Wow, that's a lot of chocolate. If I were to pursue contacting some of these companies that might offer this service, does anyone have any advice on how to go about doing so? I am open to any advice or suggestions. I would also be happy to work with small scale manufacturers if anyone is aware of some that may offer this service. Again, all feedback is really appreciated.
Hello there,
I have been on this site for some time now, though not active. I have a small chocolate business in southern Oregon which is basically just local distribution and very small scale. I have saved money and want to expand. I don't really have much knowledge about "the industry" and how this all works, but I have some questions, if anyone can help. Basically I am wondering if it is possible, if there are manufacturers or some avenue out there, to send my recipes to and supply my own ingredients from my sources to a large scale manufacturer to have them make my chocolate for me, according to my specifications? Is this something that one can do? I really have no idea so please excuse my naivety on the whole issue. I can't really afford all the equipment myself for a small scale factory without going way in the red, so I am hoping I can pursue something like this. Appreciate any feedback or info.
Aloha Chocolate Life family,
I am a new member on this forum but have been making and exploring chocolate for a good while now and it is a continually exciting journey for me. I have only recently scaled up and started retail sales of my bars. One of the most valuable parts of taking a passion into the business world is feedback from customers. I have found that, amongst the connoisseur types, the recent "chocolate as health food" types, the purists, the niche groups like diabetic/sugar-free dieters, and the generic customers who just like chocolate whether it's Hershey's or Bonnat, there is also a wide range of preference for sweeteners.
Personally, I feel great about providing bars that are made with 100% organic ingredients only, keeping it natural and using no fillers or flavor substitutes. Using artificial or heavily refined sweeteners or flavorings is out of the question for me. I wonder if others have done much experimenting with different (natural) sweeteners other than cane sugar, specifically for bars, and how things turned out? Not just for you, but for customers as well. Does anyone have a preference for a sweetener for chocolate bars that is not cane sugar?
I have found that maple sugar is extremely complimentary to chocolate, and people LOVE it. It is probably 20X as expensive as what most chocolate makers use however.
I apologize, I did not read your post correctly. I thought you would be making the spoons yourself. If you are looking to contract out the work, I have no idea.
Nice, what a beauty! Exactly like that. Is this available? I am interested. What other equipment do you have? Please e-mail me,
newancients001@gmail.com
Brad - I know it is not reasonable to hold out for a victorian era melangeur; however in the future I plan to have one and I figure that I might as well take a shot at finding one now. I am at a pretty beginner level and I have other equipment I am currently using that works fine for my needs, but I can still dream! Btw, Brooklyn Cacao also custom manufactures melangeurs just like the one above. I am still interested in hearing what you can share about more efficient solutions though. 
I am interested in large stone melangeurs NOT made by cocoatown or santha. Old, european style melangeurs - not modified wet grinders. Do you have any of these?
it seems like some of you guys have gotten into this argument before and are sounding defensive about whether or not chocolate is healthy. just to be clear, I want to say that my experience is that chocolate which is made from organic, shade-grown beans, fermented & dried, lightly roasted & peeled or winnowed, and ground with stones (not necessarily mechanically) is the healthy kind. maybe sweetened with a little bit of honey or maple or similar whole food sweetener. otherwise i agree with you and think that it is just candy.
What is that gob of yellow slimey mass they lipo out of peoples bodies? Is that fat? No. It is blocking the lymphatic system from drainage, it is not stored in lymph nodes. I recommend you read Parasite Rex and humble yourself. It seems you are pretty gullible to mainstream opinions. The main point anyhow was that you called chocolate unhealthy, and I was only correcting you by saying that the way it is modernly prepared by most of you folks is unhealthy - mass produced beans and refined white sugar. Wild growing, ground with stones, honey sweetened cacao beverages, xocolatl, is healthful. There is a reason why the emperor Moctezuma II of the entire Aztec empire kept his storehouses stocked with cacao beans when they could have easily been stocked with gold! I recommend you read some books about cacao and it's history so you can know a little bit about the plant you make your living from. Peace.
Sugar in whole food form, yes. Although even then, it is important to realize that most of the fruits and even vegetables like carrots and beets which are commonly available have been extensively bred for increasing sugar content. The amount of sugar the average person takes in daily, be it in the form of highly processed foods or supermarket fruit, is far beyond what our body's design is naturally intended for. Berries are the best form of sugar.
When someone is 400lbs, there is only a think layer of actual "fat" beneath their skin. Your body does not need to store that amount of excess for later use. I agree that real and healthy fat is simply stored excess calories, but obesity is largely a buildup of toxic material in the lymphatic system. This is just an opinion though, not all healthe xperts agree. Parasite Rex is a good read on the subject. Learn about the creepie crawlers that live inside you.
Raw chocolate is not more healthy, but cacao is definitely a healthy food if it is consumed moderately and with very minimal sugar. Especially if it is not cane sugar and the cacao is organically grown. I say the health factor of chocolate is related to the cacao content, not whether it has been roasted. Personally I'm inclined to say roasted is healthier, actually, except for eating the beans fresh out of the pod with the pulp. Cacao is a bitter food in it's natural state, and bitterness in nature is generally an indicator of mineral concentration. Chocolate was always consdered a "medicinal" food by the people who originally cultivated and consumed it for over 5000 years in drink form. Of course they usually consumed it bitter, only occasionally adding honey to sweeten, and mixing it with spices and herbs which have a stimulating effect on digestion and circulation.
By the way, fat is not bad for you, it is essential for protecting your cells and for nourishing your brain, plus lubricating your joints, rebuidling tissue especially in the liver, lining your gastrointestinal tract. Cacao butter is one of the healthiest and most stable fats on the planet. Sugar is the danger when it comes to health, it creates and feeds systemic infections that lead to inflammation and your body's slow decomposition from the inside out. Sugar is what makes you "fat"...well that and overeating, stress, lethargy, combining several food groups in one meal, environmental toxins and plasticizers in food, alcohol, lots of stuff. What people consider "fat" on the body is not actually fat at all, it is lymphatic blockage and build-up of toxic matter and yeast/mold/fungus/parasites in your body.
Just had to say that because I love chocolate and consider it one of the earth's most potent and powerful plants, of course as with any plant it must be grown and treated with respect not just in some massive full sun plantation being dumped with chemicals all the time. Imagine you were trying to raise a child to be strong and healthy and you just left him out in the tropical sunshine and bathed him in chemicals all day. Not gonna work.
