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Post by beanlondon on Jun 16, 2016 1:27:15 GMT -5
Hello all,
So, after year of being disillusioned with my career (though going ok, not quite fulfilling enough), I have now taken a rather brave step of going it alone.
I am in the fortunate position where I can initially invest around £1500 ($2100) and around £10k ($14k) to kick start my idea. In a nutshell, creating a nib to bar business using ethically sourced ingredients. I have a lot of business experience from building websites, marketing & advertising etc. I have started to perfect my craft and beginning to produce chocolate that is of a high quality. I will start with dark, milk, mint, nut and another flavour (yet to be decided). It's all rather exciting.
I have some questions:
What would be the best way to invest the money?
I've bought a 1.5lb melanger but how much chocolate can I realistically produce each week?
At what point would I need to consider hiring a kitchen?
I've begun to stockpile my criolio nibs, purchased 4kg to begin. If I were making 50% milk chocolate, how many bars would this produce. I've estimated around 200'ish at 44grams.
I would like to consider approaching nib producers for large quantities of nibs, where does one go?
I would like simple packaging, paperfoil then an outer rap. Is this the most effective way?
Any additional tips for a newbie in this?
Thanks.
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Post by - on Jun 16, 2016 10:50:06 GMT -5
Hi beanlondon,
It seems like you may need to experiment a bit with your melanger (which I suspect is a Premier Wonder Grinder? These can produce 5-6 pounds in 24-48 hours) and you'll get answers to many of your questions - there are lots of parameters to take into account: percentage cocoa butter, % milk (whole or skimmed), use of lecithin/vanilla or not, and the specific viscosity of the cocoa .... And also other ingredients.
Personally, it takes me between 1 and 3 months to perfect my recipes for a particular chocolate (but I do bean to bar, which is a bit more time consuming).
You can get nibs from HB Ingredients in the UK, the quality is decent (but I'm not sure if they are "ethically" sourced as per your standards!)
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Post by Beanbiter on Aug 24, 2016 16:15:23 GMT -5
Solkiki in the UK offer ethically sourced beans bought via direct trade. They are the only team in England who sell the super rare maranon bean - the same bean that took uk gold and European silver (68%), uk silver (60%). Their Belize are brought from hardcore Mayan farmers who have generations of experience - international bronze for that bean. If you want quality, ethics, flavour and incredible stories, give Solkiki a try. If you want cheap, I'd go elsewhere. Let us know how you get on
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Post by beanlondon on Aug 28, 2016 6:53:09 GMT -5
Thank you for the replies everyone. Some great advice there.
On a separate note, has anyone use a tempering machine without seed? There are small machines that require it but they do not give much advice on tempering a full batch of untempered chocolate without seeding. I do not want to dilute my brand flavours using pre-seeded chocolate (not my own) and I would prefer not to make my own seeded chocolate for this purpose. What machines are good for a new business with limited funds?
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