Today we slept in a little. Both Sharla and I were very weary. We decided to devote most of the day today to Hershey’s Chocolate World. It is kind of a Disney meets chocolate bar infomercial of a place that really was very enjoyable and entertaining. (Sharla said it was the sweetest date I ever took her on!)
We started out at the Chocolate Tasting Class. No joke – this was a 30 minute (fun-filled) primer on the finer points of chocolate. We learned what a cacao pod looks like (there were several real ones there, and they are a LOT bigger than I first thought) and how they grow. The cacao (pronounce kah-COW) tree only grows within 20 degrees of the equator. The root system of a cacao tree is very shallow, and it picks up flavors and scents from the things growing around it. When the cacao pod is first open, the cocoa beans are white and slimy, and very bitter. They are laid out for aging for several days, during which they develop the medium brown color that is familiar to us, and they start to smell more like chocolate. After they are sent to the chocolate producer (in this case Hershey, PA), they are gently roasted for 30 minutes to 2 hours to develop full flavor. The outer shells are then broken, and the inner part, called the “nib” is ground up to use in chocolate products.
After the primer, we actually were given 6 different chocolates to taste. Done properly, you use your eyes (check out the color), your ear (break off a piece – does it make a crisp snap or a dull thump?), your nose (identify the different aromas – sweet, earthy, fruity [and, yes, there really were all of those in the samples we were given]), and finally taste (don’t chew, just put a small sample on your tongue, and let it slowly melt as you identify the various accents in the flavor). One of the samples was a chocolate drink with cinnamon and a touch of coffee that I found wonderful, but Sharla didn’t care for. The rest were solid chocolates, ranging from very nice milk chocolate to medium dark chocolate, some with other things added, such as vanilla beans. With my sensitivity to caffeine I tended to break off a small chunk and then bite off a small chunk of that, but I found the whole experience very interesting (and delicious!). We both got diplomas as chocolate tasters for our time.
After that, we saw a 3-D combination live and animated presentation about the history of Hershey Chocolate, and then we were off on the “tour.” They stopped giving tours of the actual factory in 1972, and so they developed this audio-animatronic factory tour that shows every step in the production process. It was very good.
After that we took the trolley tour of Hershey. This included the complete history of Milton S. Hershey, the founder of the company and builder of the town. He built the town out in the country that surrounded his family’s homestead in order to provide his factory workers with good housing and cultural and recreational opportunities. He was apparently really great to work for, and good to his employees. His wife and he were unable to have children, so they started the Hershey school for orphan boys in 1909. This school is still in operation today, and has over 1800 students in Kindergarten through 12th grade. The kids who go to school there are both boys and girls now (since 1972), and they have to apply or someone can apply on their behalf. They must be either orphaned, or come from an abusive or non-suportive home to qualify; plus they have to be willing to work hard in school and do well. They live in group homes (ranch-style houses that house 8-12) with house parents who take care of them and fill the space of real parents. The homes, by the way are segregated by age group – K-3rd graders might live in one house, or junior highers might live in one house, but you wouldn’t have a first grader and a high schooler in the same house. When the kids graduate, they are given a complete wardrobe, a complete set of luggage, and, if their character and their grades have been good, up to an $88,000 scholarship to the college of their choice anywhere in the world. About 96% of their graduates go on to college. Mr. Hershey’s original bequest to the school was $60 million dollars, his whole fortune. That endowment is now worth over $8 billion! The school is supported and admired by the whole community.
Finally, we went to the “Build Your Own Candy Bar” section, where we actually got to determine the contents of a candy bar, program it into a computer, and then watch the bar being made on the automated assembly line. (We had to wear hair nets and, for me, a beard net, as well as an apron.) While it was cooling, we went into another room and designed the wrapper for the bar. It was then sent to the packaging section, where it was printed, cut, folded, and glued. When the bar came out of the cooler, it was placed in a souvenir tin with our wrapper around it. Pretty cool!
All in all, Hershey was a pretty fun experience. (By the way, the town does NOT smell like chocolate, not even right next to the factory!) We decided, due to the time, to skip Gettysburg this trip, and to just head west toward Kentucky. We made it as far as New Stanton, Pennsylvania, just south of Pittsburg. We are going to attend a Christian Missionary Alliance Church (no Nazarene Churches in town), and then head to our destination in Kentucky. We should reach there by late afternoon, early evening, and then kick back for the rest of the day in anticipation of the Seminar Week ahead!
Good night and God bless.