Chcolate making with a juicer?
 

I just read this in an article in the New York Times about the founder
of Dagoba chocolates. Apparently you can use a juicer in lieu of a
conch?

Has anyone heard of this? Comments from the chocolate mavens please!


It's late September and Schilling is showing an
appreciative crowd at Portland's Forest Discovery
Center how to make chocolate. After roasting
whole cacao beans in a toaster oven, Schilling
separates the edible parts, or nibs, from the
husklike hulls by running the beans through a hand
mill made by an outfit called Crankenstein. He
then passes the nibs through a sturdy juicer several
times, each cycle making the mixture smoother.
He uses a mixer to beat in sugar, and the chocolate
is ready.

The audience is transfixed by the enticing aroma
of the roasting beans and the alchemy of the
process, and packs of people converge on the
demo table to try the chocolate, still gritty but
definitely the real thing. Schilling, whose title at
Dagoba is "founding alchemist," is in his element,
answering question after question from the audience,
his hands covered with chocolate.

.. People from third world countries are doing such things using
improvised equipment for a century
They just roast the dried nibs already shelled and dump into the meat
grinder and pass it ,two- three times or more into the grinder to
attain a uniform paste consistency. But what ever is the outcome; it is
crude chocolate or cacao mass. EVen if you add other required
ingredients if compared to the ones made with standard machineries in
chocolate manufacture. The smallest particle size that can be attained
with such crude methods is still above 100 microns .

Meanwhile the normal chocolate made has a particle average size of 15
microns. I had attained that with the pilot scale Macintyre refiner
conche equipment. .
That it=92s the same degree of processing done with the standard large
scale chocolate manufacturing equipment using the five roll refiner
followed with conching..
It is a long process that takes several hours even a few days totally
in some plants.
What ever impressed the crowd with such a na=EFve display of chocolate
making in that show indicates the level of IGNORANCE of the audience
with regards to chocolate manufacture.
Yes he had fulfilled his purpose of partially educating the people how
chocolate is supposed to be made.
But adding just sugar is not the way how to make a real chocolate.
There are other ingredients required to get what we call as authentic
chocolate. I doubt if his crude chocolate could be useful except for
entertainment purposes.
, >whose title at
>Dagoba is "founding alchemist," is in his element,

IMO,He is not an =91alchemist=92 but just an entertainer and he is
manipulating the audience ignorance to his advantage.
The term chocolate alchemist is reserved for the individual who can
convert the chocolate into gold<g>. .
Roy

.. People from third world countries are doing such things using
improvised equipment for a century
They just roast the dried nibs already shelled and dump into the meat
grinder and pass it ,two- three times or more into the grinder to
attain a uniform paste consistency. But what ever is the outcome; it is
crude chocolate or cacao mass. EVen if you add other required
ingredients if compared to the ones made with standard machineries in
chocolate manufacture. The smallest particle size that can be attained
with such crude methods is still above 100 microns .

Meanwhile the normal chocolate made has a particle average size of 15
microns. I had attained that with the pilot scale Macintyre refiner
conche equipment. .
That it=92s the same degree of processing done with the standard large
scale chocolate manufacturing equipment using the five roll refiner
followed with conching..
It is a long process that takes several hours even a few days totally
in some plants.
What ever impressed the crowd with such a na=EFve display of chocolate
making in that show indicates the level of IGNORANCE of the audience
with regards to chocolate manufacture.
Yes he had fulfilled his purpose of partially educating the people how
chocolate is supposed to be made.
But adding just sugar is not the way how to make a real chocolate.
There are other ingredients required to get what we call as authentic
chocolate. I doubt if his crude chocolate could be useful except for
entertainment purposes.
, >whose title at
>Dagoba is "founding alchemist," is in his element,

IMO,He is not an =91alchemist=92 but just an entertainer and he is
manipulating the audience ignorance to his advantage.
The term chocolate alchemist is reserved for the individual who can
convert the chocolate into gold<g>. .
Roy