YetiChocolates

Gaylene and I are currently 40 minutes out...breakfast and lunch were not picture worthy unfortunately...but here’s the view from the car

I saw that you were bringing it and then completely forgot so I'm SOL in that department...

Hello Haley! For the workshop there will be a demo in the morning on Saturday and then after it’s over people generally start working on things, either individually or in groups. Others will do some basic instructing for new comers or those who are looking for some basic chocolate skills. Then on Sunday we generally finish up things we worked on the day before and do a show and share (sort of) at the end. As for things to bring - I would say bring tools you prefer to work with (i.e. scrapers/spatulas, dipping forks, thermometer), maybe a mold or 2 if you have room. Also if you want to experiment with a new recipe, bring it along. I know my first workshop I attended I didn’t have anything to work on as I just wanted to observe what others were doing, which is entirely acceptable - though expect others to hound you about doing something 😉 It’s a very laid back, friendly group of people who enjoying getting together every year to nerd out with other chocolatiers and pass along their knowledge. I hope this helps!

Ooooo, I do love fries 😋

What is a ControlFreak?

I say bring what you want. We’ll figure out a way to make it work

I took the opportunity to get a second large bowl at the Niagara workshop and recently finally got the stones and holder to have two set ups, more because I do nut butters a lot, but wanted to experiment with nib to bar chocolate and wanted to keep the two separate.

The only thing I've run into recently is a bad/old batch of cocoa butter that had some form VI crystals forming in it, I heated it up and retempered it with silk, but it still had some leftover form VI crystals in it, so there were times that my chocolate would be in temper and then go out of temper (pretty sure the form VI was the culprit). I ended up doing was Kerry suggested and heating the cocoa butter up to 60C and melting all the form VI out and then put it in the EZ temper and "Voila" good silk! But other than that I am definitely with you on it being foolproof and not every doing a temper check anymore. It is quite amazing!

Last year before the Niagara workshop I ordered a bunch of Zephyr and then brought it back across the border myself because on their website it said you could not order chocolate outside of Canada. Maybe they have since changed their policy?

If only I was closer to Kerry 😉 And if only I lived in Canada I would order it from chocolat-chocolat, but since they cannot import chocolate (which I'm assuming cocoa butter falls into that category) I'm SOL on that option. I ended up getting an order of Cacao Barry from Divine Specialities, mainly because they offer free shipping on orders over $99, so I got 2 3kg buckets, which will hopefully last a little while. Doing a price comparison with all the suppliers I can get it from it was the most reasonable since I want it sooner rather than later.

Gotcha, I'll have to get some and give it a try, thanks for the info!

Do you use it in the EZ Temper?

Thanks for the info Kerry, I’ll look into Puratos

Yes, little chunks of crystals. Thanks for the info @Kerry Beal, I’ll try heating it up to 60 and see if I can melt them out. 🤞🏼 Since we’re sort of on the topic, anyone have a good supplier for cocoa butter? I got this batch from Divine Specialties based in CA, and the price was nice, but obviously the results are less than optimal. I’ve used Cacao Barry in the past but all the suppliers I can get it from are expensive. Thoughts? Other options besides Cacao Barry that are decent?

Anybody else see this before? This is cocoa butter I have thrown in “as is” into the EZ Temper overnight @ 33.4 degrees. Sign of junk cocoa butter?

Yeah, labeling alcohol was not on my radar either and not something my inspector mentioned to me either, though he thoroughly went through my labels... I would bet 90% of WA state chocolatiers don’t have the permit to obtain alcohol or know of its existence. As for getting the manufacturing permit, we’ll see, but getting a that corner of the market is definitely an intriguing idea...specialty wine chocolates in Chelan valley alone may be worth it!

Just wanted to post a little update to this saga. I did speak with a lawyer, and in his mind, since the LCB hasn't contacted me yet regarding this, it's in my best interest to fly under the radar and not "poke the bear" as he liked to say. He does feel I have a good case and I'm doing the right thing (pulling all chocolates with alcohol, getting chocolates tested, etc), but until the test results come back, we sit and wait... Well the analytical company called me and said that they would need to send the chocolates off to get tested rather than being able to do it in house, and that it would cost $250 - per sample! Now I'm sure I could find someone else that might be able to do this, but that really knocked the wind out of my sails and had me asking whether this fight is really worth all the money I might be spending (as the lawyer is $200/hour, luckily the first call was free). So for now I think it's Washington State - 1 Yeti Chocolates - 0. I just bought some trablit to sub for Kahlua in my Smith n' Wesson and will omit all of my chocolates containing alcohol (or omit the alcohol from the formulas) for the time being. I also did receive an email from the LCB enforcement agent yesterday stating that the permit he wants me to acquire is based on https://app.leg.wa.gov/rcw/default.aspx?cite=66.12.170 , which is essentially a permit to even be able to purchase alcohol to use in confections. The fee is $10. @pastrygirl have you heard of this permit before and do you have it? For now since the fee is so nominal I'll just get it so I can get him off my back, as I probably will reintroduce alcohol back into my chocolates at some point, and just add it during the "cooking process" so they feel better that it's burned off. And I"m sure in his mind I will need this permit to even acquire vanilla extract, even though you can purchase this without being 21 🙄 If nothing else I guess I've learned a lot about how shitty my math skills (which I already knew but were affirmed) are when trying to calculate how much alcohol is in a piece of chocolate, and the evaporation rate and temperature for alcohol when cooked. At least I feel I will be able to answer this question much more thoroughly and "politically" in the future.

Agreed, and you would have to buy a very large amount and scoop out the ganache to eat it to even attempt at getting drunk on the ganache. A minor would have an easier time stealing booze from their parents.

So that is where it gets tricky IMO because according to the enforcement agent it doesn’t matter because it’s abv, but I think it should matter because as you’re eating the whole chocolate it gets diluted by the other components of the chocolate itself... I’m chatting with a lawyer next week who’s pretty dialed on the LCB laws and will be contacting someone on the LCB that isn’t the enforcement agent so hopefully I’ll be able to find a reasonable solution to this problem.

Yeah, me neither.

So it was replaced by sub senate bill 6318 that then defers to 21 US Code https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/21/342 At least this was my boyfriends interpretation...

Good to know, given the rcw (state law) @pastrygirl cited earlier that would fall within the legal guidelines outlined...however there is some debate because another rcw that the current one cited was repealed last year and so the guidelines may have changed to 0.5%. I currently have the kahlua ganache at an analytics facility being tested so we’ll see what they come up with in their analysis.

Hey @Kerry Bealdoes pro-choc calculate alcohol content? I purchased the software but have yet to use it much because I was waiting on Guittard to get me spec sheets on their chocolates

The the wine is 13.7 abv. The total amt of Kahlua in 100g of ganache is currently 9g.

So my boyfriend did some digging and discovered that the laws regulating confections got repealed last last year but unfortunately it appears it made things more stingent, as now it’s based on the Federal law which is 0.5% abv. I contacted an analytical company in Wenatchee and I’m taking a couple samples to get tested 🤞🏼. But I do think the guy who started this is taking things way too far because he told another winery I had my chocolates at that I couldn’t even use vanilla extract in my chocolates...so then the winery owners were concerned because there is vanilla listed on the label because it’s a component of the chocolate itself. I assured them I didn’t add any extra vanilla but holy cats!