Rodney Nikkels's Page

"Hi Brian,  Just for your info, I'm since some three years not involved in Original Beans anymore, and I must say the beans from Piura are to my knowlegde a true criollo, but not a true "porcelana" (what we thought initially, and…"

"Hi Brian,  Thanks for the clarification!But how do you the cocoa is the "rarest", you haven't tested all others is it? Perhaps genetic pureness is not as rare as you might think ;).  Do I understand it right that the cocoa…"

"Dear Brad,  I've met Mr Brian some years ago in Piura, where we were organising a workshop with the APPCacao (Asociacion Peruana de Pequenos PRoductores de Cacao) whereby all information about the criollo beans of Peru was presented. He at…"

"To all,  Just form a side-line, this whole discussion is not really interesting to be honest. So could you please do this off line? I guess you know how to find each other?  Best regards from a remote Amsterdam Rodney Nikkels"

"Dear Felipe,  Yes, I would be very much interested. I built the one on the site from Chocolate Alchemy and obtain a 78-80%. Big industry standard would be around 83-84% I assume and technically 85% would be the max. Pictures indeed do work as…"

"Dear Panod,  Perhaps you could try to increase the temperature upto 75 degrees Celcius during the grinding for some 12-24 hours? You could use a hair dryer or some other device for this, but be sure the temp goes up!  Best  Rodney…"

"Hi Clay,  You're right, it is a very sad story and this should have been avoided. I think it mainly has to do with too big ego's forgetting what it was all about. Fair Trade as a movement was started to offer small scale farmers…"

"Hi Brad,  Interesting to read! You mention your porcelana is so acidic, but why is it so acidic, you know? You mentioned that beans are not properly fermented, but from a porcelana you would expect proper fermentation isn't…"

"Dear Daniel,  We tested also some DR beans (organic), did two roastings, one starting at 150 C for 8 minutes and than to 130 C for another 17 minutes (25 in total). This restulted in excellent aroma, no bitterness in the nibs. The other…"

"Dear Matt,  Although I don't know the color ex (we have the selmi one system, the smallest). I definitely would buy a machine that can be opened and cleaned, and the Color Ex is such a system. We need to flush the machine and cocoa butter…"

"Hi Clay,  I recently made a fan based winnower, but I'm not totally satisfied (because of the remaining germs mainly), and I'm interested in a three screen system. Do you perhaps have the plans available? That would be a tremendous…"

"I quickly checked the web-site (perhaps it's not the correct one), but the Maison Caillier site (ch) looks quite old fashioned to me, with the Swiss Alps etc. To be honest, I don't see how they are going to play a leading role in the way…"

"Dear Mark,    Thanks for the observations, and you are right, applying P & K is not the most environmental sustainable solution (although the N is normally causing the most harm in terms of soil acidification and related N2o emissions.…"

"Hi Kristy,  Thanks for your feedback! Cocoa farmers in Ghana have yields from 280 kg/Ha (eastern region) upto more than 1 MT in the Western regions (recently converted forest lands). The difference is mainly caused by the availabilty of soil…"