Sans the tempering process, chocolates won’t be lustrous, silky, snappish and rich since these qualities are not originally its features. With conching, particle fineness is acquired by chocolate liquor but only with tempering does these particles become even more refined so as t be undetectable.

Another benefit from tempering chocolates is that blooming is prevented. Blooming makes chocolates flaky and granular as well as blotchy when crystals from the cocoa butter appear on the chocolates’ surfaces. Chocolates afflicted by this unfortunate crystal phenomenon face outright rejection from customers.

Since chocolates liquefy at temperatures above 90 Fahrenheit, tempered chocolates become distempered so they need to be tempered again if they are to remain attractive to the buying public.

Some chocolatiers may use a tempering machine to easily temper huge volumes of chocolates but they should also be taught chocolate tempering by hand because sudden emergencies may erupt when you least expect it. Tempering by hand by will tide you over during these times.

The French innovation, tabliering, is one of two manual tempering methods. The reason for this being called as marble-slab method is that a marble (or stone) slab is used to cool melted chocolate by spreading over it so heat is absorbed.

A pound of chocolate is often chopped into pieces, after which it’s warmed at low to medium heat in a double boiler until it completely melts. The chocolate mush is divided into two halves; the first half is scraped and folded all over the marble slab until it has cooled, thickened, and turned matte. After this, the other half is also combined with the first batch until the single unit acquired the same temperature, consistency and appearance.

In the second manner called “seeding”, the process is almost similar but the crystal structures in already-tempered chocolate strips is used as “seeds” for the non-tempered chocolate crystals to replicate. Three-fourths of the chocolate is melted into mush, with the remaining one-fourth non-melted and combined with the former, in a mixing bowl. The objective is to achieve the same thickened consistency, matte appearance and cooling temperatures.

The rule that should not be taken lightly is that you should maintain specific temperatures correctly throughout tempering, for which you should use a good quality thermometer. You can experiment crafting fruit-filled chocolates and chocolates of various designs and shapes with this tempered chocolate. Even as you’re dipping and molding, the chocolates should remain within its tempered temperature range.

Manual tempering is an arduous task and it requires your undivided concentration. The idea of enjoying while tempering could be incongruous so to enjoy the process of making chocolate candy, you could use a tempering machine. With the free time it makes available to you, you can plan your strategies for the expansion of your business as well.

The attractiveness of chocolates is simply brought about by the fact that it possesses richness, glossiness, crispness and creaminess. Once you sink your teeth into that delectable bar, you will hear that clear snap, the proof that the chocolate was properly tempered. Tempering is done by having the chocolate melted, cooling it, and heating it again until it reaches the desired temperature.

All chocolatiers including big chocolate manufacturers do tempering on their chocolates to be able to make their chocolates shiny, rich and to extend shelf life. Chocolates which did not go through the process are very vulnerable to blooming and feel crumbly to the tongue. The buying public connects these bad features of the chocolates to inferior quality and will probably dump it straight away.

Chocolate tempering is very important in chocolate candy making since this is where fat crystals are being stabilized. Fat crystals are found in the cocoa butter, and once they go through the process of melting and solidifying the fatty acids begins to crystallize in the same form.

Chocolate tempering is such a complicated task, and the process should be done in an accurate manner. For someone who is just beginning to make chocolates, it will surely be an experience of trial and error because there are lots of things to learn before tempering can be fully mastered.

Chemistry is greatly involved in the process of chocolate tempering. During the crystallization process, the cocoa butter must produce type V crystals, as many as possible because this is the one responsible for the best features that you can find in chocolates, such as the glossy sheen, creaminess and its longer shelf life. However during crystallization there is a possibility that different types of crystals may appear, that is why accurate temperature plays a vital role in tempering. Make sure that you have your thermometer with you every time to check temperature.

You can also do the tempering manually by simply working on the melted chocolate on a slab until it cools down and heated again to specific temperatures to attain proper tempering. The other process involves the seeding method, done by slowly combining chocolate bits to melted chocolate to induce the crystals to bind the preferred way.

During tempering in chocolate candy making, maintaining temperature could be hard work. If you constantly make chocolates in bulk, you have to get yourself a chocolate tempering machine to help facilitate your work.

Chocolate tempering machines are very reliable when it comes to chocolate tempering, since you can be sure that it will properly do the whole process without you worrying a single thing. The machine is already programmed to produce as much type V crystals as possible. You can just leave your chocolates for hours; no need to constantly monitor chocolate temperatures. It can hold large volumes of chocolates so it’s really perfect for mass production.

Smoothness and shine are not chocolate’s natural qualities but are achieved through a process called tempering. Tempering also prevents blooming in chocolates.

Improper tempering leads to crystals or blotches on chocolates. Since chocolate tempers are lost when it is heated, re-tempering should be done.

Cocoa butter is at the heart of chocolates; large quantities of solids along with its crystals, get suspended while heating it. During melting the suspended crystals get separated from the solids and rise to the top.

A unique quality of cocoa butter is its re-crystallization into six types and these dominate rapidly at certain temperatures. This necessitates close monitoring of temperatures when tempering. The type V crystals among these six give the snap and shine to chocolates so these crystals must be present in large quantities when tempering is done. Temperatures must be maintained strictly and a digital laser thermometer is useful for this. Different types of chocolates have to be heated and cooled at different temperatures.

Tabliering and seeding by hand and microwave method are the usual methods adopted for tempering. Most chocolate makers make it a point to learn tempering by hand.

In tabliering, you break up the chocolate into strips of small sizes and then liquefy it on a double boiler. The melted chocolate is divided into two and the first half is poured on a marble top to be worked upon with a rubber spatula till it is shiny and velvety in consistency. Once that is done, then the mass is subjected to the dipping and molding process of making chocolate candy. It should be ensured that the mass does not get hardened or lose its temper.

Except using the already-tempered chocolate as a “seed” to “inoculate” the melted chocolate, the process of seeding by hand is the same as tabliering. The same dictum of maintaining accuracy in temperature applies in this process also. The process of “inoculation” enables type V crystals to dominate the crystallization process.

The general hassles in tempering are maintaining accuracy in temperatures and avoidance of over-mixing and under-mixing; a chocolate tempering machine can do away with these hassles. But humid weather conditions also pose a major threat and even experienced chocolate makers take utmost care when such conditions persist.

Variables like wattage of the oven, the level of cocoa butter in the raw chocolate and the quantity of chocolate added to the bowl for melting purpose must be accorded importance in microwave tempering of chocolates but there are fixed parameters govern these variables.

All your difficulties in the process will dissolve when you experience the pleasure of gifting your chocolate boxes to others.

Although it might appear like handwriting is becoming unnecessary, it’s one that is still today important in many areas of life. A written missive conveys more importance than a typed letter, such as an application for a job, an invitation or an apology.

One may suppose it’s a recent trend of people eschewing hand-writing and using a keyboard instead, yet as far back as the late 1800s, there were cries that hand-writing was being neglected due to the invention of those times : the typwriter. Nowadays, the blame is being corresponded to the usage of computers.

However, there still exists a healthy need for penmanship skills in academia and the business world. Hand-written letters are thought of as far more reliable, they evince the author has studied over her words, and they evince more respectfulness to the reader. In the modern era of canned responses, the penned letter has never been more powerful.

I must admit to something. I have frequently been caught red-handed with my poor penmanship - made worse by decades of relying on the keyboard. In situations in which I’ve had to put pen to paper, my words have been almost unreadable at times. It doesn’t look good. How to resolve such a problem? I handwrote more often, and my writing greatly improved. In conclusion, it’s best to improve your handwriting through sheer repitition.

Another piece of advice is to find a pen you are comfortable with, and it must accept refills. A recommended ink to refill with is the illustrious mont blanc refill. This enables you to improve your style with the same pen.

The mainstream artworld has had a love/hate relationship with graffiti. On the plus side, gifted graffiti artists such as Banksy have made walls a place to put a political point across, utilizing stencils to produce challenging artworks with a nuanced political point. This kind of graffiti was certain to grow fashionable with the public and the art critics : appealing to both eye and intellect. This form of graffiti is even bought as prints on canvas, and placed on the walls of middleclass households and corporate reception areas.

Yet, when it comes to your down and dirty graffiti - the scally, the tagger, the gangbanger kind - this is just seen as antisocial, a crime committed by the talentless. But this is to misinterpret graffiti as purely art. To many people, it’s not only an artform, but a method to put your stamp on a neighbourhood, or even a two finger salute : anti-social, anti-art, anti-establishment.

Graffiti has always been an undercover activity, although the effects are very much public facing. The intended audience is often unbeknown. Is it for a rival gang? A message to an individual? To the public? Or….perhaps it’s merely uncalled-for and out of nothing else to do.

Whatever the causes may be, there seems to be some kind of permanent demand to spray graffiti on walls. Some city councils have acknowledged that graffiti isn’t a fad, so they’ve designated zones where graffiti is allowed - normally derelict areas, but now and then busier areas like temporary boarding around inner city buildings under construction.

Two Poems and an Analysis [’Witness,’ & ‘An Old Love’]

Witness

My face belongs to whoever sees it
Everything has a meaning but life
Even the bugs strive for existence
God saved man, from God
Ghosts have lonely sins
Her bones are stones
Up and down the hill
Gardens blossom
Spotless skies
Dramatists
August
I can not
rest!…

#708 6/3/05

An Old Love

Around the world from me
are the many lands I’ve seen
I, who have longed all his life,
that never shut his eyes
but to look up for his next flight

…for things I’ve yet to see
wait, wait, wait, wait where
echoes from poets write,
wait, for far off destinies.

And where my thoughts are
I must go, for there too is my
. soul; thus, best to poke the
fire again!…

6/3/05 #707

Analysis: I was asked the other day to do a verbal and quick analysis for a poem. It can be a terrifying experienced, especially if the person is a friend. What do you say? Like it or not, it is a worthwhile thing to do, and have done. And I’ve had a few hundred of my poems analyzed, poked at, chewed up; thus, when asked to analyze a poem, I do it with great care. But I do realize I am not going to contribute to anything other than my own attentive response. Well this poem baffled me and that was not good, but I studied the poem well after he left, I could only give him a few pieces of my thoughts prior to his leaving. I did afterwards mark phrases that caught my attention, good and bad, things that were striking or difficult, and where the focus was lost. I do trust my intuition, so that is one good thing.

There are three things I try to look at 1) the purpose of the poem, as I understand it to be 2) the central emphasis (problems and concerns, etc), and 3) imagery, tone, meter and so forth, while at the same time trying not to diminish the poetic effect the poem is trying to give. But then, I do not do analysis but on a few special occasions other persons poetry, for I have a hard enough time doing my poetry. But I thought a few comments might be worth mentioning. I guess, if I like the poem, I just like it, period. The Author

Here are two more poems, both different in their focus, poetic emphasis; both short poems, but enough to give a distinctive effect. The tone is of special importance. An analysis comes along with the two poems, not on Mr. Siluk’s poems, for that is for someone else to do, but on how he looks at times on other poems, recognizing the combination of different elements.
–Rosa Penaloza

Poet/Author Dennis Siluk http://dennissiluk.tripod.com