Forum Activity for @Trimaniac

I was wondering if anyone can tell me what is in this picture and how it affects bean to bar

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

Hi Tom,

Thank you very much for answering my question. I will remove them with some sort of strainer. I didn't even think of that.

As for the beans, I purchased them from Chocolate Alchemy and had them roasted and winnowed. I know I am doing things backward but I am building a winnower and since I had the beans and the refiner, I wanted to experience what a finished bar would be like. I will study the comments on here and the forum on Chocolate Alchemy in regards to tips and reference points for roasting.

Thank you again!

I was wondering if anyone can tell me what is in this picture and how it affects bean to bar

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

Hi,

This is my first post. Thank you in advance with any information you can provide me with.

I just made my first batch of chocolate from bean to barthis week. I originally started out making an 80% with beans ordered fromChocolate Alchemy(Belize being the origin).

After using Chocolate Alchemy's excel spreadsheet to calculate ingredients, it turned out to be a 90%.

Anyway, the initial taste was great and texture was very smooth but there was a lingering bitterness at the end. I read some posts and came to the conclusion that it could be a few factors: either my refiner (premier wonder grinder) was brand new and I didn't run any sugar through it before grinding beans or there was residual husk left after the winnowing process. I refined/conched for 48 hours.

So for this next batch, I am shifting through the nibs and am coming across what look to be stems (picture attached).

I am correct? And do these affect the end taste. The problem is that this amount is just from 3 handfuls of nibs so to take these out from even a 2lb batch would take a few hours.

Can these be left in or do i need to be patient and take out all the stems?

Sorry to be so long winded.

updated by @Trimaniac: 04/17/15 09:47:35