Santha 20 Melangeurs for sale - Europe
Posted in: Classifieds F/S or Wanted
Hello, do you still have the machines? If yes, please send me details and price to info@miguelpujols.com
Thank you.
Forum Activity for @Miguel Pujols
Posted in: Classifieds F/S or Wanted
newby maybe stupid question
Posted in: Tasting Notes
What machines are you looking for specifically? What is the hourly or daily production you are expecting to get with it?
To tell the truth, buying used chocolate machinery is very tricky and you need to check very deeply on your purchase.
Right know I just know of two companies that would sell used equipment.
- MTE Bifaro in Italy.
- Union Machinery in the States.
newby maybe stupid question
Posted in: Tasting Notes
Hello Mariano,
You can find some directions and basic recipes on this link at the ChocolateAlchemy .
newby maybe stupid question
Posted in: Tasting Notes
Hey Jim,
I did sell in a small fair once and it was terrible for me, I was not prepared and some of my chocolate melted. The cooler idea might work, you could use a wine cooler, make sure it has temperature and relative humidity control and of course include an estimated electricity consumption for the wine cooler to your costs.
Good luck 
newby maybe stupid question
Posted in: Tasting Notes
Not really. Cocoa Butter will actually make it be more unstable. What big companies do is that they add a little bit (maybe no more than 5%) of palm oil to increase the melting point, but I don't see that as an option.
I live in Dominican Republic so I face the exact same problem and I have noticed that if WELL tempered the chocolate could stay hard for quite a while, make sure it doesn't have direct sunlight tho.
Are you considering to sell your products in fairs or some other outdoor activities?
newby maybe stupid question
Posted in: Tasting Notes
In case you want to know about getting your own cocoa butter in future. To do that you need a press that basically pushes the cocoa liquor extracting the greasy part which is cocoa butter and leaving a cocoa cake that is actually broken into pieces and pulverized to get cocoa powder.
I just wanted to show my new website and get some feedback!
Posted in: Allow Me to Introduce Myself
Hello Steven, as I see the page was created on www.wix.com platform which is pretty good when you have no web design/programming knowledge and would like to have an acceptable website. As an advice I would recommend you to spend a few more dollars (maybe later when business grows up) to a web designer who will be able to develop a better site and also make it responsive, which means that will show the content the same way in virtually any device, no matter how big/small is the user's screen size.
Hope you take this just as a friendly advice, and if you need any help finding a good designer, I know a couple here in Dominican Republic that could help you with that, or also you can go to www.freelancer.com and hire any person for an affordable amount.
Small Scale Chocolate factory
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques
The aether is a good winnower designed by John from ChocolateAlchemy, in his website you could find recipes that kinda explain the process and also you can look into making tour own cracker/winnower in his forum.You should follow Sebastian's advice and go ahead and pay for consultancy, Clay from there offer that type of service, not only for the chocolate making process but also for the business development.Hey, you can also look for YouTube videos to better understand chocolate making.
Small Scale Chocolate factory
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques
Hello Tudose, what you heard (conche and tempering machines is enough) is completely wrong. As you know there are other things VERY IMPORTANT to produce chocolate that need to be done before conching and tempering, for example grinding.
Considering that you want to produce 50kg/day and you must grind/refine for at least 20 hours to have a consistent chocolate flavor, you must get a refiner with those capabilities, you could get a Spectra 65 or a Cocoatown ECGC-65, that would allow you to grind, refine and conch at the same time and they are called "universals" because of that.
As for tempering you can purchase a ChocoVision X3210 which will give you around 45kg per day (more if you use the Holey Baffle).
Remember that you must consider also that you must roast, crack and winnow the cacao beans, and more importantly you must storage the finished chocolate carefully, so those are other machinery you must find out and I can't really provide any advise on.
Trip to the DR
Posted in: Travels & Adventures
I'm in Santo Domingo, la capital, however my mentor is from San Francisco, so I'm pretty sure he might know Mr. Hernandez.
Do you know what equipment is Miguel manufacturing?
Trip to the DR
Posted in: Travels & Adventures
Hello Thomas, i live in DR, let me know if I can help you with something. Btw what's the name of the man who manufactures the processing machines you said?
Seeking answers….
Posted in: Make Mine Raw ...
Hi Mark, what I understand is that the Criollo type of cacao was found at first in America, so it is around 90% of total DR production. If you start to look for DR cacao products you might find two varieties:
- Hispaniola (fermented)
- Sanchez (unfermented)
I have direct contact with a very experienced man called Angel Salvador, he is Manager at BIOCAFCAO and also director in CONACADO. If you need me to get you in touch with him just send me a private message. He could get you anything from beans to butter, liquor or powder.
Seeking answers….
Posted in: Make Mine Raw ...
Hello Mack, If you are interested in paste (cacao liquor) from Dominican Republic I think I could get you one or two leads, just contact me.
How to keep chocolate from melting.
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques
Hi Ben, thank you so much for the information. I will read 'em all
How to keep chocolate from melting.
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques
Hello, at the beggining of January I stated my interest in creating chocolate at home, I was given a lot of information and advice from some great members in this website. I've been able to make some improvements to the point that I can make acceptable chocolate and people likes it.
I will be participating in a small fair for Valentine's day, however I'm really concerned about the chocolate temperature and preventing it melts, because the fair is outdoors.
Do you guys know of any cheap, effective way to keep chocolate cool without causing too much humidity?
updated by @Miguel Pujols: 04/26/15 20:48:00
Quick Introduction to Chocolate Making
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques
Thank you so much Adriennne, will look into that.
Quick Introduction to Chocolate Making
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques
Thank you for your interest Adriennne, I will absolutely be happy to let you try my final product after I learn a little bit from practice
Btw, I have some friends in NY, were exactly are you at?
Quick Introduction to Chocolate Making
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques
Thank you for your response Clay.I understand that I could do the different steps like this, correct me if I'm wrong or could use something better.
Roasting: Just any oven.
Cracking: With a frying pan.
Winnowing: Hair Dryer.
Grinding, Refining and Conching: Any Food Processor or even Coffee Grinder.
Tempering: Microwave Oven.
Quick Introduction to Chocolate Making
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques
Hello, I'm pretty interested in becoming a Chocolatier and already tried to do some stuff from raw beans (I did brownies and a few chocolate bars that never became solid, I guess because I didn't even know I have to temper chocolate).
I would like you to please let me know what are the basic tools I might need to do chocolate from home, if there's anything that is just optional will appreciate if is clarified on the post. Also If you have links to any YouTube Video or WebPage with tutorials I can follow, please post 'em.
BTW I am in Dominican Republic which makes it easier for me to get cocoa beans and I wish to eventually plant some cocoa, so probably in the future we can do business.
I really appreciate your help guys and I'm glad that I found a forum like this.
updated by @Miguel Pujols: 04/20/15 17:53:35
How to grow cacao at home
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques
Hello Lorna, it's interesting to hear that you are trying to grow cacao plants. Unfortunately the cacao trees are very sensitive and require specific geographic and weather conditions.
The good news are that with technology we have been able to recreate such conditions for the trees to grow strong and healthy. In regards to the height, it is not really important, the height will be dependant from the variety that you are growing.
I have some good information about planting, growing and harvesting cacao but most of it is in Spanish. I consider this two links will be very helpful for you, take your time to review them
This includes all what you need to have high quality cacao beans (in recommended conditions).