Forum Activity for @Ice Blocks!

Ice Blocks!
@Ice Blocks!
04/01/13 23:45:05
81 posts

Cacao Powder Grinding


Posted in: Tasting Notes

You dont have a point Brad just a series of condescending, poorly constructed, rude rants. Upon reflection they are more laughable than libellous.

Can I say my (as in bought in burk) cacao powder is light brown? Appears roughly grinded? Tastes fantastic but sometimes a bit bitter? I (John) care about organics, fair trade and the nutritional value of foods. Why can't I say that? Or is it against your overbearing, chocolate fascist rules?

Ice Blocks!
@Ice Blocks!
04/01/13 22:42:25
81 posts

Cacao Powder Grinding


Posted in: Tasting Notes

>it's highly doubtful that you even have a clue if it's fair trade or organic!

We have copies of the organic certifications...

>the guy who misleads people

In what way? By saying we buy cold pressed cacao powder from reputable suppliers...

>Either Iceblocks is lying about HACCP,
>OR Iceblocks is lying about his cocoa butter being cold pressed.

Because the suppliers claim its raw, before combining with other pasteurized products, the powder must be pasteurized. That is actually a HACCP critical control step.
We don't use cocao butter. What a burk.

What's highly doubtful is your ability to comprehend English or intellectually understand. What is unquestionable is your condescending rudeness

Now can we get back on topic

Ice Blocks!
@Ice Blocks!
04/01/13 20:40:52
81 posts

Cacao Powder Grinding


Posted in: Tasting Notes

We don't use cocoa butter. Nor have I ever said we did! We use "cacao powder" which the two Australian suppliers we have bought it from claim is "raw" organic and fair trade.

You are off topic, condescending, rude and potentially libellous and I'm surprised this site allows trolls to continue posting un censored.
Ice Blocks!
@Ice Blocks!
03/30/13 23:06:38
81 posts

Cacao Powder Grinding


Posted in: Tasting Notes

1) I have a copy of the organic certification certificates for the cacao powder...

2) Fair trade products come with a FLO ID...

3) I assume if a reputable supplier describes it as cold pressed that it is...

4) We legally have to pasteurize it, so it's not raw, so don't care if it was...

5) Whats the problem with people wanting a vegan product? It's their choice.

6) What is your problem with organics? We choose to stimulate demand for something we believe in. Ours and our customers choice.

7) If you cant meet a demand don't whine to me

Ice Blocks!
@Ice Blocks!
03/30/13 18:45:00
81 posts

Cacao Powder Grinding


Posted in: Tasting Notes

Flick me an email at info@iceblocks.name to discuss powder.JohnThe cold pressed thing is not a big deal to us, so we have never fully investigated 'cold' claims.We have to pasteurize the powder ourselves anyhow to meet Australian legal food safety / HACCP requirements.Organic is a differentiator though.Fair trade we like to support if appropriate.Would be great to make a truly fantastic chocolate ice block.
Ice Blocks!
@Ice Blocks!
03/29/13 21:04:01
81 posts

Cacao Powder Grinding


Posted in: Tasting Notes

Well we have been concerned about graininess for some time with one of our fair trade, organic cold pressed powders. The settled larger particles also seem more bitter. We have had some chocolate experts test the ice blocks and they agree about the grainyness.

Ill contact the CSIRO and the Symbio lab on Tuesday to see if they can do particle size and distribution. My guess is that the powder is quite coarse (i can see particles on sifting) and a bit of milling in something like a Buhler powder mill would turn it into a less bitter more smooth iced confection offering.
Ice Blocks!
@Ice Blocks!
03/29/13 15:49:29
81 posts

Cacao Powder Grinding


Posted in: Tasting Notes

That's interesting machinery. Thinking about it I really need to quantify the problem first. I suppose getting a particle size distribution test done is the way to go?
Ice Blocks!
@Ice Blocks!
03/28/13 21:57:48
81 posts

Cacao Powder Grinding


Posted in: Tasting Notes

We use a great cacao powder but its grind is not fine enough.We use about 20 kg over a week period.Can anyone recommend machinery to correct the grind of the cacao powder.
updated by @Ice Blocks!: 04/13/15 08:32:35
Ice Blocks!
@Ice Blocks!
11/27/11 14:48:41
81 posts

New to Raw Chocolate


Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques

Sounds likethe cacaomay have been dutched (alkalised) with either sodium or potassium carbonate to help it dissolve in water.

Ice Blocks!
@Ice Blocks!
11/17/11 01:54:03
81 posts

One Bar, Two Bar, Red Bar.....


Posted in: Opinion

I'm definitely in the artificially coloured "white" chocolate sucks camp. There is quite a lot of subconscious psychology associate with food procurement choices.Stick a blue bar with a white bar and see which one you sell. I'm betting > 4 white sales per blue. BUT a blue bar will be bought by some one, and are they influential?

Ice Blocks!
@Ice Blocks!
10/03/11 02:22:48
81 posts

Raw chocolate.....again


Posted in: Opinion

Is there any chocolate flavour in un-fermented beans?

Interesting presentation about cacao fermentation.

http://www.worldcocoafoundation.org/who-we-are/partnership-meetings/pdfs/MGilmour_Fermentation.pdf

What about dutching that should allow 4 possible raw cacao's and varying levels of dutching. i.e. black unfermented dutched cacao or lightly dutched fermented raw cacao etc.. LOL?

Ice Blocks!
@Ice Blocks!
09/09/11 00:39:52
81 posts

Boycott Ritter Sport ??


Posted in: Opinion

Looks like a particularly unusual Germany *specific* situation. Guess Toblerone have the triangle LOL
Ice Blocks!
@Ice Blocks!
09/07/11 17:44:59
81 posts

Boycott Ritter Sport ??


Posted in: Opinion

From my recollection they are flow wrapped in a unique resealable wrapper.The idea of trying to trademark square bars isoutrageous. I think they would also have considerable difficulty in proving prior art. i.e. that they were the first people to produce square bars.

e.g. the "Ugg" word trademark in Australia was thrown out as the term ugg was in common Australian english use prior to the trademark "ugg" being sought.

Ice Blocks!
@Ice Blocks!
09/22/11 03:24:58
81 posts

Daintree Estates - Australia gets another bean-to-bar chocolate maker


Posted in: News & New Product Press

Loved it Tom that's the way milk chocolate should be.
Ice Blocks!
@Ice Blocks!
09/13/11 04:26:29
81 posts

Daintree Estates - Australia gets another bean-to-bar chocolate maker


Posted in: News & New Product Press

Damn I'm jealous. Is the dark milk the 45%?
Ice Blocks!
@Ice Blocks!
09/13/11 04:25:38
81 posts

Daintree Estates - Australia gets another bean-to-bar chocolate maker


Posted in: News & New Product Press

It's very different :-), you will not be dissapointed.

Ice Blocks!
@Ice Blocks!
09/10/11 16:23:01
81 posts

Daintree Estates - Australia gets another bean-to-bar chocolate maker


Posted in: News & New Product Press


I was hoping you were producing powder. I've seen pretty simple setups for that i.e. basically a massive hydralic ram and somewhere for the butter to go.

Don't know if you have tried, it but Daintree Vanilla & Spice is maybe worth trying to up the local Ozzie appeal.

Best milk chocolate I've tasted in 10+years maybe 20.I love milk chocolate.

Ice Blocks!
@Ice Blocks!
09/09/11 17:24:08
81 posts

Daintree Estates - Australia gets another bean-to-bar chocolate maker


Posted in: News & New Product Press

One thing is intriguing me from the ingredients list on both the 70% and 45% mini bar labels is the inclusion separately of both Cocao Nibs & Cocao Butter. Is the butter from Daintree too? Is there then consequently left over Cacao powder? Are the nibs produced by a separate company? If your in control of the entire processing (bean-to-bar) "Cacao Beans" would be the obvious ingredient?

I also hate the "Made in Australia from local and imported ingredients." statement knowing the way juice manufactures abuse such labelling. i.e. the only "local ingredient" being water in some juices ...

Ice Blocks!
@Ice Blocks!
09/09/11 00:19:15
81 posts

Daintree Estates - Australia gets another bean-to-bar chocolate maker


Posted in: News & New Product Press

We had the fortune to try both the 70% and 45% milk chocolate today. Must say I'm *very* impressed with both. The balance of sugar and mouth feel are excellent. Did you do the roasting profiles and formulation Tom?

I have a cold today so taste is impaired but from what I could taste I liked. From what understand the price point will be $8-$10 / 80g bar?

Ice Blocks!
@Ice Blocks!
08/06/11 17:19:55
81 posts

recipe for caramel


Posted in: Tasting Notes

Do you mean milk or cream caramel or caramel? Caramel is simply heated sugar so you only variable is going to be the quality and taste of the sugar your caramelising. For non dairy caramel confectionery I'd experiment with non dairy milk substitutes. My guess being that almond and coconut milk works well, rice and soy milk maybe.

Ice Blocks!
@Ice Blocks!
08/01/11 04:43:05
81 posts

Tales from Chocolate Mecca: Oaxaca


Posted in: Travels & Adventures

Thanks for the warning. I found a couple of references to grinding and roasting (and smoking) which I presume is a translation error.
Ice Blocks!
@Ice Blocks!
07/28/11 15:40:35
81 posts

Tales from Chocolate Mecca: Oaxaca


Posted in: Travels & Adventures

Any idea how they prepare pixtle or the seed of the mamey sapote?

I have two Mamey Sapote trees growing in the garden and have never tried to eat theseeds.

The flesh is wonderful.

The seeds are quite large and have a thick black shiny case. I presume they are roasted?

Ice Blocks!
@Ice Blocks!
07/04/11 18:10:41
81 posts

First Blush: New Lindt 70%, Good Cacao, Zokoko, and Amano


Posted in: Tasting Notes

I'll have to come visit next time I'm in Sydney. It's such a shame PNG appears so hard to deal with exports wise. As PNG is so close to Australia is almost criminal we are not mutually taking advantage of PNG's cacao growing potential.
Ice Blocks!
@Ice Blocks!
06/29/11 03:34:35
81 posts

First Blush: New Lindt 70%, Good Cacao, Zokoko, and Amano


Posted in: Tasting Notes

Did you try the Zokoko PNG chocolate? Any thoughts if you did? I'm in Australia so appreciate your review of products here :-)
Ice Blocks!
@Ice Blocks!
06/24/11 20:57:51
81 posts

Coconut oil and chocolate smoothies


Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques

I find the coconut oil / butter handles very differently at different times of the year - but we are in Australia. In summer it's very easy to separate from coconut cream and milk as it's liquid, similarly in winter its easy an its hard. There are transitional temperatures where it appears grainy and is like sludge. Maybe your working at some transitional temp. From memory it melts at about 27 degrees centigrade.

Ice Blocks!
@Ice Blocks!
06/21/11 00:13:38
81 posts

i need to buy frozen pulp of cacao fruit


Posted in: Classifieds F/S or Wanted

Count me in for a couple of litres :-)~

Some fiends here do fresh sugar cane juice and sell it at markets and in various shops. Boy do they have problems with it fermenting. I left a half bottle of it on top of my home refrigerator one day and by the time I came back from shopping it had exploded literally covering the kitchen.

What they do for shops is hard freeze asap after juicing and deliver frozen to shops refrigerators (which is quite common for many products here). Even then their longevity measures in days and they monitor shops fridges replacing fermenting bottles. They don't pasteurize as it spoils the taste in their opionion. Guess there must be some volatiles that are lost at 72 degrees C.

Ice Blocks!
@Ice Blocks!
10/04/11 15:36:24
81 posts

The High Cost of Certification


Posted in: Opinion

I'm finding this discussion very interesting.

Ice Blocks!
@Ice Blocks!
06/20/11 16:14:24
81 posts

The High Cost of Certification


Posted in: Opinion

Sounds like a really cool idea.

From what I've seen bland complacency is all that most people can manage, unfortunately. :-( Yet they are empathetic and in my experience do want to know their products, especially premium products, where they can afford to invest time and choose, and may wish to appear generous or altruistic, are sourced in an ethical, healthier and or sustainable manner.

One thing we are quite keen on is optimising labelling. Fair trade, etc. in its current guise is great for advertising raw materials. Yet for us, none of our products consist of a single certified raw material which either leads to a huge very detailed ingredients list which can be economically unfeasable due to package printing limitations (and unwieldy and failure) or failure to get leverage for a cost.

What we know is that if ingredients are presented well consumers are very interested in local sourcing, and interested in organics and fair trade. This is tempered by quality and price considerations. Local produce is usually cheaper, fair trade more expensive, and organics of variable quality, supply and more expensive.

I've found Jhai Coffee Farmers Cooperative's email address, I'll flick them and email asking a few questions and see if we get a reply on funding sources and their opinion on fair trade etc.

Ice Blocks!
@Ice Blocks!
06/20/11 00:32:57
81 posts

The High Cost of Certification


Posted in: Opinion

"I maintain that while 'Fair Trade' as it is currently constituted by FLO/Fairtrade, Rainforest Alliance, et al, may A part of AN answer, it is not THE answer." So what you going to do Clay be part of an answer, invent a new answer or not be part of an or the answer?

Ice Blocks!
@Ice Blocks!
06/20/11 00:16:28
81 posts

The High Cost of Certification


Posted in: Opinion

By "simple explanation" I'm referring to the set of calculations you quote and the inherent assumptions. In the public JCFC accounts 2004-2008 there is no mention of certification costs and the simple explanation looks like they have or had grants to cover those costs with no costs to farmers whatsoever. It looks extremely likely, from public documents, that NZ Aid has provided a grant for the organic certification, which appears ongoing and another unspecified US? NGO provides or provided fair trade certification. http://www.adb.org/Documents/Reports/Consultant/40105-LAO/40105-LAO-TACR.pdf initiated by Oxfam Australia.

http://www.die-gdi.de/CMS-Homep age/openwebcms3.nsf/(ynDK_contentByKey)/ANES-7YUGRA/$FILE/Studies%2051.pdf

Ice Blocks!
@Ice Blocks!
06/19/11 17:00:38
81 posts

The High Cost of Certification


Posted in: Opinion

Looks like this is in my neck of the woods and organic certification appears to have been paid for by NZ Aid.

http://cafelao.blogspot.com/ the coffee is bought by http://www.obscura.net.au/origin.html . I wonder if problems have stemmed from being spun off from http://jhai.org/successes/ http://www.cnntraveller.com/2009/11/12/laos-how-to-make-a-better-cup-of-coffee/ "The JCFC now involves 550 households in 12 Bolaven villages, and revenues in 2008 stood at $260,000, 10 times more than in 2004. The vast majority of this money goes back to the farmers, who are able to invest in new homes, tractors and education for their children."

Ice Blocks!
@Ice Blocks!
06/19/11 16:24:43
81 posts

The High Cost of Certification


Posted in: Opinion

Clay have you tried directing your question / concerns to FLO-CERT to find if it's them and what's going on? If you can provide a copy of the paper I'll be happy to contact them if your not interested. I expect there is some simple explanation or that there is a problem that needs it's public profile raising.

Ice Blocks!
@Ice Blocks!
06/18/11 17:00:36
81 posts

The High Cost of Certification


Posted in: Opinion

Certainly in my limited experience it's often NGO's / Aid agencies who set up these co-ops and certification systems, but it looks like someone has stuffed up big time. IMO those charges on farmers are probititive to useful outcomes.

Ice Blocks!
@Ice Blocks!
06/18/11 01:08:55
81 posts

The High Cost of Certification


Posted in: Opinion

Who is providing the organic and fair trade certifications? Are the actual costs cited being picked up by the co-op directly or is it being picked up by some NGO?

Ice Blocks!
@Ice Blocks!
06/05/11 23:18:31
81 posts

Lecithin substitute


Posted in: Opinion

I must agree with you, I don't like Lecithin for a number of reasons.

1. Aesthetic
2. Allergen sensitivity.
3. It usually solvent extracted with hexane. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hexane http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lecithin http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soybean_oil

I suspect its most commonly used by big chocolate to enable mass production machinery to be used with cheapened indredients.

Ice Blocks!
@Ice Blocks!
05/25/11 20:27:36
81 posts

can unsweetened baking chocolate be used for tempering?


Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques


It's really up to you, the baking chocolate we usually have here is adulterated in some way.

Solid at normal room temperature.

I'd imagine so but no experience.

1. I don't personally like the process of dutching. It's and aesthetic thing. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_process_chocolate

2. No, Food grade only! You can use other fats e.g. butter, coconut, etc ... Obviously other fats will effect tempering and taste drastically.

Ice Blocks!
@Ice Blocks!
05/25/11 16:26:21
81 posts

can unsweetened baking chocolate be used for tempering?


Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques

100% unsweetened (winnowed, ground and often roasted cacao) is referred to as chocolate / cacao / cocoa liquor which may be why your having problems finding it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chocolate_liquor

If your still having problems, what you could do is buy pure cacao powder (e.g. http://www.bigtreefarms.com/cacao/ see link at bottom for stockists) and cacao butter from a health food store and combine to reconstitute a liquor. You would have to know the proportion of butter (fat) in the powder to do that, roughly aiming for a 50% butter content by weight.

Ice Blocks!
@Ice Blocks!
05/16/11 03:09:57
81 posts

Packaging--eco friendly


Posted in: Tasting Notes

There is no specific reason truffles suit NatureFlex better than say rocky road orloose chocolates. I just don't see many bars in clear packaging. We put ice blocks (the Australian name for ice confectionary) into it, it's very adaptable, heat sealable and a good barrier film.
Ice Blocks!
@Ice Blocks!
05/15/11 18:40:59
81 posts

Packaging--eco friendly


Posted in: Tasting Notes

If your making truffles I can recommend NatureFlex bags by Innovia though you will need to find out from Innovia who makes bags in your country if your not in Australia or NZ.
Ice Blocks!
@Ice Blocks!
05/17/11 15:29:59
81 posts

Farmers' markets and other mobile options


Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques

Things to remember, that I did not realise with mould copy's, when doing market research is:

1. Some children will inevitably put the copy in their mouth.

2. People get really disappointed if the product looks different to the copy.

3. Colour and appeal are actually very important, an ugly copy will impact sales negatively.

I reckon mixing food grade beeswax with cacao powder may provide a similar sheen / lustre and also make the beeswax melt at a higher temperature. Whether the result is convincing and appealing will take experimentation.

1