Tabletop Chocolate Factory
spectrum.ieee.org
spectrum.ieee.org
The yield is quite low (250g) when you consider you can easily get 2kg out of a Premier Wonder machine for around $300. Yes, you'll have to temper the chocolate yourself, but these days you can do that really easily with a water bath and some cocoa butter (the 'silk' method).
There's a lot of work involved in chocolate production. It's not complicated, mostly tedious and particular, and requires either specialized equipment or sustained physical effort. The best source of information I know is Chocolate Alchemy's old school website ( https://chocolatealchemy.com/ ). I was active in the same homeroasting circles he was at the time he took an interest in chocolate, and it was a really fascinating process to watch unfold.
If you're curious, don't let the full bean-to-bar process scare you away. It's easy to rough out something pasty that's entirely unlike a chocolate bar with a mortar and pestle and not a ton of work, and that can work well in cooking or brewed up in a hot drink. Oven roasted cacao, peeled and smashed into nibs can be infinely nicer than store bought. Anyway, the whole conching, melanging, and tempering process is optional if you just want to experiment.
There are only two parts of the machine that require cleaning: the mold ring and the processing chamber. The mold ring can be rinsed in the sink with warm water or simply put in the dishwasher. Our goal is to make the chamber dishwasher safe as well. But even without using a dishwasher, the processing chamber is easy to clean. You simply flush warm water through the chamber while swirling around the processing media (the balls) to clean the system. The balls on the inside of the chamber will clean the interior surface of the chamber, while the water comes out the opening in the bottom taking the remnant chocolate with it. The outside lip of the chamber can be cleaned with a small brush. The entire process takes a couple minutes.
100% agree that people shouldn't be scare to try.
A book that might change your mind about Bread Machines:
The Bread Lover’s Bread Machine Cookbook: A Master Baker's 300 Favorite Recipes for Perfect-Every-Time Bread From Every Kind of Machine, by Beth Hensperger (2000)
https://www.quartoknows.com/books/9781558321564/the-bread-lo...
His idea is like making ice-cream; you've got a monstrosity on your counter which you ignore until it's done. You also don't use it often.
But then you don't have the same ability to add flavors and mess around like you do when making ice cream.
Isn't chocolate more about the flavours added and manufacturing process (although the upper end does talk about the source of the beans) - having a favourite bar or tasting different bars from different skilled artisanal producers.
I would sacrifice that cupboard space for one, although it would need to be a little cheaper. I’m sure competitors will come out with their own versions.
Looking at you, every Dutch person and their deep fryer.
Regarding price, the initial CocoTerra release is priced in the range of other new, breakthrough appliances. We expect that there will be a variety of price points over time, as we expand our product line and ramp our volumes.
Hopefully, we can make you into a chocolate maker.
Like coffee, the best chocolate does not need flavors added to it, although that can certainly be fun.
source - I was a chocolate maker for a small, high quality chocolate company in the US.
So few other home uses for that kind of grinding and milling machinery, tho. I'm trying to think up anything else this could be turned to, and coming up with soaps, fireworks and flash powders, inks, paints, and pigments. Nothing food grade or wider niche.
Home-made Brazil and cashew nut butters, maybe? now worse cleaning than chocolate, surely.
I'm someone who's interested in making chocolate for the product, not the process. I know there are people who like the process of tempering (e.g. tabling), pouring it into fancy moulds and decorating something like a praline but I'm not one of them.
The existing process I have to follow is a pain. I use the "vaccination method" for tempering chocolate. I have to measure out 2/3rds of the chocolate, heat it to ~50C, then mix in the remaining chocolate and leave it until it cools to ~28C, then heat it back up to ~32C. After that I have to pour it into the moulds and let it cool overnight. The whole process takes several hours and I have to spend a lot of time monitoring the chocolate's temperature. It's not like a slow cooker or oven that I can just turn on and leave until the time is up.
I also have to source couverture. I'm have the privilege to be in one of the best places on earth to do that (Switzerland, I live within easy cycling distance of Lindt HQ) but there's clearly a wide spectrum of what you can do with the flavour of the chocolate itself and I have no control over it.
This product would make the process "set and forget" and give me more control over the flavour of the chocolate, so I have to say I'm all for it.
My main remaining question was about cleaning but the FAQ [0] makes it sound pretty straightforward.
If only they shipped internationally.
Can I use my own molds with CocoTerra?
Yes! You can easily re-melt the chocolate from the CocoTerra machine
and pour it into your own molds.
But you're welcome to re-melt the chocolate afterwards however you like.
Just like any other chocolate.
When there's one marketing lie, it's probably not the only one. :(
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-F8zL3Ufi4
Instead of a what I feel is a "unitasker", you now have a tool that can use for multiple items.
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Off topic, but i love Alex's step by step discovery of a cooking process. This video is part of the make chocolate at home series.
For the whole playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLURsDaOr8hWWGebP8AGmA...
[1] https://spectrum.ieee.org/media-library/cocoterra.jpg?id=270...
I briefly got into home roasting coffee, and quickly learned that commercially available coffee from boutique roasters was way better than I could do. I suspect this will be similar.