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Post by reelchemist on Sept 2, 2009 18:57:34 GMT -5
I have been looking at scaling up my chocolate production from Spectra 10 scale to somewhere in the order of 15-20kg batches for a potential business. And thanks to everyone on here that has shared how they set their businesses up and what equipment they use, it has been extremely helpful. I have solutions for most things but it is the bean sorting that I can't seem to speed up. What do others do to aid in bean sorting??? Or what are peoples phillosophy on sorting and what is acceptable as production is increased???
I have given it some thought, I recently noticed Amano have a sorting table with small holes in it to get rid of the dirt, broken beans, small beans, stones etc. This seems like a good solution I could implement but the issue then is identifying and removing the twinned beans, bits of placenta, webby beans and cut beans that are the same size as the 'good beans'.
I guess one solution is to use beans that have a good preparation, sorting is much faster when there are less cut and twinned beans and other junk. I have gone through most origins on offer and they do differ significantly.
Perhaps as you move to larger scales you can't afford to be so pedantic?
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Post by benvt on Sept 3, 2009 14:48:01 GMT -5
We still hand sort for our Spectra 20s. It takes a while but we haven't found any other way. It's also become very necessary with our recent battle with cocoa moths. It's also a good selling point. Our customers always compliment us when we tell them we hand sort.
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Post by reelchemist on Sept 3, 2009 20:35:42 GMT -5
How long does it take to sort enough for you spectra 20? Hand sorting as an indicator of quality and care is good, I can use that, good thought.
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Post by jcandy on Jan 4, 2011 4:05:18 GMT -5
Nice information that state that all real chocolate comes from the cocoa bean, the fruit of a tropical tree, Theobroma cacao. Much of the quality of the chocolate will depend on the origin and quality of the beans.To make chocolate, processors roast and shell the cocoa beans, leaving only the centers, called nibs. These nibs are then pulverized or ground into a smooth liquid that's called chocolate liquor. When the chocolate liquor cools, it forms solid blocks.Chocolate liquor is the basis for all things chocolate. Pure chocolate liquor is very dark and bitter and has only two components cocoa solids and cocoa butter. The solids give chocolate its characteristic dark, strong flavor, and the cocoa butter translates to a smooth mouth feel.
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Post by Ben on Jan 4, 2011 11:55:17 GMT -5
As I've continued to refine my process, I've found that bean sorting continues to be the most tedious part. Does anyone have any advice for improving or speeding up the process? One thing that I've done that has helped a lot is to use a screen door grill to sort: www.lowes.com/pd_15664-15369-71440_0__?productId=3092563&Ntt=door+grill&pl=1¤tURL=%2Fpl__0__s%3FNtt%3Ddoor%2BgrillI mounted it to some 2x4s and just put the beans on it and sort there. This lets really small beans as well as random nibs and other stuff fall through, so I don't have to sort all that out manually. Then, I just sort the good off the right side and the bad to to the left. I'm planning on building a stand for this that will angle the screen towards me with a dust collection box hooked up to a shop vac under the screen. It'll have two chutes: one that drops the bad beans into the shop vac and one that drops the good beans in a bucket.
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Post by jtoddm on Jan 6, 2011 20:47:40 GMT -5
We sort our nibs/husk into different size groups after cracking. Usually the big group has a lot of junk / bad beans in it that we check by hand. The medium and small groups generally are great and easy to winnow. The smallest group is essentially dust that we discard. Originally we used plastic bins with the bottoms cut out of them with varying mesh screens. This worked well for small batches but it's a huge pain to do large batches because you have to constantly take apart the bins and empty each section. Now we use a sorting machine that we made, based on the principles you mentioned. Basically it's just a series of mesh screens, slanted at an angle and two vibrating motors. we dump the nibs/husk into it and different sized bits are channeled to bins. (The smallest group is collected underneath). We are pretty happy with this system for our needs, not sure if this is exactly what you were thinking about, but the general idea should work. I've attached a photo. Hope that helps! Attachments:
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Post by Brad on Jan 7, 2011 1:35:53 GMT -5
Great idea.
In your version 2 model, you should build a rotating cylindrical screen on an 8 degree pitch. the nibs/chaff can fall directly into the screen from the cracker, and as it rotates, the large pieces fall out the end, and the smaller pieces fall through. The beauty of the rotating screen is that it cleans itself, and the infeed can be continuous.
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Post by Ben on Jan 7, 2011 8:31:26 GMT -5
Your picture is basically what I'm envisioning, but for pre-roasted beans. I don't have much problem with the cracked beans, but sorting the pre-roasted beans (getting rid of too-small, cracked, clustered beans, etc.) takes forever. Anyone have any tips on how to speed up that process?
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Post by Brad on Jan 7, 2011 16:29:51 GMT -5
Buy better quality beans!
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Post by Ben on Jan 7, 2011 17:48:21 GMT -5
That's the answer I was worried about... The beans that get used (the vast majority) make great chocolate, but there are definitely some that need to get weeded out.
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Post by jtoddm on Jan 9, 2011 17:14:34 GMT -5
Brad, that's an interesting idea about the cylindrical sorter. Do you cascade mesh screens of various sizes, or are you only sorting for one bean size? Ben, I think if you want to just sort by some physical characteristic like size, it's pretty easy to automate. But if you will always require some human/visual interaction, I think it's a question of speeding up the process and reducing the hassle for the person sorting the beans. I've had this same thought and one idea I had been considering was making a short conveyer belt system where the beans are automatically fed and spread evenly onto a belt so you can very quickly see anything bad and grab them. You could have it go quickly and have some sort of foot petal stop. In a system like this you would minimize the human part to just identifying and grabbing bad beans, while automating everything else. I'm sure they would be other ways to do this as well. For something simpler, I believe Cacao Cucina also makes some sort of bean screen/table for easy sorting as in this video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOU_b6-G-jo&feature=player_embedded#!
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Post by Brad on Jan 9, 2011 17:41:50 GMT -5
Jtodd;
I don't sort beans. The cocoa beans I purchase are of good quality to start with. There's no need for sorting.
The purpose of the screen is AFTER the beans have been cracked. It's purpose is to create a uniform size of shell and nib. If that's done well, you can break the beans into large pieces of nibs and shell thereby reducing dust (and small particles that get blown away in the winnnowing process). The end result is a very uniform nib, and shell that blows easily away.
Any combination of shell/nib that doesn't make it through the screen, gets passed through the cracker as often as necessary to get the size to where it does. If you look at a commercial winnower (both old style and some of the newer styles) this is how the screens and return feeds work.
Oh... and don't buy anything from Cacao Cucina (same company as Bottom Line Processing Ltd). Their prices are OUTRAGEOUS x 10!!!!
Cheers.
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Post by jtoddm on May 5, 2011 14:14:29 GMT -5
We finally got around to making a bean inspection table -- nothing too fancy but similar to the design ben mentioned earlier about using a screen door in a frame to let the junk drop below as you manually go through the beans. California is very strict about what materials we can use so we went with stainless steel mesh, an HDPE frame, and a food grade silicon sealant. Here's a photo and a link with some more info: dandelionchocolate.tumblr.com/post/5192479216/inspection-table-doneHope this is helpful to anyone making something similar. I'd also be curious to hear if anyone has come up with a better system for the pre-cleaning.
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Post by oaxacalote on May 10, 2011 23:57:00 GMT -5
Well my my if boys didn't bring a shotgun to a knife fight.
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Post by Ben on Aug 22, 2011 8:41:32 GMT -5
On further research, it seems as if a lot of chocolate makers (most?) do some level of bean sorting or cleaning before roasting. All that I've found, except Amano, are using some variation of the screen that Todd and I discuss above, as well as some hand sorting to remove broken/flat/etc. beans. In addition to those listed below, I've spoken with and/or visited two other makers who both sort their beans. The one I visited uses a series of screens to filter out clusters above and then smaller bits below. As I mentioned above, Amano sorts, but doesn't seem to use a screen to filter out the small stuff. It looks like they're looking mostly for clusters, and broken or flat beans. You can see their sorting table starting about 55 seconds into this video: youtu.be/JhErfS8LF0IThis article is a few years old, but Patric's sorting table is pictured with some discussion of his sorting practices: www.foodinterviews.com/2008/10/patric-chocolate-virtual-chocolate.htmlThe Mast Brothers use a hotel pan with a baking rack in the bottom to separate out the small stuff and then pick through the beans as they lay them out on sheet pans for roasting. You can see it starting at about 1:05 in the first video and right at the beginning of the second one: youtu.be/DspDrgLcwdsvimeo.com/15226700Since I'm working with very little space, the Mast Brothers' process really appeals to me as it doesn't require a dedicated space and keeps the mess somewhat contained. I've picked up a rack that fits in a full size hotel pan and will be trying it out for the first time later today.
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