Cocoa Bella 2009

While we're patiently waiting for our industrial conche refiner to be repaired we took part in an annual benefit south of Nashville in Columbia, TN called Cocoa Bella that showcased different artisan chocolate from around the world. As the sponsor of the event we were on hand to talk about the how cocoa is harvested and fermented then the journey it makes once within our production facility - from roasting to tempering. We even brought a limited amount of our signature chocolate (64%) and the smaller lab equipment that we made it on so we could demonstrate some of the actual process in person. Other than our chocolate we were featured in a tasting along side the likes of Valrhona Guanaja 70% and Côte d’Or Noir de Noir 54%. There was also a milk chocolate tasting that featured Green & Black's 34%, a Sharffen Berger 41% and Michel Cluizel Mangaro 50%. We had a great time chatting with everyone and explaining exactly what it is we do. We also took the opportunity to introduce a chcolate tea that we've been tinkering on at our lab. It's mighty good!

In other news we are still in the process of getting our conche refiner fixed. We are quite close and will be up and running soon. We thank you for your patience!

Needed: Conche Exorcist!

So there's been a lot of development in the long road to getting Olive & Sinclair off the ground over the past month. Approvals from government agencies, logo designs, wrapper designs, cocoa bean roasting and lots and lots of testing. Obviously priority one is developing an amazing chocolate to provide you all with - and that certainly takes patience and time.

The one issue that's delayed our production is a lemon of a conche refiner (the one we put cocoa liquor, cocoa butter, sugar and other yummy things into and grind them all down) that we're working on getting straightened out as soon as possible. Fortunately all of our other equipment is rock solid and once our cocoa refiner has been replaced we'll be back in the saddle and sprinting toward our opening date. In the meantime we're still very hard at work in the testing stages and taking great care that we're going to satisfy your hand made chocolate needs and become Nashville's own southern, artisan chocolate makers.

As I mentioned previously we're very proud to have a completed logo and nearly completed packaging thanks to the guys over at the Anderson Design Group - and I got hand it to them - they're top notch and have a heck of an eye for what we've been envisioning over the past months. I think it's certainly safe to reveal our new logo right now as we really can't sit on it any longer. We want to assure you that neither of us can wait to get our chocolate creations out to you and are terribly excited to hear back what you think!

¡Ole!

As Scott & I are trying to add the final touches to the Olive & Sinclair Chocolate production facility we want to give some thanks to Carrington Fox for a mention at The Nashville Scene blog. If you haven't had a look already we invite you to click the image below.





In recent weeks Scott, the lady friends and myself have added a bit of an organic feel to the shop by finishing out our counter space (which we invite you to have a lean on) with a woodsy tree cross-section feel. We'd like to give a shout out to a few limbs of some trees in Leiper's Fork for their sacrifice.

We've also added our stainless production tables for bar wrapping and general production-ality. The next few days are filled with cocoa bean roaster testing which we'll report on shortly!

we love machines: part 3

Thankfully our final delivery of machines has arrived direct from the UK: the conche refiner and chocolate holding tank are now tucked safely at McGavock and Riverside. What the heck is a conche refiner? Its job is a simple one: develop mouth feel (conching) and reduction of partical size (refining). This lucky vessel breaks down the cocoa mass, sugar, cocoa fat and other ingredients into tiny, tiny particles which then yields untempered chocolate. The chocolate then pumps from the conche refiner to our holding tank where it's kept at a proper temperature and hangs out until it's then pumped on to the Gami tempering device. We're completely excited about getting them installed and pumped together so we can get this chocolate ball rolling!

In other chocolate factory developments we are in the process of building our front counter at which we look forward to sliding a bar or two of chocolate across to you. Thanks to Randy for all his help with this!

We are finally nearing the end of a very long journey (almost a year!) of choosing machinery, having it built to specification, receiving it and getting it installed. It's a huge relief to have each component of the machinery puzzle at the shop and ready to crank to kick out some mighty tasty chocolate!