The Hershey Company, known until April 2005 as the Hershey Foods Corporation and commonly called Hershey’s, is one of the largest chocolate manufacturers in North America.
Its headquarters are in Hershey, Pennsylvania, which is also home to Hershey’s Chocolate World.
It was founded by Milton S. Hershey in 1894 as the Hershey Chocolate Company, a subsidiary of his Lancaster Caramel Company. Hershey’s products are sold in over 60 countries worldwide.
Hershey’s products are sold in over 60 countries worldwide. In addition, Hershey is a member of the World Cocoa Foundation. It is also associated with the Hersheypark Stadium and the Giant Center.
It was around the year 2002 that I was a truck driver for a company called LCL Bulk Transit, it was a food grade tanker company. They basically hauled cream from creameries around the United States as well as hauling a LOT of liquid chocolate.
I hauled a LOT of chocolate from the Hershey company all over the United States. And because of being around 1,000’s of gallons of chocolate daily I became sick of chocolate.
The liquid chocolate was loaded into the tanker and it was already sweetened and ready to eat, well you would need to it to cool down tremendously before trying to eat it.
The truck and tanker were equipped with lines that would circulate edible anti-freeze that of course was hot from going through the engine in the truck. And also where we loaded and unloaded were equipped with steam lines to keep the chocolate from hardening up. The tank trailers were insulated as well.
The tank had its own pump allowing for the unloading process to happen anywhere. Most places would pull the truck and trailer inside a heated building to load and unload, but a few places we had to unload outside, by running a hose through the wall and connecting it to a storage tank.
Once the tank was empty either the driver or an employee would take a huge squeegee and “scrape” the heal left in the tank to get a few more 100’s of pounds. After everything was unhooked and hoses put away – unless it was a dedicated tank to that one factory we would head to a food grade tank wash…
AND they charge the company “heal charges” if there was very much residue left in the tank. I have seen it cost upwards of around $7000.00 just in “heal charges”.
Sometimes we could get some of the chocolate that would ooze from the outlet valve and save it and take it home. That was a “sweet” perk of that job. One thing I found funny was while unloading outside and the hose running through the wall into the factory – I don’t know how many people walking by would stop and ask me if I was hauling sewage.
© 2017 All Rights Reserved Paul Cox
Fascinating. We were in Hershey one time and I was dying to go through the factory, but we would have had to wait too long for the next tour and my husband wanted to drive on. Love your story.
Thank you for reading and commenting. I was never actually inside where they made the candy bars and things – but it sure is a fascinating place for sure. I think I liked most about going there is the fact that the road actually divides Hershey’s Chocolate World the amusement park part.
Cool essay, interesting read.
Thanks for reading and commenting