International sales are increasing 65 percent per year and account for 25 percent of the company's total business. Da Vinci is the state's second-largest user of bottles, after Chateau St. Michelle, Ging said. The bottles are vacuumed clean before moving along a conveyor belt to be filled with colorful streams of syrup. The aroma of fruit mixes with the scent of chocolate in the production room. Employees dare visitors to come up with a flavor they don't make.
Bottles are capped and covered with a tamper-resistant seal.
Labels listing the ingredients in the proper language are glued on. The filled bottles are then repacked in the same box they arrived in, ready for shipping. Starbucks carries Da Vinci in Korea, Harrods department store sells it in England, The Hard Rock Caf offers Da Vinci in Singapore. Most Da Vinci syrups are 50 percent sugar. Firty-pound bags of sugar fill one section of the plant, piled to the ceiling.