YetiChocolates

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!

Essentially yes, it is a layered truffle with 2.5 grams being the Kahlua ganache and 3.6 grams being an espresso ganache with no alcohol. I am hoping to get someone on the LCB to clearly define the rules/laws that they are wanting to enforce on us, because as of right now I can't seem to find anything specific, just what the guy told me over the phone. I want the actual RCW he is quoting from because right now I feel there is some ambiguity, at least for me. As for getting a Liquor Manufacture license, I do not believe it is worth it at all, but I also believe from what I've been told by others who've dealt with this particular enforcement agent before is that tries to make things as difficult as possible, which is fine if he wants to do that, as long as I'm well educated and understand the policies that he wants me to follow, which currently I do not. At the end of the day I don't want to have to list that I have alcohol in my truffles and that they can't be sold to minors because that will greatly affect my business. I do not have a storefront and so I do wholesale with other businesses in town (that don't have liquor licenses) and set up a little pop up in the market in Wenatchee, and I feel I won't be able to continue selling at those establishments if I have to label my products as such, and if it takes getting my chocolates tested to show they are below the limit they are trying to define then that is what I will do. @pastrygirl, so do you not have alcohol in any of the chocolates you produce?

Just a clarification, the wine ganache isn't necessarily the priority, it was just how I ended up in this mess in the first place. The issue is now whether my everyday ganaches are over or under the 0.5% alcohol content. Pastrygirl, what I meant with the 2-9% is my ganaches with alcohol range in % of 2-9 per batch size. But that is not how much is in each chocolate. For example, I have a ganache that I use Kahlua in and there is 9% Kahlua in the whole ganache batch, but only 2.5 grams go into each chocolate that I'm producing, so I would figure that there is less than 0.5% alcohol per chocolate.

Hey everyone, wanted to query the group to get some advice/feedback on some trouble I seem to have found myself unintentionally in with regards to alcohol in ganaches. This is a tricky topic I know, because there are different rules and regs depending on what state you own and operate a business in, but I still thought it might be useful to pick folks brains on this as it is something I intend to fight, so the more knowledge I have under my belt the better I will be I figure. So here is the current situation. There is a Red Wine and Chocolate weekend that happens in the Chelan Valley in Washington every year around Valentines Day, and it is a great opportunity to collaborate with wineries and promote your chocolates. I have been working with a particular winery for some time and have a great relationship with them. They asked me last fall if I could make a chocolate with their wine in it. I said "Of course!" as I know others who have and figured it was something I would be able to come up with as well, heck I tasted a wine chocolate that Julian Rose had at the NW Chocolate Festival in Seattle in November for goodness sake. So I took a formula I received from a member here on eG and used it as a baseline and eventually came up with a wonderful wine ganache that admittedly was 30% wine (it was a water ganache). I did heat the wine so some of the alcohol probably burned off, but it was still probably fairly alcoholic. However, since it wasn't a chocolate I intended to sell, and was making it specifically for this client for their winery, I thought nothing of it. Well I received a call from the Liquor Control Board here in Washington state today, saying that they were just at the tasting room with the wine ganache and wanted me to explain to them how much alcohol I use in my ganaches (as they carry some other chocolates I make on a regular basis that have alcohol) and the process of adding the alcohol (whether at the beginning where it could be cooked out or the end). I explained to the person that most of my gananche batches have between 2-9% alcohol, but that each chocolate contains 2.5-11 grams per piece, so the actual alcohol content was minimal. Said Liquor Control Board enforcement agent was not satisfied and said I needed a license to produce chocolates with alcohol and that my products needed to be labeled properly so that they would not be sold to minors. They also were planning to contact all the wineries I worked with to have them pull all the chocolates with alcohol in them since they were not labeled correctly. According to him there needs to be 0.5% or less alcohol content in order to bypass this license and labeling requirements, which I feel I meet, but has anyone else run into this? I plan to get some help (because I am mathematically challenged) to calculate the exact % of alcohol based on the chocolate itself, not the batch weight, and I may (if it comes to it) get my chocolates that contain alcohol tested to confirm that they indeed meet the requirements he outlined. I'm also planning to have him (or someone from the board) cite the exact law that states the alcohol in food requirements, as I enlisted some help searching the rules and regs of the liquor control board and came up empty handed. Part of me feels like this is a guy wanting to strong arm me, but I also want to make sure I am following the law as it is the right thing to do. Thoughts? Advice? Can anyone relate?

That's why I decided to jump on it, since I knew folks would sign up for the masters class quickly!

Well I just paid Rob, so I guess I'm committed now 😄

I second the Elbow as instructor, it would be awesome to get some instruction from him. Also this venue area looks amazing Rob!

This literally made me laugh out loud Kerry, damn that’s funny.

I was in your shoes for many years...I like to attribute my success to scouring these threads, reading lots of chocolate books and lots of trial and error. I was however fortunate enough to attend my first workshop back in 2013, but since that is not an option, you can still gain a ton of knowledge from reading the threads on this website as they are a wealth of knowledge. I’m guessing now youtube would be a great resource if you are a visual learner. And just know that everyone has differing opinions on how to do various techniques, so ultimately you have to find the method that works the best for you to give you the results you are looking for. Not sure your experience, but just be prepared that there will be times that you will do the same thing and get a different result. I’ve been dabbling in chocolate work for 12 years now and I’m still learning that little things (i.e. temperature, humidity) will throw things out of whack. But if you enjoy a challenge, keep at it, you’ll only get better with time ☺️. And if you don’t have a copy yet, I would highly suggest getting Peter Grewelings “Chocolates and Confections” book. I consider it my chocolate bible and reference it often.

These are pretty darn impressive. When people say my chocolates say they look like jewelry I should show them these!

Here is thechocolatelab showing a different technique to get a somewhat similar result as what @Kerry Beal has been doing, though with a slightly different effect.

I use a Hamilton Beach food processor for pre-grind, works well for nuts, which is primarily what I’m using the melanger for. @tikidoc curious to hear what they say about the clearance issue...

Green works dishwashing liquid...

Ok... I’m now a convert. I decided to wash my molds with soap and buff the water out with a cotton ball (because of the calcium content in my water) and I have to say the chocolates do come out pretty shiny! Here’s a couple photos. And it cuts my cleaning time in half so I’m pumped!