Forum Activity for @Richard Foley

Cocoa pods

Posted in: Classifieds F/S or Wanted

Qzina in Vancouver should have them or will send them from LA office to you. They have shells, beans open pods, and full dried pods. Call Ed.

A lot of Acid

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

I would say look for better quality beans. If using over fermented beans and without the ability to truly conch properly you have a big challenge. Ideally, starting with carefully and properly fermented beans, as well as quality fine flavor beans, will make your process more forgiving. This is why the big manufacturers can use all kinds of lesser quality beans, they have highly sophisticated equipment, and conches to deal with these issues, and they are professional blenders, so when they run into acidic or vinegar acids, they can deal with it easier. Small producers trying to conch and refine in a melanger don't have that benefit, and using single origin beans makes you vulnerable to fluctuations beyond your control. We find in our test kitchen that the better our beans, the better our results. Get yourself a fermentation chart so you can compare your beans against the chart for proper fermentation. There are roasting charts also that can assist. I believe at the end of the day, bean quality and fermentation and drying are very important. UWI cocoa research unit has some very interesting studies on fermentation worth reading. They even introduced other types of fruit pulp into fermentation boxes and were able to really see the flavor change impact. Also, the importance of getting beans into fermentation boxes within 12 hours is also very important. Anyway, so many different opinions and theories out there...we all have so much to learn and it's all so much fun.

NYC area chocolate class (bean to bar)

Posted in: Chocolate Education

We are starting a series of monthly classes at Qzina Instiute in Irvine, Ca. Starting from known and visited farms, our beans are carefully selected for true quality fine flavor, and proper fermenting and drying is assured. We recently installed the latest equipment from BLT so we can produce 30 lb batches for up to four attendees who will go from start to finish over two days. We have plenty of material from the cocoa research unit at the University of West Indies, including fermentation grading charts, roasting analysis, and our corporate chef will lead not only a course in physical manufacturing, but also informative sessions on the origins of chocolate, fine flavor beans, and attendees will enjoy a tasting experience featuring various chocolate produced from different farms we have sourced beans from. We would love share our technical manufacturing experience with other enthusiasts and ourselves learn from our guests. We have the country's top chcolate bean to bar facility with fully equipped chocolate, pastry, and testing equipment for measuring viscosity (Brookfield), particle size, and more. Guests leave with 5 lbs of tempered and molded chocolate in 227 gram bars, and 6 gram tasting pieces. We are having so much fun. Last week we made pure Hawaiian (Forastero) and then pure Nacional/ Ariba from Peru..... Amazing flavors coming each week. We have classes once per month... Contact me for a schedule if interested.

Best before dates

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

Generally the large producers give 2 years to Darks, 1 year to milk and white. Also note best before date and expiry dates are two different animals.
With chocolate, use the best before, as it does not really expire for quite a long time after the BBD.

Types of Sweetening and Conching Time

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

When we use our small melanger, it takes a good amount of time to get smooth chocolate and are you blowing in warm air to help evaporate acids and moisture? Also. Invest in a micrometer, digital version, less than 40 bucks. Test your batch periodically. We find on the small melanger it takes often 30 hours or so to get down to 20 microns, which is your target for smooth chocolate.Adding lecithin or added cocoa butter is also often needed, depends how much of a purist you are. Without that however you will find it hard to get a real fluid and homogenized batch.

Quest for micrometer

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

http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=mitutoyo+micrometer&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&client=safari&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=shop&cid=11394996720134678078&sa=X&ei=SZ48T8SXK4eYiALcl83MAQ&ved=0CE8Q8gIwAQ Yes Mitotoyo Micrometer that's what I have..maybe it was 100 bucks. Works perfect.

Quest for micrometer

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

50 bucks and you will find a digitl one at a good tool store. I find them very accurate as long as they are good ones that allow you to tighten with that second spinner

Direct Source for 100% Arriba Nacional Cacao (OG)- Ecuador

Posted in: News & New Product Press

I need 500 lbs in the next few weeks, what can you do for me, please quote, send info on farmer, pictures, etc. rafoley@qzina.com

Direct Source for 100% Arriba Nacional Cacao (OG)- Ecuador

Posted in: News & New Product Press

I just opened the Qzina Institute in Irvine, and am looking for a few hundred lbs to begin my testing. My goal is to have ten unique cacao origins, where we can track the beans right back to the farm. We have processing equipment to make 20 lb batches and are teaching chefs and Chocolatiers the full bean to bar production experience.Please send me info, specs, and pricing to rafoley@Qzina.com.Students and professionals will spend two days learning chocolate production in our facility.

Agostoni chocolate

Posted in: Opinion

Look up Icam, it is the parent company, well establlished in Italy, makes good choocolate.

Selmi tempering machine question

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

To Tom, not sure what you are talking about Tom, we have sold in the past a few machines, JKV 27 years ago, Moldart, a few here and there for last 15 years, and Chocotec Wheel Machines, which we made in Edmonton ourselves for 10 years, sold over 170 of them, before closing that assembly and transferring assembly of last few machines to Bakon USA. Aside from that, I have bought and sold some ACMC machines at Qzina, and purchased for various factories that I have owned over the years machines from Chocoma, Neilson, Carle & Montanari, and Sollich, but never re sold or represented them. I do however consider myself an expert on chocolate machines, and have 30 years experience working with literally thousands of customers who use all kinds of machines, coupled with extremely extensive chocolate manufacturing background, including pure chocolate processing, molding, and much more. We recently began carrying the Pomati line, which is the first and only machine of this style we carry or have ever carried, and I believe they have an exceptional range, and through our network of 7000 customers using chocolate, I am certain they and others will appreciate our investment in this offering. Although Clay does not get commission, he has not approached us, and I am not sure what you have with him, but it seems there is some confusion about what this site is really about, benefits to Clay, his sponsors, or open sharing of information from people with experience whether for fun, enthusiasm, passion, or even some financial benefit. I don't see this site as a mechanism for the latter in my case, but rather as one of many avenues available for everyone to share opinions and perspectives. If your perspective on Qzina is at we change flags, perhaps your information is sensorsed or filtered and you don't have he facts straight because of that. I wish you well with Selmi but you are not the only supplier of this style machine, so I look forward to some sporting competition. Too bad your first contact with us on this matter was in fact "wrong" and you stand corrected, our flag flies high and proud with Pomati.

Selmi tempering machine question

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

I have lots of machines to offer but Clay just keeps deleting my posts every time I mention it. We sell melters, wheel machines, and Pomati machines, but no commission to clay so I guess nobody here will ever know. Clay, you are clearly controlling content to hour own benefit not the benefit of the membership. At least be up front about it.

Raw chocolate.....again

Posted in: Opinion

Podfathers Chocolates....... busting open a whole rawta cocoa, and all cash business..where is this going.

Questions about using a wheel based tempering machine with enrober

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

I have two wheel machines for sale, used if anyone interested but not enrobers

Transfers on White Chocolate?

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

Because white chocolate has the lowest working temperature, your transfers are having a hard time "transferring" . So it is very important you get them on to the top of your creations immediately. Also try storing your transfers at a few different temperatures until you find the best result. Could be your transfers are too cool or even too warm to work the best. I think it is just an equation of tweaking your method, but again, most important is to remember white chocolate is already cooler working temp so will be most difficult to melt those transfers off the plastic onto your surface.

Using Coating

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

Don't buy American compound coating, buy product made in Europe. That is a generalization but mostly a rule now. Qzina sells a huge variety of coatings, made in Italy, France, Singapore, Belgium, etc. We have trans fat free, fractionated, non hydrogenated, high cocoa, low cocoa, all kinds. But none are as good as the real thing. Melting point is not the reason people use compound, as depending on the fat used, the melting point could be higher or lower than pure chocolate. Mostly it is easy of processing, but don't be fooled, some compounds require very precise working conditions. I suggest you learn to work with both real chocolate and find good compounds. Even the best chefs have applications for both. Whatever you do stay away from any product that has "partially" hydrogenated oil, this is the deadly trans fat heavy coating. Anyway, Qzina has some great options if interested call Qzina nearest you.

Cost of couverture in Australia

Posted in: Tasting Notes

Sounds like importer is charging too much. Or duty in Australia is really high. I would shop around or even contact Callebaut direct for an expanded list of sellers. They may even sell you direct or sell you product from their factory in Singapore which may be duty free. Callebaut cost in USA is around $5.50 US per KG if you buy 2000 lbs direct from them. You can't make money at this AU prices for sure.

Dipping Chocolates

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

OMG. Water is an enemy to chocolate. Purchase the right viscosity for your application, and temper correctly. Gotta do it right

Butter Ganache Question

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

Best solution is make sure your bowl is always slightly warmer than the solidification temp of chocolate

Chocolate

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

Chocolate wont actually melt at 70 but even storage at tbis temp I don't think this is a good idea as even if the chocolate is not melting, if it contains real cacao butter, the fat will slowly migrate and cause fat bloom.There are compound coatings available with hard fats that hold up at warmer temps.

melting/tempering white chocolate

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

Ghiradelli likely the problem. Are you using their chips, as those likely made for cookies and designed to NOT melt when heated. Also often white chocolate picks up local humidity long before dark or milk and thus is too thick and won't melt.I suggest also when you order your next batch you ask for a true min of 35% fat, that is the min I suggest with white especially if in summer and around humidity.You can order from Qzina Valrhona, Callebaut, Cacao Barry, Chocoa, and others, just make sure you specify high cocoa butter white.

Buying cacao bean

Posted in: News & New Product Press

I am interested in small amounts of great quality beans for my farm to bar institute. Any way to get a few hundred lbs

Adventures with Colored Cocoa Butter

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

Very simple, if it stuck to the mold, it was not tempered. It is the cocoa butter in fact in all chocolate that requires the tempering. Cocoa is a very complex fat. Tempering in a bottle, is not really a well recognized method, although it can be done if you have enough experience to understand when and how to get the mixture tempered.
Cocoa butter on it's own actually will temper at a lower temperature than chocolate, and become very foggy in color as it crystalized, so with food color added this makes it even harder to tell when tempered. Remember, tempering basics, always....time, temperature, movement.
Always be an expert at tempering when using any cocoa buttter based product and once that skill is mastered you set, along with your chocolate creation.

Sugar in Ganache

Posted in: Tasting Notes

If you want more sugar, use a 50 to 60 % chocolate instead, simple. You can't add granulated sugar to ganache. Also careful of other ingredients that contain moisture or water, as water is also an enemy to chocolate.

Where does Sephra Chocolate come from?

Posted in: Tasting Notes

Cargill, Callebaut, ADM, Belcolade. Only Cargill and Callebaut produce from the bean in Belgium. Belcolade buys liquor, and ADM uses its own liquor from other plants. OCG, now Cargill was started by a former Callebaut engineers. The three letters represent initials from their last names I am told.

With enough volume anyone can purchase a proprietary recipe from any one of these big companies, and voila, your own Belgian Chocolate is born.

I think however Belgian Chocolate, as a association or tag or description for your finished products is stale and now so diluted, it has lost it's identity. I believe strongly in the trend of artisans starting their own bean to bar production and standing proud of ones own chocolate creations. There is a real trend out there now and more and more small equipment suppliers are facilitating this bean to bar dream.

The Qzina Institute in Irvine Ca will begin working with bean to bar training and process development starting January 2012, where craftsmen will be able to come and discover the various processes and equipment used for artisanal bean to bar chocolate production.

i need to buy frozen pulp of cacao fruit

Posted in: Classifieds F/S or Wanted

Oh I see now you are in Equador... must be some local farms there you can find who can treat this nectar the right way and pasturize or freeze...when you find, let me know... amazing stuff...we can drink it and will live forever

i need to buy frozen pulp of cacao fruit

Posted in: Classifieds F/S or Wanted

This is a great idea. When I was in Hawaii, we drank some Cacao nectar that Sharkey had made from his harvesting. WOW, what a great juice, incredible I must say. I had the same idea. There is certainly a market for this stuff. The issue will be capturing this pulp or juice before too much fermentation, as in fact it is actually fermenting off the seeds and making itself into juice. The process of capturing this juice or pulp, and pasturizing or freezing it to keep it safe for consumption of further processing is the biggest problem. We buy fruit puree from a fruit coop in France. The fresh fruit is delivered daily to the coop for processing. If it is not able to process, they place the fruit in a huge warehouse air tight room, suck the oxygen out of the room and drop the temp to around 1 dec C, suspending the fermentation process until they can properly extact and process. I dont see any cacao growing regions having even an Igloo cooler let alone a setup like this, so other than nectar made on the spot on the farm, and consumed almost immediately, this is going to be a tough one to find. BUT PLEASE I WISH SOMEONE COULD DO IT, as it is great stuff going to waste.

I do know there is a chocolatier or baker in Hawaii that is making Cacao Nectar ganache, although I have not tasted, I bet it is great.

Our best bet would be to find some farmers in Hawaii willing to setup a small process treatment plant, and get it from there.

I can only imagine this nectar would be the most exotic juice in the world if made by someone.

When I was in Aftrica, the locals distilled it into home made moonshine cocktail.....not bad after a hard day of harvesting.

Premade truffle shels- necessity or copout?

Posted in: Opinion

Truffle shells are standard in the industry and are designed thin so you dont really notice them, and they should not be impacting flavor, but more used as a tool for your production. Although I would not suggest using bad chocolate truffle shells, I think spending the money on expensive truffle shells is not worth it, again as you likely will not taste the impact of the truffle shell in the finished product.

Qzina sells a truffle shell made in Germany, with Callebaut Chocolate, made by Keller. We stock these in Chicago, well priced, that should increase your profit vs more expensive truffle shells. Keller is probably the biggest producer in the world of truffle shells, top quality. They also have a number of shells in unique shapes by special order. We import direct from Keller in full containers and are very competitively priced.

Also Truffle shells allow you to manufacture very soft fillings, which is not possible without them. We also can get you liquor shells, smaller hole in the top, designed for liquid filling. There are also filling machines, and plates available for truffle shell trays that dramatically speed up your production, and make covering or topping the shells easy, consistent, and fast.

IF your production gets very high in volume, you should then consider the only machine that can truly deposit thin shell one shot, truffle shell and filling in one shot, the Avema Depositor. We have many customers who for example, have the round truffle shell molds, and fill the chocolate and filling into the round ball shape, in one shot, still maintaining a thin shell and liquid filling. That machine however is around 100K. But just for future reference.

Some basic questions

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

My advice is to purchase a true and tested winnower, you will save money vs testing and trial and error.

I just visited Cacao Cucina in Tampa, great winnower for 11,000 USD so for 8000 Euro, you have never to worry about it...

But on the other hand, I visited a farm in Hawaii winnowing with a small vibrating table, and a modified Shop Vacuum from the hardware store.

Nice thing about buying from Cacao Cucina is the machine breaks, winnows, and results are very good, very low shell content.

ACMC Tabletop Chocolate Tempering Machine Digital Temperature Readout 6 lb capacity

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

Good little machine for home use and does a good job tempering. Small table top size. If you are an at home chocolatier ok but if you are serious then find a better machine and larger capacity.Most chefs just use a good warming kettle and temper by hand by seeding the chocolate and mixing.I never thought about that light bulb heater thing, that could be an issue in a few years when they are all gone. Hilliards run on bulbs also. Hmmm.

Ball Mill refiners vs Roller Refiners

Posted in: Chocolate Education

I think i will find a lab roller refiner as well as the ball mill, this way chefs can chcolaiers can come and use same recipe with both, and we will learn the difference. I see some used lab equipment at reasonable prices are available. The big issue I see with a lot of chefs with local startups is that the rheaology and viscosity often limit the chocolates use in Fine pastry and confection work. THis I need to solve and understand better if various production techniques combined with fat content, fat binding to particles, etc is effecting flow and ease of use for professionals, albeit fine eating chocolate from these producers.

Ball Mill refiners vs Roller Refiners

Posted in: Chocolate Education

And please forgive my typos as I am traveling and iPad typing is not the easiest.

Ball Mill refiners vs Roller Refiners

Posted in: Chocolate Education

On the startup method, I was thinking mote startup of larger volumes, not the small Cocoa town or Alchemy type customer but more small to mid size commercial manufacturers, like Tcho for example. They use Mackentyres, but again I see very few other than the big guys using roller refiners, yet some of the best chocolate from a fineness and consistency comes from the bigh guys. I did a project with Frank Callebaut a few years ago where we spec'd out a million lb a year factory, and in ere we had. Two roll followed by a five roller refiner. I have been buying chocolate for the last 30 years from nearly every major producer in the world, totaling hundreds of millions of pounds, and the roller refiner factories in my opinion, from a consistency, viscosity, fineness, smoothness perspective, have always been the best. One can argue bean origins, flavor profiles, fruitiness, etc, but I like to rely equally on process quality.Yesterday I spent the day at BLT. I was very impressed with the roaster, winnower, and we made chocolate the whole day. This lab style equipment is very top quality, tough as nails. I am not sure if there is a Better way to make small batches of liquor from nibs, as their hammer milling liquor required 3 passes to get to 90 microns from the broken nibs. I would like to find a better way if one exists. From there we Ent on to their ball mill refiner, and made some decent chocolate. I don't quite understand the ball mill finished product (no conching?)........ Every European factory I have been to emphasizes the conching importance. I have more to learn here. Help me out if you know.

Ball Mill refiners vs Roller Refiners

Posted in: Chocolate Education

I am researching the differences between making or shall I say refining chcolate and ingredient mixes on a ball mill refiner versus roller refiner process. There seems to be a difference of opinion. I must say the finest chocolate I have tasted most often comes off a roller refined, dry conch and then wet conch system. Recently in researching bean to bar production for our teaching institute opening in Irvine this fall, I find most startups using ball refining. I think this may be due to the abundance of used equipment and a more simple process. Lots of Macintyres and the like on the market, and old conches. I have seen that dry conching is not a possibility with ball refining.

See on this link a study done on ball mill refining if interested. I wish I had more info on the differences between the two. Ideally I would like to setup both systems in our training institute if money permits so we can find our own answers but if you have any opinion or oher scientific input, please let me know.

http://www.aseanfood.info/Articles/11020318.pdf

I would like to see comparable data on roller refined chocolate. Again I go back to the best of the best, and it always seems to come off roller refiners.
updated by @Richard Foley: 04/11/15 09:32:45

Organic cacao liquor in bulk in the US / Canada ?

Posted in: Classifieds F/S or Wanted

I am waiting for a quote and some info from Icam. They have a sales office in LA, made in Italy,, also I was told that Guittard has an organiic liquor, do you need FT or just Organic?

Organic cacao liquor in bulk in the US / Canada ?

Posted in: Classifieds F/S or Wanted

We can supply you with organic liquor or put you in touch with Icam. They have fair trade and organic liquor and chocolate. I have samples in my office at Qzina in LA. Nice stuff.

Peppy pumper for JKV wheel machine

Posted in: Classifieds F/S or Wanted

I have worked with JKV and all the clones of that machine. As it not a true tempering machine, you have to control tempering and crystallization manually. Therefore I would be nervous about increasing volume or more movement as risk of over crystallization in a small batch. We have many many customers using this style machine for molding, and capacity is never an issue on the flow of chocolate to the spout. Are you talking about feeding the J.k.v from an external melter to keep full. If so, not a bad idea, as long as you can manage to keep all in temper. Most just continuer topping up the JKV using a bowl, and the slightly warmer chocolate added mixes in usually just as he JKV tank is starting to over crystalize, so once you get the hang of it, it works well as you are balancing out your batch. You will notice over time the JKV batch will thicken due to over crystalized chocolate and thus you have to increase the thermostat temp or add in some untempered chocolate to kill off some of the over tempered chocolate crystals.

alternative to mycryo

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

Most of the mycryo benefit is that it is in powder form. Cacao butter is hard to find in small morsels so lots of chefs use mycryo....tres expensive but convenient. We sell Bo at Qzina. We also offer about the smallest morsel size of cocoa butter I have seen. The c butter chips run about e size of 6000 ct Choc chips, so quite small. We sell a lot as alternate to mycryo or for tempering and spraying. Athough as a gelatin replacement, not sure. Have you tried agar, or vegetable gelatin, those work well also.

Questions regarding tempering & molding

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

Tempering ....time temperature, movement. There are several ways to do it, but practice makes perfect. If you google it, you will find lots of info, and a good video by Jacues Torre. We also have tempering info at www.Qzina.com if you need to print out.

If Selmi is the Cadalac what is a JKV and why?

Posted in: Chocolate Education

David,

We have several JKV Machines for sale, used, and similar copies as well. In simple terms, JKV (Prefamac, and similar) are melters with mixing wheels and agitation. The skill of tempering is still needed, only a few tools assist you. The key to tempering is TIME, TEMPERATURE, MOVEMENT. On a JKV you set the temperature, the machine moves the chocolate, and you wait for it to be tempered. However if you are not experienced, the machine does not do it for you. You must seed the machine with wafers or tempered solid chunks in order to cool it and slightly re heat to get final temper (experience and precision)

The Selmi on the other hand has a built in cooling unit, and computerized controller, therefore it does a Batch of chocolate, cools, mixes, and final re-heat automatically. This is more forgiving and takes less skill.

On the other hand if you are doing alot of moulding the JKV delivers chocolate via the spout, and has a built in vibrator, great for doing molded pralines, once you get the hang of tempering yourself. THe Selmi has attachments for this, but pricier.

I have used a whole variety of semi automatic machines over the years, and fully automated continuous machines. One thing I can advise is when it comes to tempering, dont take short cuts. The time you will waste, product you will spoil, and frustration you will have will cost far more over time than the cost of buying a top quality tempering machine in the beginning.

updated by @Richard Foley: 09/12/15 20:47:06

Santha Melangeurs

Posted in: Geek Gear - Cool Tools

Soon you will be able to visit our new facility in Orange County, Ca. There you will be able to learn everything you need to know about making chocolate, truly from Bean to Bar. The Qzina Institute will open in September, together with the Stephane Treand Art of Pastry School. We will have numerous machines to test, along with a big variety of beans, and other ingredients. We also carry molds, small and large tempering machines, melters, tools, flavors, powders, and all kinds of ingredients for Chocolate, Dessert, and Pastry Professionals. The Institute will have Small Melangers from both Cocoatown and Alchemy, roasters, winnowers, grinders, and even larger (mid size) equipment for more serious production. We are working onhaving commercial roller refiners and conches for 2012. The idea is to teach customers andenthusiastseverything from how to source the beans, to various production methods, and from there ourin house Chocolatier and Pastry ChefFrancois Mellet, with assistance from MOF (Best Craftsmanof France) Stephane Treand, can teach you how to make incredible top quality truffles, fillings, cakes, pastries, andchocolates.We are not a school, butmore of anR&D institute for the industry. We will also display machinery in our showroom from a host of top manufactures, including enrobers, mills, small processing equipment, etc. We also stockmost of the top chocolates of the world, from Callebaut to Valhona to Guittard, and many many more, for those wanting to supplimentproduction. We also have refined liquor,cacao butter, nibs,on and on. Contact us for more information. We are justoutfitting our new building now, and hope to be ready in Sept or October. This is a facility like no other in the United States, located minutes fromNewport Beach Airport, Irvine Spectrum Mall, andDisneyland (for those who want a side trip), half way between L.A. and San Diego.

Chocoma Enrober

Posted in: Opinion

Pomati machines are now available in USA via Qzina. You can test drive several models and enrobers at the Qzina Institute of chocolate and Pastry in Irvine Ca.Introductory prices 20% off through march 2012.Look at Pomati.it for all info on these machines.