NECCO- Massachusetts, USA

NECCO^® Headquarters in Revere, MA (USA)

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory has always been one of my favorite movies. The only thing that agitates me while watching this film is the children who just can’t control themselves; they get into life threatening trouble and are ultimately removed from the factory. I never understood why they couldn’t exhibit some self-control during their visit. After visiting the NECCO^® (New England Confectionary Company) candy factory in Revere, Massachusetts, I now understand why it was so easy for those children to throw away their inhibitions. The candy is everywhere along with delicious temptation; it is certainly difficult to restrain yourself from taking those forbidden bites!

NECCO^® is one of the oldest candy factories in the United States. It began in 1847 as a product of the Industrial Revolution, when one of the company’s founders, Oliver R. Chase, invented the first American candy machine, a lozenge cutter, to create what is today known as NECCO^® Wafers. These quarter-sized treats come in a variety of fruity and chocolate flavors that melt into a powdery paste when consumed.

Since building the first candy machine in the US, the company has grown tremendously and is the maker of several different treats, including Candy Buttons, Clark Bars^®, Haviland® Thin Mints, Mary Janes®, Skybars®, Squirrel Nut Zippers®, and a Valentines Day favorite, Sweethearts®. Walking through the factory can only be described as entering a candy land of sugary desire. Each room surprises your olfactory senses with a blast of flavor-scent (sugar, caramel, chocolate, mint). The rooms are also equipped with giant candy-making machines that, if placed in any other setting, could easily be mistaken for a printing press (which in the case of the Sweethearts^®, it almost is) or textile machine.

Skybar^® Machine

I spent two hours in the NECCO^® factory and was graciously given a tour by Jeff, who works for the company’s Research and Development division. Jeff has been working at NECCO for 30 years, and knows each and every machine like the back of his hand. During my tour, Jeff explained how one machine (approximately the size of 10 Hummers) produces the world’s order of Skybars^®.

Skybars^® are one of New England’s favorite chocolates, and have been since their invention in 1938. They were the first chocolates in America to have four distinct flavors embedded in four different chocolate shells: fudge, caramel, peanut, and vanilla nougat. Each flavor is made and stored in a large vat within the factory, and is then piped into the Skybar^® machine.

The final step in making Skybar® is packaging.

The process of creating the Skybar^® begins with a chocolate mold. The mold is placed on the machine’s assembly line where it is filled with chocolate and then shaken up to remove any air-bubbles. The shell is then lifted to a cooling area within the machine to harden, and then lowered to be filled with the four different flavors. The next step in the process involves covering the filling with chocolate, thus, completing the candy shell. The chocolate is again lifted into a cooling area to harden, and then lowered, where it is shaved of excess chocolate. Afterwards, the candy bar is moved to a packaging area where NECCO^® staff move each candy bar into its package and seal it. The bars are then packaged into boxes and shipped to various locations world-wide. This entire process takes approximately 1 hour.

This was one of the closest looks I got at the candy-making process, aside from when Jeff helped me make chocolate Frankensteins for next Halloween! (I'll continue without the filling details so that I don't give too much away!)

Made with tremendous help from Jeff!

The company spends the two weeks after each major holiday finalizing plans for celebratory confections for the following year. That means that NECCO^® has already completed its plans for Valentines Day 2012 (as evidenced by the mounds of popular Sweethearts^® waiting to be shipped, and still being processed). 

And there's PLENTY more where those Sweethearts® came from!

Although Sweethearts^® are made all year round, they usually sell-out in the six weeks before Valentines Day! While their popularity has not changed, the messages that are imposed on each little treat certainly have. (NECCO^® has kept up with the times by asking customers to report what they would like to see written on their candy hearts.) And because NECCO^® is so organized, they even have some wiggle-room to experiment with different variations of their favorite candies. For instance, right now, NECCO^® is testing out different sized candy hearts.

Polishing the blue and yellow malted milk balls.

NECCO^® is currently finalizing their shipments for Easter 2012. Here you can see how they are coloring their Mighty Malts^® Malted Milk Balls in different pastel shades, just for the season. 

But the company doesn’t just make candies specific to the season. They also make candies that are popular year-round, like their Haviland^® Thin Mints, which are also the product of a large and efficient machine. The process of making thin mints is less arduous than making SkyBars^®, since fewer ingredients are needed. Essentially, the creamy minty center is made and squeezed into perfect discs from a machine, onto a conveyor belt. The mints are then covered in chocolate as they continue along their route, and packaged into individual boxes. 

Thin mints before chocolate covering.

Thin mints covered in chocolate.

The Haviland^® nonpareils are created in a similar fashion. First, the NECCO original-recipe chocolate is piped into individual discs onto a conveyor belt. The chocolate is then covered in generous amounts of tiny pearl sprinkles. As the nonpareils continue along the conveyor belt, the excess sprinkles are vacuumed up, leaving only perfect little mountains of chocolate and sugar behind. 

 

Pre-sprinkled nonpareils.

Sprinkle-covered nonpareils.

Completed nonpareils.

Not only is the factory a fun building to tour, with creative concoctions in every room, but it is also an immaculate work place. The work stations are organized and every instrument has its place and purpose. The staff are passionate about their roles at NECCO and are happy to imagine new treats on a regular basis. When asked what his favorite NECCO candy was, my guide, Jeff, responded, “Favorite? They’re all great. In fact, all candy is great. It tastes good and it makes people happy.”

I’m sure I don’t only speak for myself when I say that the NECCO factory and its candies certainly continue to make me smile. 

I'm beginning to get used to this look...

Taza Chocolate- Massachusetts, USA (via Mexico)

With Halloween over, there is no lack of candy in my office. In fact, I even mailed my coworkers (see comments below for full email), imploring them to bring in all of their children’s candies and leftovers directly to my desk, in order to ensure a good batch of candies for me to pick from. My coworkers dutifully came through. 

While eating their children’s mini-sized and bite-sized sweets, I took note of how creamy and smooth some of the chocolates were. As an amateur baker and a trained Nutritionist, I gravitated towards the ingredient list on the packaging only to find the following items: corn syrup, soy lecithin, hydrogenated palm kernel oil, yellow 5, red 40, TBHQ, citric acid, and cacao. Even if I wanted to reproduce this candy bar, I couldn’t do it without a chemistry set. 

One chocolate that you wont find these ingredients in is Taza Stone Ground Organic Chocolate. Taza chocolates only have four ingredients: cacao, cocoa butter, raw cane sugar, and whole vanilla bean. Years ago, this ingredient list would not have been unusual. But in today’s world of processed foods that can outlast seven Halloweens due to the amounts of preservatives in them, Taza chocolate stands out. 

Hot chocolate awaiting guests at the Taza factory.

In fact, there are several reasons why this chocolate is a cut above the rest, and certainly different from the traditional American or Swiss chocolate that our palates are accustomed to. To begin, Taza Chocolate was the product of one of the creators’ (Alex Whitmore) trips to Oaxaca, Mexico. While doing anthropologic research, which was his field at the time, Whitmore noted that the custom in Oaxaca, was to use chocolates for drinks rather than as a primary sweet. As such, the chocolate is presented in a disc shape to make it more conducive to melting for drinks. Furthermore, because the cacao bean is stone ground, the chocolate itself is very gritty when eaten raw. Taza even encourages the use of traditional Mexican flavors in its chocolates. So it is not a surprise that their chili and cinnamon flavors are some of the best, and most authentic. With these flavors, the chocolate warms your mouth as it melts down your throat—a unique sensation that you don’t get from making s’mores! 

Hand made grinding stone. And author :)

Whitmore conceded to his curiosity and inevitably studied the art of chocolate making while in Oaxaca. He learned how to carve his own circular granite stones for grinding cacao beans as well as what the steps are in creating exceptional Mexican chocolate.

The first step in making the chocolate is to harvest the beans. Taza cacao beans are harvested from a sustainable forest in the Dominican Republic. They are then fermented in the DR by exposing the sugars and pulp that occur naturally in the cacao bean to bacteria and yeast that occur naturally in the air. This fermentation process takes approximately seven days. The beans are then dried in a “secadora” (essentially a greenhouse) where the change from their white color (believe it or not) to the brown of chocolate that we are all familiar with. Finally, the beans are bagged and shipped to Somerville, Massachusetts, home of the Taza Chocolate Factory. 

Cacao beans are not actually a food until they are roasted. In order to do this, the Taza Team traveled to Italy where they found an old nut and bean roaster that was shipped to Somerville and renovated for Taza use. After being roasted, the beans are cooled and placed into a cacao winnower (another old Italian find), which is used to shell the beans. The shells are separated from the beans, which at this point in the process are called “nibs”. Nibs are used in a number of recipes including Mem Teas, eaten alone, or a personal favorite, covered in Taza chocolate.  15,000 lbs of nibs produces 8,000 bars of chocolate. (Taza does make chocolate bars that are eaten as traditional chocolate, versus the discs that are primarily used for making drinks, but are equally satisfying by themselves.)

Winnower (left/white) and roaster (right/red).

The molinos (grinders) are the first step for the nibs. Once ground, the nibs become a thick and pasty “chocolate liquor”. The chocolate liquor is the moved to a yellow tank where sugar is added, and is now called a “chocolate mass”. For chocolate discs, the chocolate mass then goes through a second grinding to better break down the sugar crystals. The mass is then piped into a white holding tank that keeps it liquid and relatively smooth, and ready to be deposited into the disc mold in the piping room. Once it is molded, the chocolate goes into a cold room (55°) to harden for an hour. Afterwards, it is wrapped and shipped to one of Taza’s many buyers! The entire process from bean to bar takes a total of two days. 

Molinos (left and center). 

Piping room (with Halloween guest).

The Taza company is dedicated to the environment. They use beans that are harvested sustainably. They buy used machines and renovate them to avoid waste. They use soy ink to print on their labels. And they box their products in such a way that the boxes can be reused for displays. The chocolates can be found in many organic food stores in 45 out of 50 states, as well as in several different countries. 

For more information about Taza and its history, visit http://www.tazachocolate.com/AboutUs. Note that several of the items that are available now are factory limited due to company brainstorms and buyer responses. If you like what you see, get it now. : )

Me with two cacao beans... and a hairnet (factory rules).

Suckerborne Lollipops- Connecticut, USA

I have a very distinct memory of candies, growing up, as most people do. Candies are a comfort food. They are what you eat to celebrate an event as well as to console yourself in times of grief. As a child, candy is presented as an award. And, it is one of the most valuable objects that you can sneak into a classroom. In fact, I remember students auctioning off lollipops during recess and bargaining anything from “promising to be your best friend” to stickers and baseball cards. Lollipops were always a big hit.

For this reason, it is no surprise that Megan Ferrell has created a growing success with her Suckerborne™ lollipops. As lollipops, these candies are nostalgic for adults—they are fun to eat and bring you back to a time when lollipops truly were one of the many highlights in your day. Most importantly, Suckerbornes™ were created specifically for adults!

Lemon Vodka Meanytini Suckers

With unique flavors like Champagne, Lemon Vodka Martini, Dark and Stormy, Sambuca, and Amaretto, Ferrell often asks children to get parents’ permission before allowing them to purchase an alcohol-laden sucker (even though the alcohol cooks out during the preparation). For a less “hard” but equally intoxicating flavor, you can also choose from Espresso, Brown Sugar Maple Bacon, Orange Dream, Key Lime Mint, and Snow Flake Mint pops. 

Ferrell created all the unique flavors from a plethora of kitchen tests and flavor suggestions from friends. The name “suckerborne” was the product of her creativity, and by no means inspired by a jab! Ferrell admits that although most lollipop recipes require a basic combination of cornstarch, water and sugar, Suckerbornes™ are made from all natural ingredients with no preservatives. Although she has no formal candy making background, cooking was always a childhood interest of Ferrell’s.

“I grew up loving lollipops”, attests Ferrell, “even though I once had one stuck to the roof of my mouth!” In a panic, Ferrell turned to her mother to help remove it. “The only other lollipop fiasco that I could think of was in trying to create a beer and pretzel flavored Suckerborne™.” While the cook now understands the finer points of using beer in recipes, she admits that the thought of this failed taste test still makes her gag!

Ferrell hand-makes each sucker and does her own flavor combination experimenting to develop original flavors. The most popular flavor, as well as her favorite, is the Brown Sugar Maple Bacon, in which she even uses real bacon! Customers find that it pairs nicely with the Espresso pop for a quick breakfast fix.

Brown Sugar Maple Bacon Suckers

More impressive than Ferrell’s gourmet flavors is her business aptitude. Suckerborne™ started three years ago when her design business slowed down as a result of the economy. Ferrell immediately began pursuing her delectable dream and brainstorming all natural recipes for the sucker that was sure to impress an adult palate. Because most of the marketing and design is done by Ferrell herself, she found this project to be a natural segue into her next career. And as a result, she has been able to follow the success of Suckerbornes™ all the way from her home kitchen to NBC’s Today Show, where the company was featured on a segment with Kathie Lee and Hoda.

It is clear that Ferrell’s passion comes out in her work. Her product delivers a unique taste to a nostalgic delight with which no other lollipop can compete. For anyone trying to begin their own business, Ferrell offers this piece of advice: Jump. Be ready to work hard and remember that the work you are doing is for you. You have to be disciplined and flexible with your schedule. But, there is nothing more rewarding than seeing your hard work making other people smile.

(For more information on Suckerborne™ visit www.Suckerborne.com.) Parents, note that Ferrell also has strawberry and cotton candy flavors available for younger suckers.)