Don't follow the coffee rating system. It is heavily weighted in favour of the taste of the US Japan and the UK. Also although good coffees score in the high 80s or 90s... and the maximum is 100... the minimum is (from memory) around about 60.
A true scale should go from 0-100 not 60-100.
Brilliant... thanks... will try it this weekend.
Thanks Brad,
That is the answer I am hearing from the experts, that the temperature is actually just a guide. Pancake batter consistency, sounds like a far better description.. that is what I had at 29C.
The thermometer is accurate, but since I am working with tiny amounts of chocolate, it is incredibly easy to overshoot on the way up.
Thanks Robert,
So the temperature profile given by the maker is only a guide?
Sorry to bring up this issue yet again, but I cannot find any reference to the problem that I am having.
I am trying to produce simple chocolate bars from commercially provided couverture.
The instructions from everywhere I read, basically say to melt the chocolate at around 45C, cool whilst adding seed chocolate to around 27C then raise again to 30-31C
My problem is that as the chocolate cools, at around 29C it becomes so stiff that it is almost impossible to stir, and I simply cannot get the temperature to drop further without is solidifying.
What am I doing wrong?
Slightly off topic. But you said that customers use credit cards, even though they are being charged an extra 5%, without noticing. I have a small shop and normally we avoid stocking items that the big supermarkets stock... simply because they will normally be cheaper.
However some products we simply have to have, and even though we can be 20% more expensive, people will still buy them... not everyone, but enough. And I would say that over half the customers never look at the price, at least not in detail.
My conclusion: People are strange......
Debit cards rule here in the Netherlands. Credit cards are only wielded by tourists. But I still prefer to pay cash, and would appreciate a discount for cash. I think more of us should do so just to publicise the point that the banks are getting rich on transaction charges.
Cacao is actually grown in Uganda and Tanzania, so it ought to be possible to buy cacao beans direct from the farms.
Now if you are only able to work with blocks of chocolate mass, then it must surely be possible to arrange a deal with a chocolate maker, who wants good cacao beans and or a contact locally. to swap one for the other in some way. I know that this may be a lot more involved than you had intended. But otherwise, that is why you have to pay so much more.
I would seriously look at the possibility of working with beans direct from the farm.
This is what I suspected. But for me it then raises the question of how honest the labelling is.
For instance an 80% pure Single Origin, from Land A. This could have 40% cocoa butter from unspecified sources. So in actual fact only 40% cocoa mass would be from the the Land of Origin.
Therefore I would like to see clearly on the packaging..
Percentage cocoa mass from land of origin
Percentage sugar
Percentage added cocoa butter... from land of origin
Percentage added cocoa butter... from unspecified sources.
That is perhaps going too far. But I am not happy to buy a 75% Single Origin bar, if only 40% is actually cocoa mass from the land in question and 35% cocoa butter...unspecified.
I would like to see the actual percentages of cocoa mass, sugar, cocoa butter etc. And if the cocoa butter is not from the same origin, I would like to know.
Personally I cannot understand, yet, why extra cocoa butter would be added.
Well the companies concerned are Valrhona and Callebaut. Both offer Single Origin. so it is not per se the beans.
The reason I asked, is that at the present moment I have no conch. So I am looking at working from couverture. However most of the major couverture producers, seem, to me, to over work/conch the chocolate. That way it is super smooth, but the aromas and flavours that make a particular bean/origin special are almost gone.
For me that is so disappointing. And it will force me into conching my own chocolate much sooner than I would like.
Interesting Sebastian. What do you mean when you say that very few people understand how to conche properly... when do you do you Masterclass? 
It seems that many chocolate producers add cocoa butter to their ingredients.
Since cocoa beans are approx 50% fat (cocoa butter) why would you need to add extra?
If you are producing a single origin bar, shouldn't this cocoa butter also be from the same origin?
Why then are there NO single origin cocoa butters available?
Correct.
If you are going Bean to Bar, then you will also need a roaster, a winnower, a conch. Good cacao beans.
I was thinking per portion. But I am beginning to think that larger quantities would be the better way to go, offering a more stable repeatable product.
That sounds similar to what I am using at present... your
2 ounces single origin chocolate (50gr)
5 ounces hot water (150ml)
whereas I am using 50gr chocolate, adding 50ml water to get the chocolate melted, blending and topping up with an extra 50ml water. I do it that way, because melting the chocolate takes all the heat out of the water, so I find that I have to add extra hot water to raise the temperature of the drink.
So we are pretty much agreed on the hot version. But the biggest problem that I have is in producing a cold version.
Cooling this drink quickly, cause it to thicken.
Cooling it slowly, the cocoa butter seems to form a waxy foam on the top of the drink, which I don't mind, but I can understand would not be popular with everyone.
Thanks Steve, I will try this recipe.
What you are doing is reducing the cacao butter content, by adding in cacao powder. It is therefore a slight compromise, if I want to offer single origin chocolate drinks, but I will have to see how much it compromises the Origin flavour.
Thanks.
I have an aversion to adding milk to my chocolate. But I do want to enjoy a chocolate drink, both hot and cold.
Has anyone any advice on the best way to acheive this? I am normally using 65% or higher chocolate.
Have you got a website/shop. I am only across the water in the Netherlands...
Sorry, my mistake, but then the lucama or cashews are used instead of the milk? I see your point then, but then it is not a milk chocolate but a Lucama chocolate. That is going to taste very different, isn't it? Where can I buy your chocolate, I would really like to try that.
Using Lucuma and coconut, or cashews, might make an interesting bar... but it is not really chocolate anymore. However I am curious how is the cacao butter produced for such raw products, I could find nothing relevant on SacredChocolate, and they don't sell cacao butter, but do sell cashew butter etc.
I'm not Vegan, so please accept my apologies for anything stupid I may say. All alternatives to cow milk are going to taste different. So is there a particular reason that you are not looking at soy milk. And if soy milk is acceptable then have you looked at Zotter. He produces a soy milk and a soy white chocolate. Both are actually quite tasty, though clearly different from non soy chocolates.
So how do you make your hot version? Just curious. And what is it that is not quite right with the cold version?
Brad, that is the point that what you are producing and selling to your customers is right for you and them.
But if the general quality is ever going to be uplifted, then it needs something else. Whether we need"professional tasters", can be argued, but so long as the marketing of chocolate iscompletelyin the hands of the mass producers, then things are not going to get muchbetter.
My point is that unless someone such as yourself is prepared to take on that effort, there will be no change, and you are proving me right by saying what you say... a sort of "I am all right Jack".
I am not criticising that I am just stating that that sort of response is what Clay is going to be fighting against, and so his argument becomes circular with no way to break it.
Clay I am glad that you realise that this is a circular argument. And will continue to be nothing more than that until there is an artisan chocolate maker with sufficient funds and foresight to fund at least one group of chocolate sommeliers.
That would be a vast risk, and in honesty I cannot see anyone every being prepared to take that risk... can you?
I disagree that it would HAVE to be exceptional. Once you get into such rarified areas, very few people can or will have tried it. But the back story has to be good.
As regards Bittersweet, I can only judge from their website, but I see more coffees on offer than chocolate drinks. No range of single origin chocolate drinks.
I have no idea of their method for making hot chocolate, but it will often be cooler than expected, just as good coffee is. But chocolate can be given an extra kick temperature-wise with a few seconds in the microwave.
I think that with such specialty chocolate it ought to be 50g. 100g always seems more like munching chocolate to me.
We have that chocolate bar too. But only 5,50... though without the fancy booklet, so I guess the storybook is half the final price.
There is much discussion here over whether chocolate should emulate wine or coffee to raise the profile towards thar $100 bar.
I think that we need to take a little from both. The $100 bar, should I believe be based on a vintage, after all that is how wine has reached such dizzy heights. There are even wines that will probably never be opened because they are the last one or two of a particular year, of a particular grape from a particular vineyard.
On the other hand the coffee model has opened up a wider market for better quality coffees. As has been said coffee is a daily neccessity for many people. Why cant chocolate do the same.
The focus of this discussion has been on chocolate bars. Why not on cacao drinks? Cacao was originally served in cafes as a drink, let us go back to those roots with our current technology. Pure cacao drinks, pure chocolate drinks, and chocolate milk drinks. Such cafes would also be perfectly placed to sell high end chocolate bars.
Howard, have you received the feedback that you wanted. If not then I'd be more than willing to put your cocoa to the test. I am only starting in the chocolate making, but a single origin hand crafted Samoa chocolate bar would be a great thing to produce. Finding out what percentage worked best would be a fascinating challenge.
Having read your review and checked their website, I have just one question... where can I get them in the Netherlands.
