Hello everyone. I will be traveling out of the country for two weeks, April 30 – May 15. I am heading down to Brazil to teach a couple roasting seminars and visit some farms.
Before I get to those details I want to update you about a few important items.
We have a couple bags of Organic Belize 2017 in. I expect it to go relatively fast and don’t expect any more this year. Retail. Wholesale.
An interesting/silly rule has come to our attention that rather drastically affects the Kits we offer. We found out that it is completely not allowed to repack Grade A milk products, regardless of conditions. We have done it for years, with gloves, dedicated equipment and certified clean conditions. But the government believes upon opening that rampant and deadly contamination will immediately occur (yea, I ‘m playing this up - "psst, hey buddy, I've good some gram packets of grade A "powder" here if you want it") and so unless it is reconstituted, re-pasteurized, re-inspected and re-dried by a Grade A certified dairy/creamery it is the plague waiting to happen. To that end, we can only sell full 50 lb bags of milk powder currently. There are no more small single 1 lb bags to be had. This also means the Milk Chocolate and White Chocolate kits are no longer available.
In a bizzaro/alternative universe twist (because it makes SO much sense to not regulate the lesser grade product that should be regulated equally) the Heavy cream powder that is not certified Grade A (but still safe) is not regulated at all and we can re-pack that. I have feelers out for good tasting, good quality, hopefully organic non-grade A milk powder so that I can keep offering it to everyone who want it in smaller amount.
And before you ask, you can’t just substitute cream powder for milk powder. There is too much fat in the cream powder for a 1:1 substitution. What will get you close though is pick up some dry non-fat milk powder (it is way more readily available at the store around the corner - please not amazon) and supplement with some cream powder in a ratio of 2:1. So if your recipe calls for 12 oz of Whole milk powder, use 8 oz non-fat milk powder and 4 oz Heavy cream powder and you will get very close.
Ok, onto the trip and the next two weeks.
Contrary to what a lot of people assume, I don’t travel much at all. Instead I run nearly all the intricate details of Chocolate Alchemy that include responding to your emails in a timely fashion, answering burning how-to questions and coordinately complex retail and wholesale orders for you so you can take care what is important to you, namely and presumably your life, your family and making chocolate.
To that end, I’ve trained a couple new people to help while I am gone, but they are not the Alchemist and can only do so much.
Wholesale Customers:
The main thing that will be affected are wholesale orders of full bags of cocoa. In short they will not occur while I am away.
Let’s just go ahead and say you should have had any orders for full bags (yes, even one) in by Friday 4/20/18 so there was time to get it coordinated and moving. The same goes for wholesale roasting orders over 100 lbs.
The same goes for the Aether winnower. The crew will get them made but not shipped until my return.
Everything else should ship out just fine, if maybe just a little slower and with a touch less grace than usual.
Retail Customers:
Hopefully everything will go smoothly. In the event something does not go quite according to plan be the same awesome customers you have always been and know the entire staff is doing their best. Cut them a little slack if needed. Thank you in advance.
Should you run into any issues about orders (Retail and Wholesale alike) please write to Support@chocolatealchemy.com starting today (April 28). Questions about potential orders or product details may get you an "I'm sorry but John will need to answer that when he returns" response. I could only pass along so much information.
I won’t be answering any emails while gone and you should get an automated response telling you as such. I will of course do my utmost best to answer everyone once I return from my wild rumpus.