Can't Access Your Account?
Posted in: FORUM FAQs
I'm experiencing the same thing ari-salomon is. The "Profile Active" and "Profile Quota" fields aren't visibile to me.
Forum Activity for @Scott
Toak Chocolate - $260 per 50 gram bar
Posted in: Uncategorized
Rave review of Toak from Los Angeles Times food critic S. Irene Virbila.
Toak Chocolate - $260 per 50 gram bar
Posted in: Uncategorized
Clay called for the $100 chocolate bar. The good folks behind Toak Chocolate answered the call with enthusiasm. Rare and secret Ecuadorian cacao, so delicately flavored that one must handle it with tweezers made of Spanish elm to avoid commingling its aroma with that of the oils from one's skin.
Scott
updated by @Scott: 04/09/15 04:37:35
Dallas Chocolate Conference/Festival
Posted in: Uncategorized
The structure doesn't seem different this year from those in years past (i.e., educational sessions, tastings, and a mix of mostly local chocolatiers and out-of-town chocolate makers). I've always found it to be a pretty solid value for adult admission and a steal for children. I look forward to attending again this year.
Scott
"Whole Bean Chocolate"
Posted in: News & New Product Press
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on it, Clay.
Another point with regard to sweetness. He's probably counting shell (erroneously) as a cocoa solid. Assuming 13% shell content, that means that the actual cocoa solids from mass are about 56%. But according to the ingredient list, he's also added cocoa butter. Assuming a typical 5-8% cocoa butter pad, that would give you a bar with more or less 50% cocoa solids from mass. But the assumed 5-8% cocoa butter supplement is based on what's typical from makers working with liquor. Even more cocoa butter would be necessary with the high content of shell particles. Sweetness!
Scott
"Whole Bean Chocolate"
Posted in: News & New Product Press
You're more likely to get noticeably sick from raw chocolate, due to survival of microbial contaminants. But, unless you're in a fragile state, a case of salmonellosis will pass in a day or two and you'll be back to normal. Hug the toilet; ride it out.
The risks associated with shell are much more serious, though less likely to immediately manifest. Lead and OTA stay in the body a long time and do real and lasting harm--to organs (especially the brain and kidneys) and cells. (Lead has a half-life of 20 days in the body. OTA has a half-life of 35 days, making it still detectible in plasma 280 days after exposure.) Take a look Dr. William Manton's survey of the current medical literature on toxicity of "Nonnutritive Constituents in Chocolate and Cocoa" (from last year's Chocolate in Health and Nutrition) before deciding if you really want to "take one for the team" in this way.
Scott
"Whole Bean Chocolate"
Posted in: News & New Product Press
Another rave review out of the UK for Young's "whole bean chocolate," referring to it as "bloody brilliant" and "a more wholesome way" of making chocolate.
And another one ("it sits in a whole different league!").
Scott
"Whole Bean Chocolate"
Posted in: News & New Product Press
Thanks for offering, Clay, but I'll pass. With a novice maker using a tabletop ECGC, boasting of only 7 hours of conching (in the non-conche CocoaTown), and taking a perverse pride in including shell, I feel pretty safe in assuming this product isn't for me.
Scott
"Whole Bean Chocolate"
Posted in: News & New Product Press
Young euphemistically describes the texture as " characterful. " In photos, it's visibly gritty .
Scott
"Whole Bean Chocolate"
Posted in: News & New Product Press
Paul Young is grabbing headlines in England this week with the launch of his "whole bean chocolate" (i.e., grinding all of the shell into the mass), which he sees as a notable innovation of chocolate making, rather than as a throwback to a time when lack of food safety regulations allowed the sale of such adulterated chocolate to customers unable to pay for anything better. More on it here (e.g., "No one's quite sure why the shells are removed; that's just how it's always been done"). And here (where Young is quoted as saying, "Everyone shells just because thats what theyve been told").
Adulterating chocolate with shell is, of course, far from new . And the legal, safety, and organoleptic reasons for removing shell are well and widely known.
Scott
updated by @Scott: 04/10/15 17:28:45
bloom from a peanut butter cup?
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques
What you're seeing is fat migration. (For a brief explanation with photo, see Note 13 in this item on gianduia: http://dallasfood.org/2011/08/gianduia-gianduja-nutella-part-29/ .) The chocolate around your store-bought peanut butter cup is engineered to better withstand and/or conceal the movement of oil. The block of chocolate you're putting it on is not.
Do I need to store my home made gianduja in the refrigerator?
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques
With no milk products, safety isn't really an issue. Keeping it in an airtight container in a refrigerator will keep the hazelnut oil from going rancid as quickly, though (assuming it wasn't rancid to begin with, of course).
What the Chocolate Industry Needs is A $100 Bar of Chocolate
Posted in: Opinion
Via Clay on Twitter, here's a $100 bar from Woodblock Chocolate . Since "all proceeds will contribute to the [International Cacao Genebank's] 'living library' of cacao," this is really more of a hundred dollar donation than a hundred dollar chocolate bar.
Scott
What the Chocolate Industry Needs is A $100 Bar of Chocolate
Posted in: Opinion
Interesting theory, Brad. Thanks for sharing.
What the Chocolate Industry Needs is A $100 Bar of Chocolate
Posted in: Opinion
That's paying for presentation packaging, though--fancy outer box, inner boxes, individually-wrapped pieces. Amedei's most expensive bar remains Porcelana, at $16.50 (or $33/100g or $151/lb). It's among the priciest bars in the world (apart from obvious hustles), but still a far cry from a $100 bar.
Best hazelnut flavor
Posted in: Tasting Notes
Exactly. Unfortunately, it's tough to get the best hazelnut cultivars outside of Europe. Even when you can get them, they're more expensive to begin with, and with higher transportation costs to get them to the US, they can be cost prohibitive.
Best hazelnut flavor
Posted in: Tasting Notes
The secret to getting pronounced hazelnut flavor and aroma is to start with the best hazelnuts (especially cv. Tonda Gentile delle Langhe, though Tonda di Giffoni and Tonda Gentile Romana are also very good). Nothing you can do to kernels from a lesser cultivar (e.g., Barcelona from Oregon or Tombul from Turkey) will close that gap in quality and intensity.
"Raw" chocolate FDA recall
Posted in: News & New Product Press
Bloody stools and possible kidney failure are a small price to pay for higher antioxidants.
Examining a Mast Brothers Assertion
Posted in: Opinion
Brad,
Noka Chocolate is no longer in business. Their brand management has become a textbook example of what not to do. (See Chapter 7 of Dr. Eric Anderson's Social Media Marketing: Game Theory and the Emergence of Collaboration.)
Fermented cacao beans-bar
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques
Quote of the month: "Why? Is there a belief that life is just too long?"
"Intentional Chocolate" - Your Thoughts [sic]?
Posted in: Opinion
As some may have noticed, last month Jim Walsh was sued by Deepak Chopra for fraud. Carla Martin--a postdoc fellow at Harvard with an abiding professional interest in chocolate--posted something of a dossier on Walsh at her web site, Bittersweet Notes . She concisely covers all of the bases: the Hawaiian Vintage Chocolate scandal, the formation of Intentional Chocolate and spurious claims on its behalf, the failed (and possibly fraudulent) Maya Biosana project in Mexico, the HESA Institute (a shell of a new age think tank that eventually became entangled with the Chopra Foundation), culminating in Walsh's teaming up with Deepak Chopra to release a co-branded, intentionally infused chocolate bar.
The chocolate world is full of fraud and craziness, but this story combines the two and turns the dial to eleven. Check out Dr. Martin's post here .
Scott
Agostoni chocolate
Posted in: Opinion
Agostini is a subsidiary of ICAM, the Italian-based multinational.
One Bar, Two Bar, Red Bar.....
Posted in: Opinion
In the US, the standard of identity for "white chocolate" requires that it "be free of coloring material" (21 CFR 163.124(a)). Might be worth checking, if you haven't already done so, whether similar regulatory constraints are in place in Canada before deciding on what to call the product, how to label it, etc.
On the merits, I'd have no interest in buying a colored chocolate bar, unless the coloring was incidental to the inclusion of a natural ingredient chosen for flavor (e.g., achiote).
If Selmi is the Cadalac what is a JKV and why?
Posted in: Chocolate Education
Apropos of nothing, Renato Selmi's entry into confectionary equipment began in Piedmont in the 1960s with machines for production of hazelnut paste for gianduia. Similarly, the first piece of confectionary equipment developed by Enrico Carle in 1907 (who went on to co-found Carle & Montanari) was a device to extrude gianduia into gianduiotti. (Gianduia--not just a footnote in chocolate history.)
Superb taste
Posted in: Classifieds F/S or Wanted
Fin Carr is a private label brand in Lidl supermarkets throughout Europe. Don't know who's making it for them.
Epuipment
Posted in: News & New Product Press
It's only April, but I'll go ahead and cast my vote for this as comment of the year.
Interesting Visitors....
Posted in: Opinion
If Brad's chocolate were the best in the world, I wouldn't mind making a trip to Calgary (en route to stunning Banff National Park) to stock up on bars. But, not having tasted it, until I hear credible voices proclaiming it such, I have no reason to believe it's the best in the world. I'll have to remain agnostic until circumstances take me (or a willing chocolate mule) to Calgary or until Brad teams up with a US importer/distributor.
Chocolate song
Posted in: Opinion
Tim Maia, the Brazilian godfather of soul, has a great song about (and titled) Chocolate:
Marañon Chocolate - Cacao Thought to Be Extinct Found in Peru
Posted in: Chocolate Education
Outstanding summary, Clay, and a refreshing bit of candor in the thick of Maraon's media push.
Sahagun Coffee Bar
Posted in: Tasting Notes
Yes. Ingredients are cocoa butter, coffee, and sugar. Tastefulness and execution are excellent. Montes set the standard by which imitators will be judged. It's up to you, of course, but $15 seems like a small price to pay for a product you're considering reverse-engineering.
What happened to De Vries?
Posted in: News & New Product Press
Just updating this to note that DeVries did appear at the DC event last month.
What happened to De Vries?
Posted in: News & New Product Press
Steve DeVries appeared at a chocolate event in Dallas (along with Alan McClure of Patric) in late August, at which point his online portal was already indicating that no chocolate was available for retail sale. He appeared to still be in the business, despite the unavailability of retail product. He is also scheduled to do a presentation on chocolate next month in Washington, D.C., in conjunction with National Geographic.I'm reluctant to assume anything from the recent unavailability.
Favorite Chocolate Bar Retailers
Posted in: Opinion
Standouts for me have been Cacao (PDX), Fog City News & Bittersweet (SF), and Caputo's (SLC).
Chocolate tours in several cities
Posted in: Travels & Adventures
Some Portland chocolate highlights --- Chocosphere (the dominant mail order lifeline for serious consumers nationwide).- Cacao (for quality of the selection and knowledge level of the staff, the best chocolate retailer I've seen).- Sahagun Handmade Chocolates (Elizabeth Montes, chocolatier).- Alma Chocolate (Sarah Hart, chocolatier).- Xocolatl de David (David Briggs, chocolatier; see his site for where his products are available; worth calling ahead to ensure a good selection).
Best Female Chocolatier?
Posted in: Opinion
Robert,I'm sure your comments aren't intended as condescendingly sexist stereotypes, but they could possibly be construed that way.It might open your eyes to place an order with Chocolate Life forum participant Sarah Hart's Alma Chocolate, specially requesting her habanero caramel (one of the best caramels I've had in the US and a "must buy" whenever I'm in Portland), salted lavender caramel, lapsang souchong caramel, and rosewater caramel. Try some of her other pieces as well, to see if they fit your hypothesis. (Did your grandma make Thai peanut butter cups or cardamom/burnt sugar/sesame bonbons?)Or try Katherine Clapner's Dude, Sweet Chocolates (Dallas, Texas). Clapner, a former pastry chef for Stephan Pyles, is hardly "comforting," with her roasted beet/olive oil ganache, fermented Louisiana tobacco, olive oil/butter/hemp seed, lemon/yerba mate, et al.Look at the work of Cindy Duby of DC Duby (Vancouver, Canada).Look at Autumn Martin, head chocolatier for Theo Chocolate (Seattle, Washington), with the brilliant fig/fennel ganache.Or look on almost any gourmet market shelf these days to see Vosges, the brainchild of Katrina Markoff, whose decidedly ungrandmotherly products get more press and have more name recognition in America (deserved or not) than those of any male chocolatier.Though you may not be intentionally dismissive of the creativity of female chocolatiers, I think your broad brush strokes both overlook the truly ambitious work undertaken by female chocolatiers all over the country and elide the fact that most chocolatiers--male or female--do safe, predictable, familiar work, because they find it sells better than occasionally gag reflex-inducing creativity.
Best Female Chocolatier?
Posted in: Opinion
Elizabeth Montes of Sahagun Handmade Chocolates (Portland, OR).
Weird Flavors and Inclusions in Chocolate
Posted in: Tasting Notes
I don't disagree. (I have a jar of his foietella on my desk right now, actually.)
Weird Flavors and Inclusions in Chocolate
Posted in: Tasting Notes
Pig's blood ganache from Xocolatl de David .
Mast Brothers Chocolate- bean to bar producer out of Brooklyn, NY
Posted in: Tasting Notes
For what it's worth, in a recent visit to the Mast Brothers shop in Brooklyn, I was told by Rick Mast that all chocolate used for all of their products was produced in-house from bean to bar.
Mast Brothers Chocolate- bean to bar producer out of Brooklyn, NY
Posted in: Tasting Notes
As far as I know, Taza has always and only been bean-to-bar. That's not the case with Mast Brothers. This can be confusing for those customers who care about whether the chocolate they're buying was made in Brooklyn or merely molded there.
Mast Brothers Chocolate- bean to bar producer out of Brooklyn, NY
Posted in: Tasting Notes
Still curious if anyone has info about the proportion of Mast Brothers' bean-to-bar production relative to their re-melting.On a related note (i.e., to Mast Brothers' encroachment in some NYC restaurants), according to the NYT , Tcho is making an aggressive push to get into upscale restaurants, apparently succeeding with Del Posto.