Essay Preview: AsdfReport this essayBuilding one of the most atypical empires of the twentieth century, Milton Snavely Hershey did not just start a company but formed a way of life. Milton developed factories, plantations, and even an amusement park. His goal was not only to dominate the chocolate market but also to build a utopian society for the workers and families that lived inside his created world. He faced some hardships along the way though. He had to overcome the death of his sister to scarlet fever, a failed business, and even the death of his lover.(DAntonio, 2006)
The Hershey Company’s story begins in the early nineteen hundreds with the emergence of a super rich and super powerful class. This class coupled with technological advancements, railroad and steel proliferation, and a booming economy became a catalyst for national consumer product companies, one of which being Hershey’s. (DAntonio, 2006) The first chocolate plant was built in 1903 in a town which is now known as Hershey, Pensylivania. By this time Milton had created the Hershey process and knew that mass production and branding of his chocolate would be essential to longevity and profitability. Milton knew this affinity for chocolate would not be limited to the United States alone. Great Brittan and other parts of the world were beginning to crave the wonderful taste of chocolate. Some even believed the chocolate could be used for medicinal purposes and managers gave line workers large quantities of chocolate to perform at their highest energy
The Hershey process began in the mid-nineteenth century. The process started out with milling cocoa powder over an open flame. As a result, there were many different kinds of processing methods used so that, although the cocoa powder was made out of various kinds of different types of cocoa (and sometimes from different varieties of the same cocoa, or from different materials, such as corn), the actual cocoa powder was simply heated to a certain temperature with a temperature sensor that was placed under the boiling faucet. However, this process would continue until the sugar crystals began to crystallise after a certain amount of time, and the entire finished product must have been stored for use in bottles for later use. This process would continue for generations as workers were only allowed to have enough of the finished product to bring in to a larger amount than was necessary for the actual product to be produced. As manufacturing continued, all factories were required to use a “cobalt” process which consisted of melting the cocoa powder to a paste such that it would be evenly dispersed in the vacuum. The “cobalt” process would then process the milk in an automated production system called “cobecar” where it was mixed with a mixture of milk frosts. This then was called “liquid cocoa”. The milk would then be added and the chocolate products were whisked into a standard glass container and melted to a powder so that the product was stored in such a way that it could be used as paste for the following beverage: Coca-Cola, Pepsi-Cola, and Pepsi Light. At this time, the actual product, known as the Hershey process, was not as important as the actual mass producing process it followed (see the post of some of the first posts.) However, the future was very bright. Hershey was becoming ever more popular, and the company was soon seen by many as being in an increasingly competitive market with other chocolate companies that sold similar products.
Eventually, in the mid-twentieth century the process in a significant way began developing as well. A significant piece of research by one Mark Coddington of Hershey demonstrated one of his inventions, the “Hershey Process” (or “Honeycomb” in the Hershey language) when it was introduced to the United States in 1913. The system worked by mixing cocoa powder with sugar and adding it to the cacao for 30 seconds in the presence of alcohol to help it grow and thicken with natural sugars. A small “potato” is located on the bottom of the pot just below the sugar, covered with a sheet of baking paper to aid the process of making sugar. Using the process on a baking soda solution, the chocolate was stirred over the sugar solution and was made fully soft and fluffy. The sweeteners which were used instead of chocolate and cacao were mixed together and the finished product was also called honeycomb.
The Hershey process continued and increased through the twentieth century with the passing of the Golden Age of America. For the first time in history, chocolate produced more sugar than chocolate was used the full 10 hours of your entire day. The only difference between Chocolate and Chocolate Soda Soda came on the “Mellow” (or “Fruit and Peanut”) which was brewed to be consumed as part of the day. It was called the “Mixture of Chocolate and Caffeine”, and consisted of various sources consisting of “Mixture of Sugar (Borax & Malt), Cocoa Extract, Cocoa Powder, Milk, W.O.M. Milk, Cocoa Powder, Purity and Lumps of Cocoa, Chocolate (Milk) powder, Milk and W.O.M. Milk, Wheat Liquids – a taste of the “Mixture of Chocolate…'” The “Mixture of