We are fortunate, here on the East Coast, to be close to the chocolate capital of the country. Hershey, PA is the home of Hershey Park Sports & Entertainment Complex-Hershey Park, Giant Center and Hershey’s Chocolate World.
If you have never been to Hershey Park, you may be wondering, “What does an amusement park have to with GrubGrade?’ Well, it’s pretty simple. Chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate (not to mention the numerous other candies made by Hershey or the several places to eat inside of the park). This park consists of so much grub, that I will be splitting it into several segments. The first is a tour of Hershey’s Chocolate World, where you can see how the chocolate is made, from the cocoa bean to the melt in your mouth piece of chocolate.
Walking through the doors of Hershey’s Chocolate World, brings you into the lobby where you can choose to view their 3-D Show, sign up for a Trolley Ride through Chocolatetown, USA, shop in their Market Place Shops, or create your own chocolate bar in Hershey’s Factory Works. They also have a new addition this year, the Kit Kat Café.
We will begin our tour with the famous Hershey’s Great American Chocolate Tour. Walking through the entrance to enter the tour, you get a mini history lesson:
As you continue down the walkway, you hear the sounds of the jungle. Tree branches reach down around you and the walls are painted with jungle scenery, including cocoa plants, to give you the feeling of being in the jungle.
Cocoa beans are what give chocolate its special flavor. The flavor or the chocolate depends on the country from which the cocoa bean came from. Deep in the tropical jungles, cacao trees grow melon-like fruit that contain about 20-40 cocoa beans. The fruit is harvested by hand, then put in large piles to ferment for about a week. This is when the shells harden, the beans darken and the rich cocoa flavor develops. After drying, the beans are ready to go the chocolate factory where they will be cleaned and stored.
You can’t make chocolate without milk, and milk comes from cows, Gabby, Harmony and Olympia begin your tour. So sit back, relax and enjoy your ride.
The cocoa beans are roasted at high temperatures, then go through a special hulling machine which separates the shell from the inside of the dry, roasted cocoa bean. This part of the bean is called the “nib” and it is the part of the bean that is used to make the chocolate. The nibs now go through milling which is a grinding process which turns the nibs into a smooth, dark stream of chocolate flavor called chocolate liquor (contains no alcohol).
Now the “chocolate liquor” is mixed with the other main ingredients: cocoa butter, sugar and fresh, whole milk. (A recipe developed by Milton Hershey in 1900). The fresh milk is tested, pasteurized and mixed with sugar, then slowly dried to a thick, taffy-like material. The chocolate liquor is now combined with the milk and sugar and dried into chocolate crumb, a coarse, brown powder. This powder is what is used to make milk chocolate. Cocoa butter is added to the crumb to bring out the rich taste and creamy textured. It is then sent through special steel rollers which grind and refine it, making it even smoother. It them becomes chocolate paste which is poured into huge vats called conches then rolled out by large granite rollers to smooth out the gritty particles. This takes from 24-72 hours to complete.
The chocolate paste now had the smooth familiar look of milk chocolate. It is tempered, or cooled to the right texture and consistency. Almonds, peanuts or other ingredients can be mixed into the paste during tempering or added to the moulds which the chocolate paste is poured into to make chocolate bars. The machines can fill more than 1,000 moulds per minute. They then take a bumpy, vibrating ride to settle the chocolate and remove any air bubbles. The chocolate is then gently chilled into a solid candy bar. It is now ready to wrap and package.
The famous Hershey Kisses are made a little differently. A special machine place a precise amount of chocolate paste on a belt that is cooled immediately forming the Hershey Kiss. Hershey makes over 80 million Kisses every day in the Pennsylvania and California factories.
The daily production of each type of chocolate produced shows up on a sign as you end your tour. It was 9:30am when I went on my tour and as you can see, production was already high for the day:
The tour ends with a souvenir photo and free sample of chocolate. Visit Hershey:Making Chocolate for the videos on each step of the chocolate making process. Look for Hershey Park Part II: Marketplace Shops-where you can buy every type of candy made by Hershey.
