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Post by chrisg on Sept 26, 2016 17:25:57 GMT -5
As title.
I recently gave a short talk on my chocolate making hobby. Then I got asked by the local Boy Scout group if I could tell them about chocolate making. Then the Guides asked. I was pleased to do this as my kids have had a lot of fun at Scouts and Guides over the years.
I'm wondering if starting a chocolate making class and/or chocolate making club could work. So far everyone I mention my hobby to thinks its an interesting thing to do.
I had a go at costing out how much I'd have to spend on basic equipment and premises for a small weekly class and I'd end up charging something comparable to other courses and activities in my area (art, bread making, stained glass, gym club membership etc)
So has anyone done it? Did it work?
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Post by Ben on Sept 27, 2016 9:09:43 GMT -5
I've taken part in a hands-on bean-to-bar class for the past several years as part of the Dallas Chocolate Festival and am about to start doing one with a local chocolate shop. It does work and is a lot of fun. It involves a bit of 'TV magic', like having some finished chocolate ready to go in the tempering machine (or at least melted, if you're doing a hand-tempering process). Basically, we do the following:
High level overview of the process. We usually ask what people's goals are with the class to tailor it to them. Do they want to make chocolate at home, just interested in the process, or do they want to start a chocolate company and put us out of business?
Discuss cacao, growing, post-harvest processing, sourcing, what we look for, etc.
Sort a pan's worth of beans, discussing what to discard and why.
Roast the beans, and discuss different roasting techniques, strategies, etc.
While beans are roasting and cooling we usually taste some chocolate, take questions,
Crack & Winnow beans using a crankandstein and hairdryer.
Grind nibs and possibly sugar. Discuss the grinder, what's happening, etc. Also discuss conching here. We usually just start a very small amount refining since it's just for demonstration. Have people taste the liqour as it's refining.
Temper and mold.
Wrap-up, take questions, etc.
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