Triple Chocolate Liquor Mill
date: label: date made
content: ca 1918
name: label: maker
content: J. M. Lehmann Machine Works
notes: label: Description
content: There are many stages in the process of making a luscious bar of milk chocolate from dried and roasted cocoa beans. This machine, a chocolate liquor mill used in the Hershey chocolate factory from about 1920 to the late 1970s, was critical in the early stages of the process. Between heated stones, the mill ground the "nibs," or cracked cores of the cocoa beans, melting the cocoa butter contained inside. The resulting liquefied cocoa butter and ground nibs produced a mixture called "chocolate liquor," (a liquor with no alcoholic content). Unsweetened chocolate liquor is very bitter, and, while normally it isn't eaten as is, it can be used in the production of certain food products or sold as baking chocolate. To make "eating chocolate," like that in candy bars, the chocolate liquor requires many more additives, as well as the processes of mixing, refining, and conching.
label: Description
content: Milton Snavely Hershey's (1857-1945) road to becoming the most recognized name in the American chocolate industry was neither smooth nor entirely sweet. After failing at the confectionary business in Philadelphia, Denver, and New York, Hershey moved back to his hometown of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and began a business making caramel candies. While the company enjoyed modest success, Hershey was continually experimenting with new products.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: New York
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Food Technology
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content: Food
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content: Work
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content: Industry & Manufacturing
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of the Hershey Foods Corporation
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1980.0021.01
label: accession number
content: 1980.0021
label: catalog number
content: 1980.0021.01
objectType: label: Object Name
content: triple chocolate liquor mill
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: cast iron (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: stone (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 93 in x 132 in x 41 in; 236.22 cm x 335.28 cm x 104.14 cm