rik
Neophyte
Posts: 5
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Post by rik on Jul 4, 2006 18:14:02 GMT -5
Hey all I have been using the 2L modified Santha for quite a while now in Auckland, New Zealand and am now at the stage where I can roast a lot of beans in a gas-fired drum roaster, winnow a lot of beans in a custom winnower and grind a lot of beans in a peanut butter machine but then when I get to the 2L Santha I have a bottleneck as the capacity is quite small and it takes 24 hours or so to process. So I am thinking of getting a higher capacity Santha or Cosmos wet grinder and was wondering if anyone had experience with some of these larger capacity units? Another thing I am thinking about is getting a 5-roll refiner to quickly obtain a small particle size and then custom build a water-jacketed drum with an agitator to conch for a longer period. If anyone has thoughts on this approach I would appreciate them also! And lastly - does anyone have experience with extracting their own cocoa butter? I am thinking about making a unit similar to this one below but again if anyone has a better idea let me know. www.grenadachocolate.com/tour/press.htmlRegards Rik
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Post by Alan on Jul 4, 2006 18:32:14 GMT -5
A lot of my response depends on what you are going for. What type of chocolate are you making? How important is quality versus cost to you? Are you doing this to make chocolate for bar form, or for another use? Are you trying to save money, or is money no issue? It might seem like my questions are beside the point, but they really are not. The more information you can give me will help me to give you a better response. CL P.S. Have you talked to Samantha Madell in Australia? She's close enough to you and does consulting for new startups. She could likely be of great help to you: www.tava.com.au/getinvolved.html
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rik
Neophyte
Posts: 5
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Post by rik on Jul 4, 2006 19:57:01 GMT -5
Thanks CL
Sorry - I should have given you more detail! I am still in the early stages of setting up a small artisan chocolate making company in Auckland, New Zealand. The product I am trying to produce is a high quality high cocoa content chocolate bar, along the lines of some of the premium european products such as Michael Cluizel, Valhrona, etc. I am currently making a single plantation bar using Trinitario beans from Samoa. I am also able to obtain Criollo from nearby plantations.
I am at the stage now where I am setting up a food-safe production environment and also need to look at capacity moving forward. As I mentioned, I can cover off volume for most of the processes but as yet not for conching/refining. I want to avoid the McIntyre style conches if possible (mainly as a point of difference).
Yes, I know Sam and Lang and have met with them previously in Sydney. I would say I am quite a bit further down the track with regards to the specifics of making chocolate than they are (although I haven't caught up with them for a wee while) as their focus has been more on establishing themselves as a bean supplier and producing cocoa butter so far. Although I think they were working on a 5 roll refiner themselves which they are re-conditioning so if they have got that working they may be making chocolate by now. Either way - I think given the volume and variety of chocolate that I have made thus far I know a reasonable amount and am just looking for a few pointers on equipment that is larger than the home-lab but not as large as the industrial producers!
Regards Rik
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Post by Alan on Jul 4, 2006 21:07:45 GMT -5
Dear Rik,
Well it depends on your processes a bit. Are you looking for capability to do a higher-temp conching? If so, the Santha (or probably any other wet-grinder) is not for you. They get up to about 120 F due to friction and you can take it up higher with a heat lamp (maybe to 145 F), but you can't really reach anything above that. Santha doesn't have any models with heating yet though Alchemist John said that he was trying to get them to look into it seriously. So, if you use the Santha for mixing and refining, you'll need another machine for higher temp conching. If you aren't doing any higher temp conching, then the Santha could probably work for the whole deal. The largest ones hold between 40 and 50 lbs. of chocolate, are stainless steel (even the outer cases), and tilt for emptying. I'm not familiar with Cosmos' grinders so I can't comment on them.
If you go the 5-roll refiner route you'll likely spend a bit more (they aren't cheap unless you get lucky), and you'll still need a mixer and conche. To mix I suppose that you could use a Hobart mixer (or maybe stir the sugar into the liquor and pass it back thorough the peanut grinder, though it probably wouldn't be very evenly mixed), and could probably construct a water-jacket for the Hobart mixer to conche too. If I recall correctly, this (the water-jacketed Hobart) is the route that Tava is going.
There are so many options and ways of doing things that can all work, and things depend so much on how you want to do things, that this is about as specific as I can be at the moment. Certainly the best chocolate makers all have slightly different methods and different machinery, so you could probably make any number of things work for you.
Hope this helps. If you have any more specific questions, then feel free to ask.
CL P.S. As for the home-made cocoa press a friend of mine and I have looked into about every possibility. There are small ones out there, but only small in the commercial sense. They still weigh in at about 25,000 lbs. at the least and cost much more than you would want to spend. We've also checked with the guys at Grenada who aren't too interested in sharing their blueprints--though I don't blame them since they probably worked hard to come up with the idea and implement it. The design seems simple enough, but it would take a bit of experimentation to get it operational I'm sure. I certainly don't have the full technical know how, but I really think that it is do-able.
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