Welcome to our technical support forum…
"Ask Our Mixing Gurus"!
Today's Topic: Cocoa
Presented by: David Wenzel,Technical Sales Manager
 CHOCOLATE
CAN make you feel better, and it's good for you too! We eat
it for its lush, desirable mouth feel, for the way it melts on our
tongues, and for the delicious pleasure it gives. Chocolate may
also:
- trigger the release of endorphins, brain chemicals that provide
feelings of calm and relaxation, reducing stress and pain.
- protect your "good" cholesterol, the HDL.
- not raise the "bad" cholesterol, the LDL.
- guard against strokes and heart attacks by thinning blood, much
as aspirin does.
- be an antioxidant. Like red wine and blueberries, it is a defense
against air pollution, smoking and ultraviolet radiation.
- contain flavanoids, compounds found in chocolate and other plants,
that bring rapid, positive changes to the blood.
Cocoa products have been a favorite in Europe since the
16th century, when Spanish conquistadors brought it back from the
Aztecs in Mexico. Of course, indigenous people enjoyed it long before
then. Cocoa comes from the Cocoa tree, native to Central America,
now cultivated around the Equator in tropical climates. Cocoa beans
are dried, roasted and pressed to yield cocoa liquor. This is further
processed and separated into cocoa butter and cocoa powder.
Chocolate is a blend of cocoa liquor, cocoa butter and sugar.
In 1875, Henri Nestlé in Switzerland, added condensed milk
to make milk chocolate. White chocolate is made without
cocoa liquor, only cocoa butter, sugar, milk and vanilla flavor.
Working with cocoa powder as an ingredient in other foods can be tricky. It contains a natural starch so it develops considerable
viscosity in water. When mixed with sugar and milk solids, the batch
becomes quite dense and viscous. A recipe may have the stiff but
light consistency of whipped frosting, or the heavy weight of fudge.
| |
|
The Rotosolver® high
shear emulsifier is excellent for dispersing cocoa powder. For high
concentrations, we recommend using a jacketed (heated) kettle with
an anchor sweep scraped surface agitator and a Rotosolver®
mixer. The Rotosolver can work at high temperatures when necessary,
is not harmed by fine sugar crystals, and is very efficient in converting
horsepower to intense high-speed mixing.
The Rotosolver can dissolve granulated sugar quickly in cold water.
It can also quickly disperse the lumps of agglomerated cocoa powder,
blending them into a smooth syrup with micron sized particles. The
Rotosolver will also emulsify the cocoa butter into fine droplets.
The Fastfeed™ powder induction and dispersion system provides rapid introduction and dispersion of cocoa powder. The ergonomic system features a large hopper to feed your powders at ground level, and the Optifeed™ venturi eductor quickly sucks the solids into the mix tank eliminating climbing.
For an extra smooth finish, a pass through our Boston
Shearpump® Model BSP24C can mill particles even finer.
If you're experiencing dusting challenges, VacuShear® could be your solution.
Bring us your mixing challenges, and we will recommend creative
solutions... Please call our applications engineers at 800-466-2369
or 
email us at mixing@admix.com.
| |
