flour mill for grinding?

[chocomania]

can cocoa nibs be grinded on a coffee grinder or even a flour mill? i would think that a flour mill can grind or even powderized cocoa nibs to really small particles. after that it can be sent to the santha wet grinder for further grinding and conching. I met someone who is a friend of Maricel Presilla (consultant of El Rey chocolates and bean supplier of scharffen berger) that conching when the chocolate liquer is still powder is actually good. it helps getting the moisture out of the chocolate. the powder do turn into liquid after a few hours though. She said this is the way factories do it. what are your thoughts on this? i will start working on actual chocolate making in a couple of weeks when all my equipments arrive. so now im into researching the process.

[Alchemist]

I found you can't use a flour mill because the burrs load, gum up and stop working. A burr coffee grinder does that same thing. A whirly blade just breaks up the nibs some, but won't work to really liquify the cocoa. As the cocoa starts to liquify, it is tossed to the outer wall where it sticks and so no other grinding occurs.

As for working with powdered nibs, that is a really fine line that I find is way more trouble than it is worth. It either wants to clump or starts to flow.

Aside from that, the Santha really is not set up to work well with nibs. I have tried it and unless you add a lot of heat and really baby it, it just locks up. And, unless you are working with professionally prepared nibs (which you have little control of type and roasting), you are going to have residual husk present. The Champion filters this husk out while it grings, but that would not occur in the Santha and you may well end up with an odd texture due to the ground up husk.

Finally, don't get "hung up" (not implying you are) on how those in the industry do things. They are working on large scales and I have found that often chocolate acts different on the scale we are working at. The difference in dry and wet conching (addition of cocoa butter) is very subtle at this scale to the point I am not sure I can notice a difference. Keep in mind you are not a factory, and where as consistency is nice, some natural variation is nice too.

How's that for a few thoughts?

[chocomania]

thanks for the 'few' thoughts . will keep those in mind. i cant say much as i am still working on theories. i hope those equipment arrive soon.

[josh]

Yoooo,

Any powered meat grinder will work. The flour mill will work too if its granite and moves at speed-fast.

[Alchemist]

Josh,

I think this falls solidly in the "you mileage may vary". You report it works. I have had both of those items fail terribly when grinding cocoa. The meat grinder stalled and the granite grinding wheel just got loaded with melted liquor and kept the liquor from flowing.

My current "pat answer" is if it will grind nuts into nut butter, it will work for cocoa.

[rik]

Hi all

I have been using a Peanut Butter machine for a couple of years now and can report that in seconds it creates a gritty paste from the roasted nibs that the Santha can happily tackle, so long as the paste is warm-ish.

Mine has a 3/4HP motor so is quite powerful. Picked it up as-new for next to nothing so keep an eye out for them - I can highly recommend them.

I have tracked down the manufacturer for mine in Australia however I have found another manufacturer in Swaziland who has a great looking machine for half the price so let me know if you need one.

Regards
Rik

[melt4you]

how long did you have to leave the ground beans in the wet grinder in order to have a smooth anough texture? I heard it can take as long as 36 to 72 hours in order to acheive a smooth texture like high quality chocolates like Callebaut with this kind of equipment. Do you find that this equipment qill tackle the sugar as well without any problems?

Thanks in advance