NYC area chocolate class (bean to bar)

Hello - I'm in NYC and I'm looking for a good chocolate making class anywhere close to the area that not only gives me some hands on experience making chocolate but also helps me better understand the entire process of how chocolate is made (from the cacao to the bar etc. ) Does anyone have any suggestions? The only comparable thing i've found so far is at the La Maison du Chocolat.

Thanks!

Vidya

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Permalink Reply by ChocoFiles on February 12, 2012 at 2:44am

If you can connect with the TCL members from NYC they can help guide you. A few I know are Brady Brelinski, George G (I forget her screen name here... maybe runnerNYC?), David Arnold, Adrienne Henson. They're all very helpful.

There are also online classes you can take. Oh, what is the name of that well known school? echole chocolate? or something along those lines.

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Permalink Reply by Sebastian on February 12, 2012 at 6:42am

It's been my experience that there are very few schools out there - ZDS in Germany does a bit of it, but not many others. Not many people have the full breadth and depth of knowledge to span the full range of ingredients (cocoa, milk, sugar, emulsifiers, flavors) as well as processes and how they interact. Might be an opportunity for some enterprising person to try to assemble an educational event targeted to specific needs.

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Permalink Reply by Brad Churchill on February 12, 2012 at 4:56pm

Sebastian;

If I host a course, will you be a guest speaker?

;-)

Cheers

Brad

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Permalink Reply by Sebastian on February 12, 2012 at 7:07pm

Depends on what the choices of microbrews are at the local pub afterwards 8)

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Permalink Reply by Vidya Murthy on February 13, 2012 at 2:04pm

Thanks All! I did check out the website for ecole chocolat and it seems pretty great. If you come across anything else in nyc, i'd love to hear about it. Thanks!

Vidya

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Permalink Reply by Thomas Forbes on February 13, 2012 at 5:24pm

Check out Jomart Chocolate. They offer a individual class that you can design with them. I think it was $240, so it isn't cheap and it looks like they focus on confections. Has anyone attended the La Maison workshops? They buy their base already made so they may have a video or something, but it appears to be more of a tasting.

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Permalink Reply by Sebastian on February 13, 2012 at 9:03pm

lots and lots of places do confections training - i was approaching the question from a bean -> bar perspective. If he'd like more general confectionery training, there's hundreds of places to go for that...i may have misunderstood.

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Permalink Reply by Richard Foley on February 14, 2012 at 2:19am

We are starting a series of monthly classes at Qzina Instiute in Irvine, Ca. Starting from known and visited farms, our beans are carefully selected for true quality fine flavor, and proper fermenting and drying is assured. We recently installed the latest equipment from BLT so we can produce 30 lb batches for up to four attendees who will go from start to finish over two days. We have plenty of material from the cocoa research unit at the University of West Indies, including fermentation grading charts, roasting analysis, and our corporate chef will lead not only a course in physical manufacturing, but also informative sessions on the origins of chocolate, fine flavor beans, and attendees will enjoy a tasting experience featuring various chocolate produced from different farms we have sourced beans from. We would love share our technical manufacturing experience with other enthusiasts and ourselves learn from our guests. We have the country's top chcolate bean to bar facility with fully equipped chocolate, pastry, and testing equipment for measuring viscosity (Brookfield), particle size, and more. Guests leave with 5 lbs of tempered and molded chocolate in 227 gram bars, and 6 gram tasting pieces. We are having so much fun. Last week we made pure Hawaiian (Forastero) and then pure Nacional/ Ariba from Peru..... Amazing flavors coming each week. We have classes once per month... Contact me for a schedule if interested.

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Permalink Reply by Klarista Chen on November 14, 2012 at 11:30am

Hi Richard,

I'm interested in learning about the classes on Bean to Bar. I went to your website and found that the class is offered in California. Do you have any classes in NY-tri-state area? Please kindly supply the upcoming class schedule.

Thanks