Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Anthony Thomas Candy Factory Tour

My brother John flew from Philly to spend a couple days here to visit and to assist with adding a bunch of lighting to my kitchen. I have always been a bit upset with how little light there is in my kitchen, doubly bad because I do a lot of cooking. John and I spent two days on the kitchen and now there are tons of lights. I will show them off in a future post.

I am between jobs this week, so I have more free time than usual to do interesting things. I have watched more movies than normal, done some cooking, and worked on cleaning the house. Today John and I headed over to the Anthony-Thomas Candy Company for a factory tour. The factory is about 10 miles from my house and they are the source of many of the buckeye candies we eat during college football season. The company has been around since 1952.

The factory tour lasts about an hour and largely consists of walking on a high catwalk over the production floor. Today was a bit of a slow day in the factory, but we did see the making of peanut butter easter eggs from the mixing of the peanut butter dough to the final packaging. The factory is clean and packed with big machines. Lots of chocolate is around on various pallets waiting to be packaged. They do not allow photos inside the factory, so unfortunately I can not post any action shots.

Me with what may be the worlds largest buckeye candy. It is 235 pounds and can be yours for only $3,500.

From the website, "Walk along our comfortable, glass-enclosed suspended "Cat-Walk" and observe eight lines producing 25,000 pounds of chocolates per shift. Our experienced tour guides explain each process step-by-step, from our kitchens to the final packaging. View interesting sights such as our huge copper kettles where the centers are created, and our unique silver wrapped pipes that carry liquid chocolate throughout the factory. The tour finishes in our beautiful 2,500 square-foot retail shoppe. Our free Open House Factory Tours are every Tuesday and Thursday from 9:30 am. to 2:30 pm. "

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