Forum Activity for @BartBasi

Looking to purchase three dimensional chocolates - similar is taste and style to what Christopher Norman produced

Posted in: Classifieds F/S or Wanted

Hi,

I'm not sure how to be clear on what I'm looking for - we used to buy some chocolate from Christopher Norman; his pieces were large (3-4 bites per piece).  They were serious and beautiful and whimsical all at the same time.

I'm not looking for anyone to duplicate what he did - just looking to buy some chocolate pieces that are large, cool, interesting.

Here are a couple of pictures of some of the best sellers from him we used to stock.

                     

Pictures are pretty far blown up and don't do justice to the pieces.  The pears are 3x the weight of a typical Norman Love piece of candy; the dark chocolate pears were filled with a ganache flavored with poir william liquor, and the white pears were filled with a different ganache; amazing foil between the two.  The shine was stunning - very impressive.

The espresso cups were life size; the chocolate shell was wonderful, the cup itself was filled with a hazelnut coffee chocolate ganche and the crema part was filled with a light orange white chocolate ganache.  Really stunning, large pieces.

He also did Meyer Lemons (about 1/2 to 2/3 life size).

So I am looking for pieces in this size range (2-4 bites per piece), of this quality (top notch, strong temper, great shine, sharp crack, quality chocolate). 

I am very happy with the "regular" chocolates we carry - I'm just looking to fill the gap left when Christopher Norman closed; it was a nice high end line for me.

Any help or thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

Bart

updated by @BartBasi: 06/29/23 16:49:02

Packaging wholesale chocolates.

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

Our chocolates are shipped in to us from everywhere.  (Passing through some very hot days).  We like them to come in a styrofoam lined box (1.25-1.5" seems to be good).  Gel packs frozen to 30 degrees work really well - that slowly lowers the internal temperature of the package to the low 60's and holds it below 70 for 2 days worth of shipping (the box is lined with gel packs).  

Does that help?

updated by @BartBasi: 07/11/16 23:58:14

Ingredient expiration

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

I have agree with Sebastian.  We start with the closest date on anything, our concern is maintaining top quality.  After we produce our first batch we hold that back; keep that in our case and we eat them daily.  Generally we quickly find after 2-3 weeks the flavor has had a noticable drop and that's the date we put on it for ourselves.  From a safety standpoint we measure water movement to get an idea about bacterial growth.  The projections from that let us know it's reasonable that our chocolate is good for months (if not years) - but that's meaningless to us because we can tell a drop in quality much sooner.

So the short answer is we eat it.

YMMV

updated by @BartBasi: 07/12/16 18:50:19

I'm Bart - I own a couple of specialty food stores

Posted in: Allow Me to Introduce Myself

Hi,

Not sure what else to add, we've got a couple of stores - along with everything else we sell chocolate and do cast solid chocolate figures.  

Bart

Looking to purchase display case with temperature and humidity controls (65 degrees, 43%)

Posted in: Classifieds F/S or Wanted

Hello,

Subject says it all really.  I need to display chocolate and am looking to purchase a display case (or two).  If anyone has one for sale or knows of one for sale I would really appreciate it.

I have tried to use all manner of deli/refrigerated cases in the past and the results are terrible.  The chocolate display cases I currently use maintain a constant 65 temperature (the temperature of the ambient air is between 65 and 70 degrees year round); the cases we have never seem to vary by more than 1degree off 65 and the humidity stays within 2% of the target.

The chocolates look great and a week or two after we get them they taste and look great.  So I need something similar to what I have.

My problem is that the cases I have are no longer manufactured.  I've seen Federal (FCC6 is one model number) advertised but have no experience with them.  I'd also prefer to purchase used if I can.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Bart

Contact: Text or Call 217-778-8475

updated by @BartBasi: 06/29/23 16:49:02