If you usually get some grayish-white blemish on your chocolates, this simply means that it never reached the proper level of tempering. The perfect texture of chocolates should be glossy, rich and creamy. If it is rough once you try tasting it, wasn’t simply tempered well. The chocolate should melt in the mouth and not its package.

Chocolate enthusiasts take extra care with making their chocolate confectioneries. They always make sure their confectioneries go through proper tempering before they even debut them to the market. Since chocolates are not originally creamy and glossy, it should pass several processes first such as conching and tempering. Conching is the process where chocolate liquor goes through a number of rollers that can make its grains more refined. Tempering is the process where Type V crystals are being produced as much as possible to make the chocolate smoother.

To be able to create a real chocolate, it must come from cocoa butter. The cocoa butter is the one responsible for the creaminess and glossiness of the chocolates. On the other hand the chocolate liquor or paste can be obtained when you crush the roasted cocoa beans. These cocoa beans usually have 50 to 60 percent cocoa butter. If it does not go through the process of tempering, the cocoa butter usually falls apart and ends up as white blotches on the face of chocolates, which is also called blooming.

This is the very reason why tempering can be considered as the critical stage of a chocolate’s life. Cocoa butter is composed of numerous fatty acids; these fatty acids differ in melting and crystallization points. Once chocolate is melted, the crystals in the cocoa butter disintegrate. The very idea of chocolate tempering is to stabilize the fat crystals to eliminate the blooming effect.

You can temper the chocolate in three different ways; the hard, easy, and fastest.

When you say tempering the hard way, the process is done by the hand throughout the process. It is usually melted until it’s lump-free then separated in two parts: two-thirds for working first, then another one-third. The first two-thirds is folded over and over on a heat-drawing stone slab until it reaches the right texture and reaches a cool of 80F or 27C, and then the other one-third is added up with the rest in the same way. Different types of chocolates have their own type of temperature.

The easy way is using the method called seeding. Seeding is done by adding chocolate into the pre-tempered chunks of chocolates to hasten crystallization.

The fastest way includes the use of the chocolate tempering machines, which are programmed to work the chocolates at the appropriate temperatures for the more desirable crystal forms so you do not really have to do anything, just turn the machine on and put the chocolate chunks.

Man Unbowed

Unbowed by sin, the world of man, stands
Upon his feet he gapes into the sky,
The indifference of centuries within his eyes,
And in his heart the curse of the old world.
Who made him dead to love and God?
A thing that breathes only for wants and needs,
With a lack of emotion, a brother to the fox?
Who tightened and pushed up his jagged brow?
(To make him look so grand, so proudso tall.)
Who was it that produced his naked pulse?
Who sucked out his soul from its frame?

Is this the handy work Satan made and gave?
To have command over man as slave;
To have him chase stars that never reach heaven;
To have him cursed for time without end?
Is this the revenge he dreamed for God and man?
The one thrown out of heaven, into darkness:
Down to earths ground and Hades, Hell…?
There is no morbid thing worse than he
More greedy with condemning man to Hell’s eternity
More blind-hate with leaches and spells for mans fate
More filled with demonic revenge for him.

What divides, is flanked by man and Satan!
Slaved to his passions, like a hawk to his prey
Are Jesus and the swing of Merlin, the same?
Who can save the soul from the dip of Hell?
The crack of death, the blackening of the tulips?
Through this peephole, the weary soul has looked;
Times’ misfortune is the rule of thumb;
Through this maze humanity has faded,
Raped, blasphemed and bequeath his birthright,
Tears and protests to the judges of heaven,
A protest that cannot be given much credence.

O Adversary, lord of the air, ruler of earth,
Is this your handiwork in place of God’s?
This atrocious world, deleted with God’s fragrance?
How will they ever come back to faith?
To live beyond the gates of heaven;
Give back to man his mortal upright light;
Construct in him, the lost hymn of life hereafter;
Leave out your shameful ancient evils
Tedious woes, and hurtful sorrows,
O Adversary, lord of the air, ruler of earth,
How will God’s wrath reckon with you later?

How will you protest in that doomful hour?
When the last trumpet blows, and shakes the world
How will it be for your henchmen in Hell?
For you have shaped the human-race, the way it is
When this day comes, and man and devil tremble
In the sight of Almighty God, after the silence
Then, the terror of the world: what will you say?

#481 [2/11/2005]

Mr. Siluk was the winner of the magazine competition by “The Eldritch Dark [.com],” [a tribute to Clark A. Smith] for most favored writer[contributor] for 2004 [with readership of some 2.2-million]. And received a letter of gratitude from President Bush for his many articles he published in the internet magazine, “useless-knowledge.com,” during his campaign for president, 2004 [1.2-million readership]. His website: http://dennissiluk.tripod.com

Big cigars can be big business! They are gaining in popularity, as can be seen by the number of cigar magazines available and cigar stores springing up. If you have a passion for cigars, why not turn your hobby into a money making business?

Here are four ways to turn your passion for a good cigar into a money-making part time or full time job.

1. Start a cigar store. As cigars are gaining in popularity again they are still not readily available for the person interested in buying high quality cigars. You can fill this gap by starting a cigar store, very much like a wine store, which sells only fine cigars in a boutique style shop.

2. Start a smoking bar. With many cities and towns going “smoke-free,” patrons who like to smoke are finding it more and more difficult to find a place where they can enjoy their cigar. If local regulations allow it, you can start a cigar bar by creating a pleasant environment where people can purchase cigars and smoke them. You’ll need tables and comfortable chairs and a large humidor.

3. Become a cigar expert. You probably already know a lot about cigars if you enjoy them for a hobby. Learn as much as you can and cash in on that knowledge by helping other people interested in the hobby. For example, you can write for a cigar magazine, or even write books on the subject. To establish your name as a cigar expert you have a couple options. You can create a cigar podcast, a cigar web site, or even a television show about cigars that might play on the local public television station. These options do not have to cost a lot of money but will go a long way to building credibility in your level of expertise. Once you have gained a reputation as “the person who knows cigars” you’ll be able to write magazine articles and books about cigars that sell very well.

4. Many “newbies” to the hobby may not be able to find the proper accessories that need to go with fine cigar enjoyment, like a humidor. You can build humidors and sell them. This may even be a great Internet business!

If cigars are your hobby, why not take it to the next level and make some money off of your interests? Cigars are gaining popularity, and if you are already in on the ground floor, it is very easy to begin making money and ride the wave of popularity to the top!

Jeff Lakie is the founder of Cigar Information a website providing information on Cigars