The Hershey Kisses Story
The story of Hershey’s kisses begins
with Milton S. Hershey, who owned a
successful caramel factory in
Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
The Chocolate market
Milton Hershey studied the chocolate market
and thought that the nations would enjoy
chocolate confections. In the early 1900s,
Hershey sold his caramel factory and built
a chocolate factory. This was a good idea
because many people bought and enjoyed
his chocolate confections. In 1807,
Hershey had another idea, which resulted
in the invention of Hershey’s kisses made
from milk chocolate.
Introducing the making
Making the kisses starts with getting raw
materials such as cocoa, sugar, and milk.
Hershey located his factory in south
central Pennsylvania to be near cows that
produce the milk necessary to produce
milk chocolate. Another necessary
ingredient in chocolate is cocoa beans
The Cocoa Tree
• The cocoa tree grows only in the tropical areas
within 20 degrees north or south of the Equator.
Here the temperature, rainfall, and soil are
perfect for cocoa trees to survive. Beneath the
leaves of the cocoa tree are small flowers. When
the flowers are fertilized, they yield fruit in
ripened pods. Inside the pods are the cocoa
beans from which chocolate is made. The cocoa
beans are shipped to Hershey’s factories from
the cocoa-growing areas of the world.
The Nib
When the raw materials reach the factory, workers,
using knowledge and skills to operate machinery
and equipment, produce the kisses. Converting
cocoa beans to chocolate products revolving
cylinders. At precisely the right moment, they
pass from the roaster and are quickly cooled.
The beans are then conveyed to chambers
where they are shattered into small pieces to
separate the shells from the inside of the bean –
the nib.
The Milling
• The dry nibs, now ready for milling, have
cocoa butter, the natural fat of the cocoa
bean, locked in their cells. The milling
process not only continually reduces the
size of the nibs but it also releases more of
the cocoa butter. This produces the liquid,
called chocolate liquor, from which all
chocolate is made.
“Conching”
At this point, milk, and sugar are added to the
mixture, which is dried and smashed into a
powder. The mixture is not ready for the refining
process. Cocoa butter is added in the next step
called “conching” Conches are machines in
which the chocolate is rubbed across a base of
corrugated granite by heavy rollers. Milk
chocolate requires a very long conching time –
up to 72 hours. After conching, the chocolate is
passed through large, steel rollers that make it
smooth. Here, while cooling, the chocolate is
dropped into Hershey’s Kisses Molds.
The finishing touches
The candy is then machine-wrapped in aluminum foil with a
paper plume added. Hershey makes more than 70
million kisses a day in it’s factories in Pennsylvania,
California, and Canada. Hershey Chocolate Company is
the world’s largest producer of chocolate and cocoa
products. Hershey’s kisses are consumed by millions of
people around the world. You can buy the kisses in such
places as Mexico, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, People’s
Republic of China, Puerto Rico, Guam, Thailand,
Malaysia, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Canada, and, of
course, the United States Of America
The Hershey Commercial