bean is technically a cocoa solid. There are two types of solids:

1. Non-fat cocoa solids (the powder with zero fat)
2. Fat (cocoa butter is solid at room temperature)

Ask the manufacturer. But generally, no. 

Mark -

The way the rules have been read to me is that a product can be equated to a recipe. a 70% Dominican is one product, a 70% PNG another, and an 85% Dominican a third.

With respect to units, a 200gr bar counts as 5, 40gr bars. So 100, 200gr bars counts as 500 units because of the 40gr unit's availability. With 25+ grinders in NYC alone making as much as 80MT of chocolate/year, that's over 2,000,000 units/year. Assuming fewer than 20 recipes/products, then many if not all of them should be sporting nutrition labels - from the NY factory alone. Add in London (as is required by law) then pretty much everything should be.

Any way you look at it, it seems obvious that the MB should no longer eligible for the small business exemption. And it seems likely that they should not have been eligible to apply for the exemption that expires in 2016, but did so, anyway.

To me, this seems to be a continuation of the same arrogant, "The rules don't apply to us. Because, Mast Brothers." attitude that led them to be less-than-forthcoming about melting Valrhona early on. There is no reason why they cannot (and should not) be in compliance with the labeling laws today because they clearly have the financial resources to do so; compliance would not unduly burden them. Whatever their attitude towards openness and transparency (right?) it does not appear to extend to proper labeling. They could lead by example - do the right thing just because it's the right thing to do. But they still choose not to. 

One theory? The nutrition labels "ruin" the aesthetic.

What's up with that, anyway? 

The Bros  announced that they're leasing 65,000 square feet inside the Brooklyn Navy Yard’s $68 million Green Manufacturing Center. [ Gothamist got it wrong, saying that the Bros had signed a 68 million dollar lease. ]

Anyone have thoughts on what this means for the craft bean-to-bar chocolate community? 

The 6,000SF DTLA factory is not quite ready to rock, as apparently they don't have all the permits necessary to start production. I did a back-of-the-napkin calculation based on the number of grinders I could see in the photos posted on the Instagram account for their launch party, estimated salaries for the number of employees reported (about 15), and a reasonable ground rent based on comparables in the Arts District , and it looks like they need to generate a gross profit  (not gross sales) of north of $100k/mo to break even.

The investors have deep pockets and a corresponding appetite for risk. I wonder if they realize that they no longer qualify for the FDA small business nutrition labeling exemption and will act accordingly. I know it doesn't match their design aesthetic, but that's not an argument/excuse.

If there were just a few errors in grammar and translation it would be one thing. But the errors appear on every page, often many times on the same page.

But, far more troubling are the factual errors and the editorial inconsistencies that are present throughout the book.

You may like and enjoy the book and find it useful. I won't say anything to negate your experience of the book. I am sharing my impressions and insights that (as a published author) it's really hard to do a book at this scale with very little help. The results show that there was very little help, and the book - and the chocolate community - suffers from that lack. 

Cat -

Perfectly acceptable to put product in a food-safe inner bag inside an outer pack that is not.

One question might be how non-food-safe the tin is because people might empty out the contents of the inner bag into the tin once opened.

I know people who think highly of PBW - professional brewers wash - from Five Star Chemicals.

You don't actually create the classified in this post. You create a separate post.

Del:

You need to turn off the machine (from the control panel on/off and the master Schneider switch on the back) and then unplug it for five minutes. The master Schneider switch is thermo-magneto-resistive and it needs to be unplugged in order to reset itself.

While you are waiting for the reset you will also need to open up the machine and press the blue stop/reset button on the Schneider LR2K0306 module(s) on the electrical panel. Depending on the electrical configuration there may be 0, 1, or 2 of them.

Close up the machine, plug it back in, and then go through the turn-on order. Everything should be okay. 

If not, empty the machine - especially the tempering pipe - and contact FBM on Skype at FBMSRL. They are closed now, but they will see the request for tech support when they arrive in the morning. You should also send an email to Carlo Roveda at fbm@boscolo.it explaining the issue. They'll get back to you when they arrive in the morning.

:: Clay

I will be giving an AMA - Ask Me Anything - at 2:00. Hope to see some of you there!

One place you can go is Chocolates Nahua. If I recall correctly, Juan Pablo Buchert is a member here on TheChocolateLife.

Chris -

I agree with you totally. However, I have been involved in many discussions with chocolate makers where the idea of spending $15k as a CapEx for a butter press is way out of their budget.

I think one of the challenges is that many chocolate makers self–identify as "bean–to–bar" and their thinking ends at bars. There are a lot more things you can do with chocolate than just bars.

Are you looking for new or used?

There is no water in chocolate, so no emulsification is going on.

What could be happening is bad mixing, so I would try a couple of experiments.

1. Don't add any coconut oil to the chocolate as it's melting. (You are using seed chocolate during the cool-down phase, right?) Take some chocolate out and mix in the flavored oils. Do you still get the blooming?
2. Same as 1) but instead of adding the flavoring oil add the coconut oil and stir.
3. Same as 1) but mix the flavoring oil into the coconut oil and mix that into the tempered chocolate.

You want to make sure that you do a good job of mixing everything together so you don't get streaking, which is different from blooming.

I don't know if that will solve your problem - but we will know if the problem is that the coconut oil you're adding during the melting phase is what's getting in the way of proper tempering.