The "The Sweetest Shoppe In Lancaster: Part II" Story

It was an ordinary day.  My wife and I are standing in the Miesse Candy Company factory watching the 42 1/2 foot enrober send the last of the peanut butter dollops coated with fondant through the chocolate bath.  The smell is heaven to our senses and our taste buds seem to come alive just watching the candy pieces pass under the cascade of milk chocolate.  The factory employes eight people who manufacture candy the old-style way ... by hand, using all natural ingredients such as pure vanilla, real butter and fresh cream.  

The last of the fondant-covered peanut
butter dollops pass into the chocolate
coating section of the enrober.

The enrober seems to be the life-blood of the factory, producing all the different types of candies that have to be chocolate coated.  The lead end of the enrober features a feeding system that forces the "filling" or center of the chocolate piece through a variety of molds by way of a series of serrated rollers, onto the enrober belt which in turn takes the "filling" across a station where it will receive a coating of chocolate on the bottom.  It then travels to the next station where it is once again coated on the bottom and as well as a coating from above.  After exiting this unit a worker can add a twist with a hand tool to the top, if desired.  Then it enters a cooling system that will harden the chocolate coating until it exits the enrober belt 17 minutes after it started.  Packing into boxes is hand done and then the candy is placed in a refrigeration unit until it is needed for packaging for the customer.  The packing takes place on a large wheel called the Packing Wheel.  Our tour guide for the day is Tracy who started working for Miesse in April of 2010 and purchased the company on January 1, 2011.  She worked as a part-time employee before she heard that the company was struggling and decided to buy it.  A devastating fire in 2006 took it's toll on some of the equipment as well as the building on Lafayette Street in the city where the company was housed at that time.  

Owner Tracy stands next to the Packing Wheel which is where
 the candy boxes are filled with a variety of candy treats.

Much of the equipment Tracy is using has been with the company for years. The enrober, copper kettles, chocolate melting pots, dipping bowls, caramel cooker and marble-cutting table all survived the fire and are still in use.  The enrober was purchased in 1962 with only one of the cookers purchased since that time.  The chocolate that is used comes from nearby Wilbur Chocolate Company in Lititz, PA.  Their 10 pound bars are used, but in a variety of different formulas.  The fondant, or sweet icing, that is used in some of their candies is an in-house recipe rather than a purchased product.  Miesse's Candies has over 1,000 candy molds which they use to make their solid animal shaped lollipops and hollow chocolate treats such as bunnies, peeps and footballs.  

Some of the many items that are made in the candy molds.
These decorated boxes are cast in either metal or plastic
molds and then the tops and bottoms are placed together.

Miesse's makes close to 175 varieties of candy, many being the chocolate coated candies that come from their enrober such as chocolate coated pretzels, chocolate covered caramels, chocolate coated bacon, chocolate coated cherries, chocolate coated licorice … get the idea?  After Carol and I finished our factory tour we were given a small box of treats to take home and share.  Our favorite was the sea-salt chocolate coated caramels.  The sea salt added another dimension to the chocolate caramel treat.  I'm going to have to make a trip to the new Miesse store that is within walking distance of my home for more of the caramels.  The store is located at 2065 Fruitville Pike in Lancaster, PA.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

PS - I must admit that the chocolate coated licorice was mentioned by Tracy's cousin Ron whom I went to Millersville University with and is the handy-man around the factory.  He relayed to my wife that he at times lays a piece or two of his favorite licorice on the enrober to have it chocolate coated just for him.  Following are the photos I snapped during our tour of the Miesse Chocolate Company's factory. Enjoy!

This is the head of the enrober where raw material can be forced through the patterns by means of the serrated rollers.  The heart shaped pieces in this case will drop onto the cream colored belt. 

Here Tracy stands at the first coating station where the bottoms of the candy will receive a coating of chocolate.  

The candy travels by belt through the next coating station where it gets a second coating on the bottom and is draped with a coating from the top.

As the chocolates come through the coater, Becky places a slight twirl on the top of each candy.  This is one of the many processes that is done by hand in this factory.

Here Sarah removes the candy from the cooling end of the enrober and stacks it in boxes.

The candy boxes are stored in this storage area where the temperature is 55 degrees with 50% humidity   From here the boxes of candy are placed on the Packing Wheel for filling boxes of candy for customers.

This is a Savage Bros. caramel cooker.  A large copper kettle is placed on the circular unit on the left and ingredients are placed in the kettle to make the caramel.  The beater bars are lowered to stir the ingredients.  Natural gas is used to heat the ingredients when being made.  In this photo there is a round stone over the place where the copper kettle would be placed.  It would be removed when the caramel is made.

The result is trays of caramel.

This marble stone is where the caramel is placed for cutting into pieces for the enrober machine.  It at one time was housed in the Conestoga Wagon that was used to deliver candy throughout Lancaster (pictured below).  The marble is extremely heavy.

Miesse Candies used to deliver their candies to customers using this six-horse pulled Conestoga Wagon.  Inside was the marble slab pictured above that was used to place the caramel on for cutting for the customers.  This photo was taken in center square of Lancaster, PA.

Here Sarah drains chocolate from the melting pot where the chocolate is formulated.  

She uses that chocolate to fill the coating part of the enrober.

This is Becky putting fondant on the peanut butter dollops.  The fondant is a sugary coating that is placed on certain candies.  The fondant is heated to make it liquid for coating purposes.

Some of the pieces that were poured or cast in molds.  The mold is sealed, liquid chocolate is poured into the mold and allowed to harden for a specified time, then the excess is poured out. After the chocolate has hardened, the mold is taken apart and the candy is released from the mold.

Here is a white chocolate bunny that has been poured into a plastic mold.  It is hollow, but a bottom is added to this one.  Liquid chocolate is poured on a slab and the mold, after being formed, is placed on top of the liquid chocolate so it hardens to the bottom of the mold.  The two sides of the mold will then be removed. 

Here Jayne is decorating chocolate lollipops with ribbon.  Labor intensive procedures makes Miesse Candies a true treat.

Some of the packaged molded chocolate pieces in the store next to the factory at 118 North Water Street in downtown Lancaster, PA.

This box was filled with sample treats given to us by the factory.  We finished them within an hour of returning home, before I had a remembered to take a photo of them.  Our favorites were the sea-salt chocolate-coated caramels in both dark and milk chocolate.  Unbelievable!!