Forum Activity for @Brad Churchill

The trick to using liquor instead of cocoa powder is to understand that liquor by weight is +/- 50% fat. You can't use liquor and not adjust the other fats that the recipe calls for (butter, vegetable oil, etc).

For example if your recipe calls for 1/4 c of cocoa powder, you need to use 1/2 c of liquor and reduce the other fat in your recipe by 1/4 c. it's really that simple.

I think you'll also find that by reducing other fats, your baked goods will be much lighter and fluffier than using shortenings, or oil. At least that's been my experience.

Cheers

Brad.

Hi Everyone;

Having been on and off this forum for a few years now, and been roasted, ridiculed, and revered (mostly roasted and ridiculed! haha), I just wanted to take a minute to wish everyone a Merry Christmas.

I hope that my contributions to this group, while sometimes not as eloquent as others would write, have helped you, as much as your posts (and flames) have also helped me become better at this craft.

Cheers, and Merry Christmas!

Brad Churchill

Choklat

www.SoChoklat.com

Here here! Science backing up what my nose tells me. Low and slow....

cheers

Brad

I've been following this thread with interest.

I'm going to weigh in here briefly....

In my opinion, next to fermentation THE most important step in developing the flavour of chocolate is roasting, and THE best way to determine what's going on while roasting is to SMELL what's going on during the roast. 80% of your sense of taste comes from your sense of smell, which is why you can't taste anything when your nose is plugged.

Having said that, ignore the time you are roasting for, and pay attention to what your NOSE has to say about the roast.

During a typical roast, the first smell that you encounter (usually about the 1st 10-20 minutes or so) is a nice "brownie baking" smell. From there, the beans start to smoke a bit, and a very acidic/vinegary smell develops, which overpowers the "brownie" smell. At times when we're roasting, the smell in our shop becomes so acidic that my staff's eyes water a bit. This is the important stage where the acids and some of the tanninsare being driven off the beans.

Eventually, as the acids decrease, the smell then again returns to a richer, brownie baking smell, with acidic undertones. This is usually during the last 1/3 of the roast.

Our roasts (using a convection oven), are usually between 45 and 77 minutes at about 300 degrees F. Our porcelana is VERY acidic, and requires the longest roast. In order to prevent burning, we actually reduce the temperature after 50 minutes, to 250 degrees - just enough to continue driving off the acids, but preventing the beans from burning.

With regard to bitterness and astringency, there's not a lot you can do with those characteristics through roasting or conching. Those two characteristics are of beans that have not been properly fermented. At least that's been my experience.

So... In conclusion, roast your beans at a lower temperature, and listen to what your nose has to say about what's going on. Only then can you really nail down the flavour profiles of the beans you are working with.

Cheers.

Brad

I would also like to suggest that you check the accuracy of the thermocouple on your machine. Put a thermometer beside it as it goes through its cycles. With the exception of humidity (or the lack thereof) making the chocolate thicker or thinner, cocoa butter more or less follows the same non negotiable rules every time. Equipment does fail, so if you're having trouble one day and not the next, I would look at the tempering machine.

Cheers.

Brad

Try this recipe:

1 oz pure liquor / unsweetened chocolate (the best you can buy)

3 oz regular granulated sugar

8 oz homogonized milk

2 tsp cornstarch

Mix the cornstarch with the sugar.

shave the liquor

bring the milk to a boil

Remove the milk from the heat and add the sugar and liquor and whisk until thick and creamy.

If you want it sweeter, add more sugar. If you want it darker add more liquor. If you want it thinner use less cornstarch, and if you want it thicker, add just a wee bit more.

Let me know how that works for you.

Then you can experiment with various combinationsof the following:

1/2 tsp cinnamon

3/4 tsp chinese 5 spice powder

1/8 tsp cloves

1/2 tsp allspice and cayenne pepper

3/4 tsp garam masala & 1 tsp vanilla (awesome earthy woodsy flavour)

Hope that helps. Let me know how that works for you.

Brad.

Oh... and Iprefer milk chocolate over dark chocolate too! But, shhhhhh! Don't tell anyone!

Couple of questions:

1. Why create such a complex blend? Without coming across as a jerk, to me the blend sounds pretentious. As soon as you add milk and various spices to it, 99% of the population won't notice the difference. In fact I would hazard a guess that not even the most refined chocolate pallates in the world will be able to pick out the nuancesin the various bars you are using. This is the same philosophy as taking an $80 bottle of shiraz and using it in a stew. It's a waste, as other flavours overpower the delicate nuances in the wine, just as other flavours in your drink (and the milk too) overpower the nuancespresent in each ofthe chocolates you are blending together.

2. Why are you using chocolate? You don't have near the control you would if you used liquor.

3. Traditional drinking chocolate is thickened with corn starch. You can create a very rich, creamy drink without all the fat by using 3.25% homogonized milk and cornstarch. There's enough fat already in the chocolate / liquor. No need to add more in the form of animal fat. At the same time you can boast to your customers that you are taking them closer to the origin of chocolate than the guy next door.

My experience for what it's worth, and we've been written up all over Canada for the drinking chocolate we offer.

Cheers

Brad

Seeing as someone asked, here's my opinion for what it's worth:

1. There is no such work as "Can't", as in "I can't do it alone...". Men have walked on the moon. In all likelihood someone in the chocolate industry has already successfully done what you are wanting to do. You're not re-inventing the wheel.. So, you sayyou can't start your own business? "Can't" is a cop out. Period. Fear of the unknown is perfectly acceptable.Fear of making abad decision is perfectly acceptable.However, there willalways be something you don't know, and ALL decisions take you in a direction. Some directions are better than others. At least it's a direction. If you want to truly succeed at ANYTHING, and I mean ANYTHING, drop the negativity, stop saying "can't" and start asking "how". The answer may not come to you right away, but think out of the box and be resourceful. The answer will reveal itself when the time comes.

2. You have access to a commercial kitchen owned by a CATERER??? Do they not use chocolate confections at their events? Do they not know of other caterers that could use chocolate confections at their events? Could they start? You've got access to the kitchen of your first client!!!

3. Who says you have to start big? Start with farmers markets, street markets, or even putting together packages for business colleagues as client appreciation gifts. Many big names in the food industry got started in their homes.

4. DO NOT.... I repeat DO NOT, involve a partner. Partners are a P.I.T.A. and you will eventually find yourself at a business crossroads of volume, $$, creativity, and even workload. Inevitably one person always works harder than the other, and over time resentment builds. BUILD YOUR BUSINESS AND HIRE EMPLOYEES AS IT GROWS.

5. Who says you need money to start a chocolate business? How much do you have to invest to make bark? How much does it cost to make a few hundred hand rolled truffles you can sell for $2 each? No molds, no fancy equipment - just a couple of bowls, some spatulas, and a good thermometer. Oh... and about $40 wroht of ingredients. That sounds like a pretty low cost start to me. Make the BEST, and your customers will spread the word.

6. Set goals and then work your a$$ off to achieve them. Each goal should surpass the last. In no time you'll look back in amazement at what you were able to accomplish with the right attitude.

7. This one's important: Do NOT look at your business as a job!! Look at it as a source of income for you. There's a big difference: A job is a ball and chain that holds you down, prevents you from doing the things you really like, and never gets you forward. A source of income is an independent, stand aloneway to make you money while you enjoy life. When you do work for the business, send it an invoice for your time. After all, it's worth just as much money as if you had to hire someone else to do the same job. Tracking your time/money ratio will also reveal how to streamline processes and push tasks onto the hands of lower paid staff. For example: Do you REALLY need to wrap those 500 truffles, or can you pay someone $10 per hour to do that while you get on the phone and drum up more business? Your cost to the business to wrap 500 truffles: $200 and 2 hours of lost prospecting time. The cost of a temporary laborer: $20MINUS 2 hours of your time freed up to drum up more business = -$180. You have just saved your company $180.

I know it sounds cliche, but it's SO true: Winners never quit, and quitters never win.

Hope that helps.

Brad

Andre;

As an entrepreneur who's built and sold numerous ventures, as well as succeeded and failed at others, and helped friends package and sell their own businesses, and to top it off now owns and operates a very successful chocolate company, would you like my CANDID opinion?

I will not write it here unless you ask for it, and agree not to take offence to anything I may write.

Brad

Ben;

Did you check the temperature that the bottom/sides of the pan get while heating the contents? It's one thing to heat water and see that it's holding the temperature at around 140. HOWEVER.... Chocolate burns VERY easily. Did you take the temperature of the walls of your food warmer while it was getting the contents to the "stand by" temperature? If the walls go higher than 180 F, you're going to have some burnt chocolate on your hands.

It is this exact reason that almost everychocolate melter on the market uses eitherwarm water, or a gentle, non direct heat source and not the heating elements used in food warmers.

Just food for thought....

Brad.

They aren't doing anything new, and in my opinion they are still missing the boat.

Choklat's been making personally selected truffles fresh per ordernow for over 3 years and has been very successful at it. Maison offers a few varieties, where as the 468 combinations that can be ordered through our website still dwarfs their offering.

The only difference right now is that we don't deliver outside of our immediate geographic area, whereas they do.

As far as I'm concerned Nestle' is playing catch up, and only serves to validate my business model of giving people what they want, as opposed to whatwe "think" they want, or what flavour happens to appeal to us as chocolatiers on any given day.

That's just my opinion.

Cheers

Brad

I have looked for a better replacement and found a similar gear motor through Acklands Grainger. However, the shaft length is different, and I had to weld an extension to the end to make it fit the ACMC. Unfortunately the only decent option is to order new motors from ACMC.

Dayton makes a motor that works (Acklands Grainger sells them), and uses metal gears. Model DMD4LL07. The problem with the ACMC motors is that the gear boxes are plastic, and they ALL strip. (I have 6 of those machines and all of them have had the motors replaced).

The holes for the screws even fit with the Dayton motor..

It's 3rpm slower than the ACMC motors, but that doesn't seem to make a difference.

HOWEVER....

You will need to weld on a small extension to the shaft coming from the gear box and shape it to fit the collar that turns the bowl. I did that as a test with one of my machines, and the motor hasn't failed since.

Hope that helps.

Brad

Scott;

Your post prompted me to call my contact at the CFIA, and ask her. In Canada, the definition of white chocolate is silent on color, but defines specific ingredients that can be included. Coloring is not one of them, and therefore not allowed.

I can however preclude the term "chocolate" with pretty much whatever I like, as long as the recipe falls within the definition of white chocolate. I could call it Blue Chocolate if I like.

Having said that, she also brought up the question of color in the first place, given that we're artisinal, and people are looking for more "natural" products these days. It looks cool and the feedback right now is about 50/50, but the non-color fans have a pretty compelling argument that blue chocolate doesn't look natural.

This has been a good exercise. Keep your opinions coming!

Cheers.

Brad

Thanks for the comments so far. They're great!

For those of you who haven't written anything yet, Please help!!! If you think that colored white chocolate sucks, please tell me! This is what product testing is all about - getting feedback whether good, bad, or ugly.

Thanks in advance.

Brad

I know... It sounds like a caption of Dr. Seuss Chocolate! Haha!

I've been trying to do things a little different than everyone elseand now that we make our own white chocolate, I asked myself why white chocolate has to be white. After all, the whipped cream on our drinking chocolate is blue and people love it!...

So, I'm asking those of you out there in Chocolate Land to provide your unabashed opinions of the look of our new (and amazing tasting) "White" chocolate bars. The research has begun and the color (if any)has yet to be finalized. One important note: IF we choose to leave the color "white", it isn't actually a true white due to the fact that the vanilla beans we use change the color to more of a beige...

By the way, the color is one of our "Standard" shop colors.

Cheers and thanks for your input - the good, bad and ugly!

Cambro 1826CCW clear plastic lids fit full sized standard sheet pans. Note that they do not "clip on" for a tupperware like seal, but they sure beat the heck out of plastic wrap. They are also about an inch higher than the sheet pan.

Hope that helps.

Brad

Super easy solution. We make 100's of them every week.

Purchase the Pavoni silicon spherical molds, and pour the warm liquid caramel into them. Put them into the fridge to harden, and then pop them out of the molds while still cold and firm and dip them. The caramel inside will soften at room temperature, but be held in shape by the chocolate shell you've just created.

Some will crack for sure, but just dip them again, and all is good.

Cheers

Brad

Sorry for the confusion. My software does NOT control the equipment. Yes Clay, it is strictly POS / Management / Decision Support software.

While it is feasible to invest in the equipment to process batch-style chocolate, from an artisinal standpoint it doesn't make economic sense (at least in my opinion). The central control panel, custom software, hoppers, tanks, loaders, piping, pumps, servo motors, refiners.... Wow... BIG $$$ Thebreak even pointon a system like that would likely top the 25 year mark compared to a hired and properly trained staff member. I bet a system like that could easily break into the 7 figure mark -verypricey considering you could hire a pretty dedicated worker bee for $60k per year, and still pocket$60k per year on the 12% interest you could get for leavingthe 7 figures sitting in a decent annuity investment.

That kind of system enters the realm of competing with the Cargills &Callebauts, of the world I would say....

Cheers.

Brad

For 3 years now, Choklat has been run exclusively using a web application written in HTML/Javascript/ASP and SQL Server. The benefit of this is that I can be travelling anywhere in the world (or playing in the mountains), and can be in complete control of my business.

It is ultimate freedom, but at a price. As a software engineer turned chocolatier, I wrote the software myself, so there were no out of pocket expenses. If I were to bill my time for the system, it would have been close to $100,000 based on my standard bill rate multiplied by the number of hours it took me to design, write, and test the software.

Hope this answers some questions.

Brad.

Daniel;

I can't agree with Clay more. In 2005 I started with essentially the same equipment you have now, and treated "making chocolate" as a fun activity for me and my daughter to do. Many times we hand peeled roasted beans while watching cartoons together.

I've burned beans, siezed chocolate, fought with tempering, made crappy chocolate, and made great chocolate. While doing it all, I was experimenting, giving it away to friends, and having fun.

In fact I had so much fun that I wrapped up a couple of other business ventures and started my own chocolate company.

If you're worried about beans, remember this: It's easier to blow $50 going to a theatre for a couple of hours than it is to make a couple lbs of bad chocolate (which incidentally isn't something your kids' friends can likely do with their parents).

Have fun.

Brad

www.SoChoklat.com

Shana;

Brian has provided some good advice below.

With regard to winnowing, John Nanci over at www.ChocolateAlchemy.com has designed a small scale winnower from plywood and PVC, and has put the plans (more or less) up for people to use.

I have also posted a description of my solution on that site, and someone has taken the time to draw a rough schematic of my description. My winnower does about 120lbs per hour and is very simply constructed from one sheet of plywood a stand, and some blower motors. I've been using mine now for 2 1/2 years without issue.

Cheers

Brad

Check out that site for a possible solution for you.

You're welcome.

I'm curious to know how things are working out for you now!

Cheers

Brad

Nicole, the water is almost simmering (steaming lots), and we are using 8 litre stainless steel bowls and large stock pots. The water never touches the bowl, and the bowl sits very deep into the stock pot.

Heat guns put out very high, and very direct heat. You can actually burn the chocolate with a heat gun. You want gentle and uniform heat on your chocolate, or you'll get streaks. The only place my staff use forced air heat (from hand held hair dryers actually), is to clean the chocolate off the machines throughout the day, but never on the chocolate itself.

Below, Mark suggests what we call "reverse tempering" (my personal term), where you have over crystalized chocolate, and are introducing into the mix, chocolate that is uncrystalized and is in the process ofcoolingdown from being completely melted (40 degrees +). I also teach this technique to our staff, although I usually suggest that they let the chocolate cool a bit more - usually to 95 degrees - before adding it to the existing, over-crystalized chocolate. This way, there's less risk of pulling the over tempered chocolate out of temper. I also suggest that they cool the over tempered chocolate a bit more - usually to 87 degrees just before they add the new product.

The temperatures Mark is suggesting could also be directly related to the amount of melted chocolate he's using VS. the amount of over-crystalized chocolate he has, and what temperature it's at too. In our case, it's usually a ratio of 30% over-crystalizedto 70% melted chocolate.

The next step? Stir, stir, stir, then stir, stir, stir, then wait 5-10 minutes for the crystals to seed, or you'll get streaks.

Cheers.

Brad

Nicole;

Chocolate is arguably THE most difficult confection to work with because the working temperature range is non-negotiable, very small, and when it's in that range it's constantly crystalizing in different ways. At it's working temperature, the chocolate must be agitated at all times or you're going to get streaks and bloom. You can either have someone stirring all the time, or invest in an inexpensive tempering machine that holds a few lbs of chocolate - something like a Rev 2, or ACMC machine.

Unfortunately there is no negotiating with chocolate, and absolutely no room for error in reheating. A simple error of 1 or 2 degrees F to high, and that's it, your chocolate's out of temper. When I'm training my staff, they actually spend an entire week practicing tempering by hand before they can use the equipment that does it for them. One of the things they learn, is that if they are reheatingsmall amounts ofchocolate (3-4lbs), they need to take it off the heat between 4-7 degrees BELOW the target temperature, because the bowl will still hold heat and drag the temperature up. If you wait until the chocolate is at the target temperature, the heat held in the bowl will drag it out of temperature.

The only thing I can suggest is stir stir stir. When you think you've stirred enough, you haven't, so stir stir stir some more.

The process can be very frustrating. I hope that helps.

Brad

Baking vs Roasting?

Please don't take offense to this Clay, but cooking ANYTHING is about heat and airflow, not terminology. In my oven at home I bake brownies, roast a turkey, bake cookies, roast a beef roast., and even roast marshmallows for my s'mores. I can also bake theturkey , marshmallows, androastas well asroast thecookies and brownies. Why? Because it's the same piece of equipment cooking everything.

It used to be that roasting and baking were different - roasting meant cooking your food over an open flame, with higher temperatureswhereas baking implied indirect "ambient" heat, usually at a lower temperature. However, even with the "roast/bake" settings on some ovens today, the bottom line is that the oven uses dry heat to cook its contents.

Due to the evolution in cooking technology (namely in ovens), the conceptual differences of roasting and baking are more or less lost. Case in point: Even coffee roasters today use indirect heat (usually natural gas), and add agitation (turning drum) to roast their contents. However, given that coffee roasters can also cook at lower temperatures common in old school baking, does it "bake" the beans when the temperatures is around 325? Nope. Still roasts them.

In the end, what's the difference between baking and roasting? None.

It's all about heat and airflow.

Cheers.

Brad

The trick to using a convection oven for a perfect roast is using perforated trays. This is important to allow air flow up through the bottom, but also over top. The other trick is to not overload the trays with beans.

I honestly don't think roasting in a convection oven would be effective if solid bottom trays were used, as much of the air circulation needed to evenly heat the beans wouldn't be present.

We don't cool the beans other than by using ambient room temperature. Once the trays are removed from the oven, they cool very quickly on baker's racks.

I'd like to add something here too. There is a fallacy about a simple drop of water being added to chocolate to cause it to sieze. This is not necessarily the case - although it's a good scare tactic for beginners! If done properly, water can be added to properly tempered chocolate in order to speed the thickening process for working with. When one really thinks about it, chocolate is by nature very hygroscopic - it readily absorbes moisture from its environment.

It's common for chocolate to equalize somewhat to the relative humidity of the area in which it's being stored/used. This is why it's hard to work with chocolate in humid climates, and areas like Belgium and here in Alberta are great for working with chocolate as it's very dry both in Belgium and here.

Try it sometime: take a couple of lbs of tempered chocolate, and carefully pour a couple of teaspoons of water into it while stirring vigorously. It'll thicken very quickly, but still temper just fine.

Cheers.

Brad

Glad I could help, and no you're not being stupid. One would logically think that if the thermometer works, it's taking the right temperatures. I've also learned something from this exchange: Even though the thermometer works, a low battery can screw with the temperature readings.

So, for that I thank YOU!

Cheers.

Brad

Magrietha;

It sounds to me like your thermometer is innacurate. Your working temperature should be around 31 or 32 degrees.

Check your thermometer's high and low temperatures.

High temperature test: boil some water and take the temperature. Adjust your boling point approximately 1.5 degrees celcius for every thousand feet above sea level. (for example, your boiling point of water at 3,000 feet above sea level will be approximately 95.5 degrees C)

Low temperature test: fill a small bowl with as much ice as possible, then fill the rest of it with water. Stir and insert your thermometer. It should read very close to zero.

You need to test both ends because the way that thermometers work doesn't mean they are accurate at all points along the range they measure.

You will also find that highhumidity will require you to raise the "bottom" temperature of your tempering cycle a degree or so on occasion. Chocolate is very hygroscopic, meaning it very easily absorbs water and odor from its surroundings. Water causes chocolate to get very thick, and will cause you grief if you don't make the necessary adjustments.

No offence to Debra, but I personally wouldn't recommend that you add cocoa butter to your chocolate to thin it. Not only does that dilute the chocolate, dull the flavor, and change the viscosity of the chocolate, but it is a quick band aide fix whichin the longrun adds to your problems (after all it's the cocoa butter in the chocolate which is causingyou the problems in the first place. It doesn't really make sense to pour more gasoline on to that fire!). Understanding how thecocoa butter crystals behave, is the KEY to temperingand working with chocolate.

One other thing: When reheating your chocolate, take it off the heat source when it's a couple of degrees below your target (especially for small batches done in a baine marie). The heat of the pot will carry the temperature up, sometimes as much as 4 degrees, hence if you take the chocolate off your heat source AT your target temperature, within moments it will again be out of temper and you have to start over.

Hope that helps.

Brad.

Antonino;

I've worked very little with cocoa powder, but based on my research, understand it to be literally the "bottom of the barrel" in the chocolate industry. I also know that some companies will add it at the end of the refining process to increase the intensity of their chocolate, without increasing the cost (cocoa powder is cheap).

Yes, you can probably use it at the beginning of the conche process to reduce the particle size, but in my opinion, if you are working with cocoa beans to make your own chocolate, you should avoid the use of cocoa powder and celebrate the flavour of the beans themselves, without trying to muddy the flavour with cocoa powder. One option would be to increase the bean percentage, decrease the cocoa butter percentage, and then substitute a small amount of Anhydrous Milk Fat for some of the sugar. The AMF will give the chocolate more fluidity and creaminess.

Try this recipe for, say, a 90% bar:

80% cocoa beans

10% cocoa butter

5% AMF

5% Sugar

the AMF will help with softness, fluidity, and mouthfeel, and the lower sugar content will not sweeten it as much.

The 80% we make in our shop uses no lecithin and molds with the same viscosity of milk chocolate. It's recipe is:

70% beans

10% cocoa butter

19.5% sugar

0.5% vanilla bean

Hope this helps.

Brad

No need to. We roast over 300 degrees F, so pathogens are killed in that step.

I'm sure that would work just fine. Our oven holds 7 full sized sheet pans at a time, and we put 5lbs on each sheet pan.

35lbs per hour X 8 hours = 260lbs of beans per day X 7 days a week =1820lbs of beans per week = +/- 2700lbs of chocolate per week - more than any artisan I'm aware of can make into chocolate.

And that's only utilizing 8 hours of the day.

Rochelle;

In several other posts I write that a special roaster is a waste of money. We use a convection oven with perforated trays, have been doing it now for several years, and have developed a very significant following of religously loyal customers.

Here's the bottom line: Cooking ANYTHING is about heat and airflow. Convection ovens offer both, are inexpensive, AND give you the versatility to offer other products as well without the expense of buying another piece of equipment.

Having made many thousands of pounds of chocolate in the past 5 years, in my opinion the Cocoatown roaster is a complete waste of money for an artisan.

Cheers

Brad

Clay;

You're right about the ACMC tempering machines. I own 6, and 6 is ALL I'll ever own. They suck and are all currently in storage. Choklat now uses the Pavoni Mini-Tempers, which are markedly more expensive, but also have semi-automatic tempering cycles, which are awesome, and assist staff with limited tempering skills. There have been some challenges with the motors in those, but I think the challenges are all ironed out now.

In light of opening discussion, maybe it would have been prudent to ask more questions BEFORE recommending equipment. You can see clearly by her post, that you were persuasive enough to get her to take the next step and ask for a quote.

Having said that, are you going to ask more questions and gather more information before making a recommendation (like you claim), or be a hypocrite and just quietly provide her a price quote behind the scenes?

By the way..... in all our exchanges, and all the posts you have provided here and elsewhere, I don't recall ever seeing anything relating to you actually "making" chocolate, and/or how much chocolate you make AND/OR whether it's saleable commercially. Maybe you can share that with all of us too.

Quid Pro Quo Clay.

Brad.

Holly;

Honestly.... Spending money on a single usecooking implementto do 10-20lbs of beans is a waste. I can't stress more that, cooking anything is about heat and airflow.A good usedelectric4 tray convection oven will set you back only $1,000 and lets you do SO many more things with it.

Here's an example: http://cgi.ebay.com/Blodget-combi-electric-oven-/250852876906?pt=BI...

We roast about 40lbs of beans at a time in ours, on perforated sheet pans , so there's absolutely no need to stir them, and Choklat's sales this year will be almost $1 Million (our third year of operation). My staff put the beans in the oven, set the timer, and then go about doing other things until the buzzer goes. It's really that simple.

To have sales like that in our third year, simply on local word of mouth, I guess we're doing something right...

In my humble opinion, people get WAAAAY too caught up in gadgets and useless features.

"Digitally Logging the Temperature curve"???? For 10lbs of beans??? Really???? Come on Clay! Art Pollard makes some of the best chocolate in the world, and does so with a cast iron ball roaster that I swear came from the Middle ages. Do Amedei's roasters do this? No. Does "Mr. Chocolate" Jacques Torres digitally log his temperature curves? No. He doesn't either. Nor does anyone else I know.

A pragmatic word of advice for someone on a limited budget such as you've indicated Holly: A good convection oven is a fabulous, versatile, and invaluable tool which does everything you need to get your chocolate business off the ground. Then when you have money to burn and want to buy gadgets, THEN buy them.

...but then again, that's just my advice.

Cheers.

Brad.

Hi Holly;

I have no experience with a CocoaTown roaster. However I CAN tell you that a convection oven does a FABULOUS job, and serves a dual purpose allowing you to make baked goods as well.

Remember: cooking ANYTHING is simply about heat and airflow. A convection oven offers both.

Brad Churchill

Choklat

If I may comment too....

15g is pretty big for a truffle, and 30g is HUGE - especially if you dip them in chocolate and roll them in a coating of some type. Our truffle centers start as 12g, and by the time we've dipped and rolled them, the average size is around 22g. We've been accused of selling truffles of "gluttonous" proportions, so I can imagine that your 30g center will likely end up like a small baseball....

Brad

Most larger insurance companies have an in-house commercial broker. Unless you are actually setting up a manufacturing facility with large automated equipment, don't mislead them with the term "manufacturing". If your sales are under $1,000,000 gross per year, you're a small chocolatier and need liability insurance. That's it. It's a low risk business, and shouldn't cost you any more than around $1200 per year for as much as $5,000,000 liability.