Last weekend, Sui and I had a chance to take a tour of the facilities of world famous (kinda) Scharffenberger at Berkeley, one of America’s leading makers of concentrated, dark chocolate. That is, they hold daily tours of the factory (1), where they teach you about how chocolate gets made, let you sample some of their trademark mixes, and gawk at some of the machinery that make the magic happen, concluded by a thorough walkthrough of the gift shop.
To give some credit, though, it’s cool that they took the time to organize free tours. be “the only chocolate factory in America that lets you take as many pictures as you want”, and set up a classroom to teach people how their chocolate is made. I guess I was a bit underwhelmed by the actual tour – machines weren’t moving and there was not much to see for those that did, the facilities weren’t as big as I had hoped, and they could have been more interactive than “here’s that thing that I talked about in the beginning of your tour which you have already forgotten the name of: ta-da!”.
Then again, I might have been spoiled; when I was in Vancouver, the See’s Candy factory was just down the block and they held factory tours once a year, which meant people lined up all to way to our house and beyond trying to get in. They had a great tour: pieces of misshapen and otherwise unsellable candy to taste along way, stations that explained what happened at each step, and even a bigger gift shop which sold the very same pieces of candy that you saw being made.
It’s still worth a visit if you’re ever in the area; just be sure to sit near the back of the classroom when they’re going over the process, since the chocolate sampler basket will end up in your lap and you’ll be well protected from the gaze of the chocolate instructor by the suckers in front of you.