The Hershey Bar

To create the Hershey bar, cocoa beans are roasted in large revolving roasters at very high temperatures. A special hulling machine then separates the shell from the inside of the bean. The inside of the beans or the nibs are then ready for milling. Milling is a process where the nibs are ground into a chocolate liquor. The main ingredients in chocolate are chocolate liquor, cocoa butter, sugar, and milk. After the chocolate liquor is produced, it is combined with milk and sugar. This mixture is dried into a coarse, brown powder called chocolate crumb. This powder is then used to create milk chocolate. Hershey then adds cocoa butter to the crumb and the crumb then travels through rollers which grind and refine the mixture, making it smoother. The crumb then becomes a thick liquid called chocolate paste. This paste is poured into huge vats called conches. Once inside the conches, huge rollers smooth out the gritty particles from the crumb. This process takes from 24 to 72 hours to complete. After this is done the paste now has the appearance of milk chocolate. The paste is then cooled to the right texture and consistency. The paste is then poured into molds. The molds are then gently chilled into a solid candy bar. The bars are then ready to be wrapped and shipped.

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