Traveling Tuesday: Milton Hershey's Factory

Traveling Tuesday: Milton Hershey’s Factory

Courtesy Hershey Community
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Milton Hershey is credited as being the first to mass produce the chocolate bar and make it available to the general public at an affordable price. But before he could manufacture the bars, he had to develop the recipe. He’d already learned about adding milk to caramel, but he continued to hit roadblocks with his milk chocolate.

Not a fan of experts, M.S. (as he was called) was desperate, so he hired a chemist. At some point, the man burned a match of milk and sugar, leading to his dismissal. Rather than bring in another chemist, M.S. went to Lancaster caramel plant and called on employee John Schmalbach.

The first step for the men was to scrape the burned remains out of the copper vacuum kettle then clean

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Amanda Hemphill

it until the vessel was pristine. Then skim milk and a large amount of sugar was poured into the kettle. Mr. Schmalbach turned on the heat, then gradually raised the temperature of the kettle, allowing the mixture to cook slowly. A few hours passed, and he let it cool. When the lid was opened, M.S. has a batch of “warm, smooth, sweetened condensed milk that accepted cocoa powder, cocoa butter, and other ingredients without getting lumpy.”(1)

After repeating the process multiple times, the men knew production was in the cards.

Ground was broken on March 2, 1903 for the factory, a facility specifically designed to produce a “limited number of products in the most efficient way possible.”(2) Construction was completed in December 1904, and by the following summer, milk chocolate was in production.

As an enthusiast of Frederick Winslow Taylor’s scientific management, M.S. arranged the one-story factory to match architecture with function. Boxcars loaded with cocoa beans, sugar, and other dry ingredients arrived at the east end of the plant, then make their way through the plant, meeting the fresh milk as it arrived at the creamery on the north side of the plant. After it was processed into skim, John Schmalbach’s process of slow evaporation creating the condensed milk. Drying, rolling, and four days of mixing in conching machine produced chocolate that could be molded, then wrapped and boxed.(2)

In the first full year of production, net sales were over $1 million. Not bad for a man with little formal schooling.

(1) Hershey by Michael D’Antonio, Simon & Schuster, 2006
(2) Images of America: Hershey Mary Davidoff Houts and Pamela Cassidy Whitenack, Arcadia Press, 2000

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Love and Chocolate

She just needs a job. He wants a career. Is there room in their hearts for love?

Ilsa Krause and her siblings are stunned to discover their father left massive debt behind upon his death. To help pay off their creditors and save the farm, she takes a job at Beck’s Chocolates, the company her father despised and refused to supply with milk. Then she discovers her boss is Ernst Webber, her high school love who unceremoniously dumped her via letter from college. Could life get any more difficult?

A freshly-minted university diploma in his hand, Ernst Webber lands his dream job at Beck’s Chocolates. His plans to work his way up the ladder don’t include romantic entanglements, then Ilsa Krause walks back into his life resurrecting feelings he thought long dead. However, her animosity makes it clear she has no interest in giving him a second chance. Can he get her to change her mind? Does he want to?

Purchase link: https://books2read.com/u/mdQerZ