Milton Hershey, founder of the Hershey Chocolate Company, started working as a teenager in a candy shop. At age 18, in 1876 he opened his first candy shop, the Crystal A Caramels, in Pennsylvania. He ran it for six years before closing and moving to Colorado where he worked for a caramel company learning more about the process of making caramels. In 1886 Milton opened the Lancaster Caramel Company in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Seven years later he purchased German chocolate making equipment at the World’s Columbian International Exposition in Chicago where he had discovered the art of making chocolate. A year later in 1894 the Hershey Chocolate Company opened with Milton experimenting using chocolate to coat caramels.

When Milton first opened the Hershey Chocolate Company, he produced sweet chocolate, breakfast cocoa, baking chocolate, and his special chocolate covered caramels. He soon sold the caramel company and began specializing in chocolate production. By 1900, Milton Hershey introduced the first Hershey chocolate bar in America. Three years later, the ground was broken for a chocolate factory. In 1907, the Hershey’s Kiss was introduced and in 1908 the Hershey Milk Chocolate with Almonds bar was produced.

A Hershey Industrial School for orphaned boys was established in 1909 and in 1918 Milton Hershey donated his wealth and the Hershey Company to the school. However, it didn’t stop Milton Hershey from continuing his adventures in chocolate making and chocolate creations. In 1925 the Mr. Goodbar was introduced and quickly followed by the introduction of Hershey’s Syrup. The Krackel Bar, Hershey’s Miniatures, the Reese Cup and many types of candies have been developed through the Hershey Chocolate Company located at Hershey, Pennsylvania since then. During World War II, the Hershey Company produced over one billion Hershey bars for rations for the military troops.

Today, the Hershey Chocolate Company is located at Hershey, Pennsylvania and has tours for visitors. There is also a Hershey World Park and Hershey Store to visit. Hershey continues to be a leading brand of chocolate with new candies introduced constantly including the Hershey sugar free chocolate. Hershey chocolates are sold in over 90 countries.

While most people equate fudge with chocolate, it is but one flavoring used in the fudge-making process. Fudge is made by mixing sugar, milk and butter, while heating it to 240 degrees (soft-ball stage). The mixture is beaten until it loses its glossy texture and develops a creamy, smooth consistency as it cools. No special tools are necessary to make fudge once a person learns how to use the cold water testing method to determine when the mixture reaches the soft-ball stage, while others may prefer a candy thermometer for accuracy.

Most fudge is made using various forms of chocolate such as: semi-sweet, bitter-sweet, milk chocolate or even cocoa powder. The quality of the chocolate used in making fudge should be of good quality for best results and taste. Making a perfect batch of fudge requires some skill; so many recipes are available using marshmallow crème or sweetened condensed milk. This allows for beginner mistakes while still making good fudge that is almost a fail-proof method and guarantees a finished product which is smooth and creamy to the taste.

The difference in a good batch of fudge versus a poorly made batch is the final texture, which should feel smooth with no grainy feel to it. This is achieved in controlling the crystallization of the sugar solution during the cooking process by stirring the mixture constantly.

If the candy-maker is experienced in making fudge, the use of cocoa powder provides an old-fashioned taste and dense texture of true fudge. The ambient temperature and humidity will play a role in the success or lack there of, when making fudge.

Fudge is a very rich candy that is usually cut into one inch square serving sizes and oftentimes contains nuts such as walnuts or pecans which are added last before pouring the mixture into a casserole dish. Allow the fudge to cool completely before cutting. This old-fashioned candy is mostly associated with holidays like Thanksgiving and especially Christmas time.

Hot fudge is heated, making it less viscous. It is made using chocolate and then poured normally over ice cream or other dessert.

Chocolate: even just the word can bring a smile to most individual’s faces. Images of rich, sweet desserts and the thick, gooey goodness of melted chocolate cause many a mouth to water. Where did this wonder of culinary delight come from? The origins and history of chocolate is as rich as the finest triple chocolate cake.

When studying the history of chocolate, one must understand the terminology; “cacao” refers to the actual plant and its bean prior to processing, “chocolate” refers to all products made from the bean, while “cocoa” refers to chocolate in its powdered form, with the exception being the British term “cacao” used instead of “cocoa”. Some still believe the best term for chocolate to be “Theobroma cacao”, the Latin name for the cacao tree, which means “food of the gods”.

The birth date of chocolate is a point argued over by modern historians, with many estimating its existence for approximately 2000 years, while others estimate its use to be between three and four thousand years. Recently, the findings of cacao residue on excavated pottery from Honduras were published by anthropologists of the University of Pennsylvania. These new findings of the cacao could date back to as early as 1400 B.C. Despite the difficulty of tracing the specific date of origin, one fact remains obvious; it was considered a precious commodity from the beginning.

But how did the small cacao bean become the international star that chocolate is today? Consumed only as a drink, both the Mayans and Aztecs believed chocolate to have divine or magical properties, and both cultures used it during religious and royal events with cacao seeds being offered to the gods while the liquid form was served during sacred ceremonies. With the arrival of European explorers to the Americas, chocolate was introduced to Europe. While the Aztecs drank the bitter chocolate with honey and sweet flowers on occasion, it wasn’t until it was introduced in Europe that the addition of refined sugar and milk lightened and sweetened chocolate. This sweetening caused the Europeans to primarily use chocolate as a dessert or sweet product.

Chocolate continued to be processed into a liquid until the early 19th century when a chemist in Holland developed what is now called “Dutch cocoa”, by designing a process that removed half the fat from chocolate liquor, pulverized the remainder and then use alkaline salts to reduce the bitter taste. The process also created the product of cacao butter which was the fat removed from the chocolate liquor. It was this development that led the way to solid chocolate. In 1847, century a process of adding the melted cacao butter back into the Dutch cocoa formed a paste that could be molded, and led to the modern chocolate bar. Only a short twenty years later, Cadbury, a small company in England was earning a reputation with the production of boxes of chocolate candies and Nestle; another small company led the market in introducing milk chocolate.

With the Industrial Revolution, came more production, development, transportation and consumption of chocolate products, and the world became its market. During the 20th century the mass production of chocolate products and the word itself was altered to include products containing more additives than cacao. However, this world wide chocolate industry is now experiencing a “revolution” with consumers and manufacturers having an increase of interest in higher quality, and handmade chocolates that is sure to continue the luxurious history of chocolate.