A Little Hershey's Chocolate History

After three failures in as many cities, Milton Hershey had finally made it big in the candy business. His delicious caramels had made him one of the wealthiest citizens of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. But as he strolled through Chicago's 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, Hershey saw something that changed his life: chocolate-making machine.

In 1894 Hershey introduced his milk chocolate and chocolate and almond bars. Then, selling the caramel business for $1 million in 1900, he built a chocolate factory in southeastern Pennsylvania. An entire town grew up around the industry. Saddeled at first with the name Hersheydodo, the town came to be called simply Hershey.

Although Hershey was the undisputed chocolate king, he did have competitors, only some of whom identified their products with their won names. Serveral, however, chose to name their candy bars and bonbons after other people. Leo Hirschfield's daughter, for instance, lent her nickname, Tootsie, to his chewy, chocolaty "rolls" in 1896. When Otto Schnering launced a new peanutty candy bar call Baby Ruth in 1920, the tribute was not to the hard hitting Babe of baseball, but to President Grover Cleveland's daughter, who had charmed the nation as a toddler. Then, in the 1930's, Philip Silverstein gave his sweet block of chocolate the same pet name that he used for his chubby little grandaughter, Chunky. The candy itself, with was chockablock full of nuts and raisins, more than adequately fitted the description.

While girls seemed to predominate, at least one chocolate bar was named for a young man. The fellow in question was a frequent visitor at George Williamson's Chicago candy shop, where he liked to flirt with the candymakers. He showed up so often, in fact, that the women began asking him to do odd jobs, inevitably starting their requests with "Oh, Henry." When Williamson needed a name for a new candy bar (Baby Ruth's rival) in 1921. Oh Henry! came easily to mind.

Chocolate Factory

The largest chocolate and confectionary factory is that built
by Hershey Foods Corp of Hershey, Pa in 1903-05. It now has
2 million sq ft of floor space.

A shipload of Chocolate

A chocolate model, in the shape of a traditional Spanish saling ship measuring 27 ft. 10.5 in. tall, 42 ft. 8 in. long, and 8 ft. 2.5 in. wide, was made by Gremi Provincial de Patisseria, Confiteria Bolleria School, Barcelona, Spain, in Feb. 1991. It was the tallest chocolate model ever made and weighed 8,818 lbs. It was displayed at the Palacio de Alfonso XIII at the international fair Tecnoalimentaria in Feb. 1991.

Largest Bar of Chocolates

Between March 16, and 19, 2000 at the Europ Chocolate 2000 confectionery exhibition in Turin, Italy, Elah-Dufour United Food Companies Ltd. made a scaled-up version of a chocolate bar, weighing an amazing 5,026 lb. It measured 124 x 59 x 17.7 in., equal to 22,800 4 oz. chocolate bars.

Largest Bar of Chocolates

Chocolates

The most expensive chocolates are by
Charbonel et Walker at $35.00 per pound.

The Largest Chocolate Chip Cookies

The largest cookie ever made was a chocolate Chip Cookie with a diameter of 81 ft. 9 in. and a circumference of 256 ft., made by Cookie Time, Christchurch, New Zealand, in 1996.

The Largest Box of Chocolates

Disaronno Amaretto filled chocolates, weighing 179 lb. went into the largest box of chocolates, which was created in the shape of a heart and measured 15 x 15 x 2.5 ft. in New York City, on Feb 14, 2000 to mark St. Valentine's Day. A total of 4,890 ft. of cardboard was used to make the box. When assembled, the full box of chocolates weighed 1,300 lb.

Hershey Chocolate Refresher

1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup Hershey's Cocoa
1/2 cup (3 3/4 oz. package) vanilla instant
pudding and pie filling mix

2 cups milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
8 ice cubes

Combine sugar, cocoa, and pudding mix in blender container; blend well. Add 1/2 cup milk; blend thoroughly, scraping sides occasionally. Add remaining milk, vanilla, and ice cubes; blend at high speed until ice is crushed and mixture is thoroughly blended. Serve immediately or store in refrigerator. Makes 4 1 cup servings