THE CHOCOLATE DREAM MACHINE

The Chocolate Dream Machine

Tracey L. Baer

Northwood University

The Chocolate Dream Machine

Advertising is a form of selling. Since 1872 there have been individuals who have tried to persuade others to buy the food they have produced, but none of course like the Chocolate they make at the Hershey Factory. But the mass production of goods resulting from the Industrial revolution in the 19th century made person-to-person selling less efficient than it previously was for most products. The mass distribution of goods that followed the development of rail and highway systems made person-to-person selling too slow and expensive for almost all companies including Hershey. At the same time, however, a growth in mass communication occurred first newspapers and magazines then radio and television that made mass selling possible. Advertising, then, is merely selling or salesmanship functioning in the paid space or time of various mass communication media. The objective of any advertisement is to convince a person that is in their best interest to take an action the advertiser is recommending. This is the case with the Hershey chocolate bar. Advertising as a business developed first and most rapidly in the United States, the country that uses it to the greatest extent.

Those that use it most are companies that must create a demand for several products among many people residing in a large area. Such as, the Hershey Bar in high compulsion for people of all age groups. Advertising makes the product so available.

So let me begin by telling you a brief history of chocolate. Everyone thinks of chocolate as a flavoring or desert spice for food.

As a food and a flavoring, chocolate is widely popular. People everywhere enjoy chocolate candies, pastries and drinks. Chocolate is made from seeds, or “beans,” of the tropical cacao tree. The beans grow inside leathery pods that are found both on the trunk and on the branches of the tree. Workers cut the pods from the tree trunks with large heavy knives called machetes and from the branches with long-handled knives. The purple or creamy-white beans are shelled from the pod, which is about the size of a small cucumber.

At this stage, the bean has a raw bitter taste. As the first step in the long process of making appetizing chocolate, the beans are piled in bins for several days. Bacterial action causes them to take on a rich brown color and the fragrance of chocolate. After several more days, they become dry enough to prevent spoilage, and they are bagged for shipment. When they arrive at the factory, the beans are roasted in large rotating machines. This improves the flavor still more and dries the shells of the bean so they can be easily removed in the next machine, the “cracker and fanner.” Here the beans are cracked, and fans blow away the brittle shells, leaving the nibs, or meat. The nibs are the part used for making chocolate products. The shells are saved for use in fertilizer or as feed for cattle.

About 50 percent of the nibs are made up of a fatty substance known as cocoa butter. In the next stage large grinding stones or heavy steal disks crush the nibs, creating frictional heat that melts the butter. The hard parts of the nibs are

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