USU chocolate factory field trip

Did you know that USU has a chocolate factory? We certainly did not (it has come into existence since the last time we had a Chocolate Unit…which is nice as several other local chocolate makers have disappeared since then!). It's not really a "factory." More of a "building." But it's part of their food science department and it seems like such a great idea! Students get to learn about chocolate making and then participate in the process from start to finish. And then they sell their finished products (which are very good!). Daisy, aspiring hot chocolate shop owner that she is, would like to attend school there just to work at this place!

There is, in fact, another "bean to bar" chocolate company not far from us (Ritual Chocolate in Heber) but since they decided to be snooty and charge a million dollars for their tours, we will leave them to the foodies who don't want children on their tours anyway, and go back to USU the next time we want to watch chocolate being made!

The USU tours do have a cost also, but they give it back to you as a credit to spend at their chocolate store, so we were happy to pay it! :)

Chocolate wrapper "convader belt," as Gus calls them. The chocolates weren't being wrapped at the moment but we saw a video of when they were.

The student who gave us the tour was so nice. She liked the kids too, because they were interested and asked lots of questions. Too many? Maybe. I tried to rein them in somewhat. This machine in the picture was cool—it was just a table that wobbled very quickly back and forth. The students placed the chocolate molds on it so that the liquid chocolate would settle quickly in the molds and not leave any air bubbles. Good idea!

Cocoa butter

Chocolate that has crystallized past Phase V, and some good examples of fat and sugar bloom

Big mélangers. Yum! The chocolate starts to look so good when it's being mixed in these. 

This is the old conching machine, which they apparently don't use anymore, but we took a picture because  it's cool and because it's named Augustus Gloop. Incidentally, when we named Gus, I was worried because I was afraid everyone would only associate his name with Augustus Gloop, which of course isn't a very good association. But now I don't worry so much. He is Gus the Good and no one can think otherwise.

Here he is making a very strange face, though. Why?

We got to do a chocolate tasting as part of the tour and it was really fun. The tour guide was so encouraging and validated every person's tasting experience, telling them there was "no wrong answer" to the "what does this taste like to you" question. She gave us a little wheel to help us describe the flavors (something like this), showing "fruity," "caramelly," "nutty," and so forth. It was interesting. My friend Tye helped us with something similar when she did a chocolate tasting with us.

Goldie contemplates the flavors she is experiencing

We chose some good things to try at the store (little bars of chocolate from different origins, for example). Here we are anxiously awaiting our hot chocolate and frozen hot chocolate.

And here we are trying them! Daisy looks disapproving, no doubt because they have to be shared among so many. :) Anyway, it was a great field trip, well worth the drive! We'd like to go back with Sam sometime!

And here is Ziggy with the chocolate factory he made when we got home…standing next to the shaking table that helps level off the bars in the chocolate molds.

Chocolate from Bean to Bar

Finally, we get to the actual process of how chocolate is made---from bean to bar, as everyone seems to say. This was fascinating and there are lots of videos and other resources for learning about it.

We liked this page; very simple and clear (with charts!)

This kit (pictured above) is something my mom had given to her years ago---it's from the Hershey's company and it has a little vial of material from each step of the chocolate-making process. It's really cool to see (and taste/smell/feel) these samples. I read somewhere that you could write to the Hershey Company to get this little kit sent to you, but I couldn't find anything about it on their website, so maybe they don't do it anymore. Still, it might be worth calling or emailing the company about, if you're interested.

This is a really fun interactive animation. They had this same thing at the Chocolate Exhibit we went to at the museum, and the children loved playing with it, so they were quite happy when we got home and found we could do it on our own computer as well. I'm having trouble with that link taking me straight to the page, so you can also try going here and clicking on "manufacturing chocolate," on the left side under "Interactives." You can cut the cacao pods off the trees, spread them to dry, put them into the roasting machine, etc. Very fun.

Here's a slideshow about the chocolate-making process (nice pictures)

We learned the difference between milk, dark (including bittersweet, semisweet, and sweet), and white chocolate. White chocolate contains cocoa butter, but no cocoa solids/cocoa liquor.

This brief history of the company is pretty good (you might have to click on "English" at the bottom to change the language), but I absolutely loved these vintage advertisements from Ritter-Sport. Knackish" (or something like that) is probably the best word for "crunchy" I've ever heard, and I only wish I spoke German so I could quote their other slogans in it. "Square. Convenient. Good." "Ritter-Sport: What Else?" So great. (Ritter-sport is my very favorite chocolate, by the way, even after trying many, many others.)

Chocolate Factory Field Trips

We went on a couple simple, but fun field trips. One was to Mrs. Cavanaugh's Chocolates up in North Salt Lake. We've actually done this tour before and it's a pretty fun one, though you don't actually get to go onto the factory floor. You look through the windows and learn about what's going on, and you watch a video about how chocolate is made, and you get several samples throughout the tour. Fun!

Our other field trip was to Utah Truffles, in Sandy (they have recently moved, so don't go to the Salt Lake address. The address at the link above is correct.) Their website just says "come in any time for a factory tour!" so we had no idea what to expect or if they'd welcome children. But they did. Again, it's not really a tour---just looking through a window at the conveyor belts and the chocolate centers going through the chocolate waterfall, etc. Kind of like the donuts you see being made at Krispy Kreme! But the lady who helped us was really nice; she answered all our questions and---most wonderful of all!---gave us several huge handfuls of truffles, some in every flavor, to take home! The children were astounded at this generosity and talked about it all the way home: "She gave us SO many! Can you believe it?! And we didn't even have to pay!" We tasted them all after lunch that day, and they were all wonderful. We love truffles, and these seem particularly good (especially for the price point)! Utah Truffles was still settling into their new factory, and it looked like it would be even better when they have their Grand Opening in a few months---they will have a little retail store, an atrium, etc., which were still under construction when we visited.

We wanted to visit Amano Chocolates, but when I called, they told me they weren't currently doing tours. The guy said they were hoping to have tours up and running in "a few months," so we'll check back again later this summer, because it would be fun to see how a true chocolate-maker (as opposed to a chocolatier---the former actually makes chocolate from cocoa beans; the latter makes chocolate confections with chocolate that has already been made somewhere else). At least I think Amano is a chocolate-maker. 

Theo Chocolate in Seattle is a bean-to-bar factory, and next time we're in those parts we want to take their tour. We tasted some Theo chocolate in Oregon and it's really good.

There's also the famous Hershey Chocolate Factory in Pennsylvania, which I visited when I was a teenager and was greatly disappointed by (I'd been, perhaps unfairly, expecting a magical world like Willy Wonka's factory:)). We watched their factory tour videos on the day we learned about Milton Hershey, who is a fascinating and inspiring man. We also watched this video about the school for orphans he founded, which is still around today. Definitely worth watching.

Here are some videos about how chocolatiers make chocolate candies:

Moonstruck Chocolate, in Portland, Oregon (which we visited a few weeks later, pictured above)

See Chocolate Bunnies, etc. being made

How assorted chocolates are made

Of COURSE we read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory aloud together during this unit, and we loved it. One day I had the children design chocolate-making machines to go in Mr. Wonka's chocolate factory. They had fun with that assignment. Their designs are below:

Abe's machine

Malachi's involved putting banana-shaped chocolate inside a banana peel, so you would have a big surprise when you peeled the banana! :)

Seb's machine