All language subtitles for Modern.Marvels.S21E04.Food.Chocolate.1080p.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H264-BTN_track3_[eng]

- It can be enjoyed as
a solid or as a liquid.

It can be served hot, cold,
room temperature, or frozen.

It's an essential part
in religious rights,

holiday traditions,
even romantic gestures.

And, when placed into a box
it can serve as a metaphor

for the uncertainty
of life itself.

But today, unlike life itself,

I know exactly what I'm
going to get, chocolate.

Even though the United
States has less than 5%

of the world's population,

it consumes close to 20%
of the world's chocolate.

The United States eats almost
100 pounds of chocolate

every second of every day.

And chocolate
generates $100 billion

in worldwide revenues per year.

Whether it comes in a
truffle, a cup of hot cocoa,

or a scoop of ice cream,

nothing compares to the decadent
indulgence of chocolate.

And today, we're doing a
deep dive on chocolate candy.

Where does the word
chocolate come from?

What are some of
the bizarre foods

that people coat in chocolate?

And how did Milton
Hershey revolutionize

the way we enjoy this
beloved sweet treat?

How does this
chocolate economy work?

How does the tropical fruit
grown around the equator

become one of the world's
most beloved sweets?

And how many tiny cocoa
beans does it take

to keep up with this
gigantic demand?

There's only one
way to find out.

This is Modern
Marvels: Chocolate.

[upbeat music]

[upbeat music]

Today, I'm in the
city of brotherly love

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The US's first capital,
home to Independence Hall,

and the Liberty Bell.

For a while, Philadelphia was
one of the most active ports

in the U.S.

Because of that, most
of the cacao beans

entering the United States
during the 19th century

were processed right here.

But a hundred years
before that in 1739,

Benjamin Franklin was selling
chocolate out of his print shop

just a stone's throw
from where I'm standing

on Market Street.

Today, Shane Confectionary
remains the oldest

continuously
operating candy store

in the entire United States.

It started right here in
this very building in 1863.

For perspective, that's the
same year that Abraham Lincoln

issued the Emancipation
Proclamation.

I can't wait to
check this place out.

The magic of Shane hits me
the moment I set foot inside.

I'm immediately struck
by the sweet smell

of enticing treats.

This chocolatey scent
has been permeating

every nook and cranny of this
shop since the Civil War.

In fact, this place is so old,

the cash register
hadn't even invented

until long after the first
customers were served.

Today, we're going
to be learning

some delicious
chocolate secrets.

I feel like I've been
handed a golden ticket

and the wizard behind it all,

is head chocolate
maker Kevin Paschall.

- This building and this block

have a ton of really, really
rich confectionary history.

I mean, Philadelphia
as a whole does.

Part of the mission
of this establishment

is to kinda highlight
that history.

- [Adam] Philadelphia's
chocolate connection

reaches back to the 18th century
when chocolate was touted

by elite citizens like
Dr. Benjamin Rush,

a physician and
politician who signed

the Declaration of Independence.

Rush, promoted drinking
chocolate not just as a treat,

but as treatment for smallpox.

- The current owners got
here not all that long ago.

And we had only started
making bean-to-bar chocolate

about six years ago
here in this space.

- [Adam] Making bean-to-bar
chocolate means that Shane

takes raw cocoa beans
and handcrafts them

into their prized,
small batch chocolate.

- So, these beans come
to us from Columbia

from a region called Tumaco.

Then it works
really, really well

because it's got a big
fat chocolate backbone.

The batch that we're
gonna do today

is gonna be about
a hundred pounds.

And the way that we start them
literally is just by hand.

I'm gonna spread out
a scoop full of beans

onto this grate here.

- That must be so time
consuming for you guys.

- I can do it
pretty quickly and-

- Now you're just bragging.

[Kevin laughs]

Big brand chocolate
companies have machines

that can sort hundreds of
pounds of beans in minutes

but Shane prefers the
hands-on approach.

- Sorting by hand
really gives us

a little bit of a connection
to what we're doing in a way.

To really start at the beginning
with the raw cocoa bean.

It gives people sort of a window

into the building
blocks of chocolate.

So you're looking for beans

that are really, really
tiny, beans that are flat.

- I expected these to
smell like chocolate.

That fudgy, cocoaey smell,

but it actually,

it has the stringency
that's similar to soap

or a cleaning product or
vinegar kind of thing.

Is that okay?

Is there something
wrong with these beans

or is that expected?

- No, I'd say that's
pretty normal.

And that's one of the things
that's sort of a by-product

of fermentation.

These beans are fermented
before they come to us.

And that fermentation imparts
a good amount of the aroma

that we smell pre-roast.

- [Adam] Pre-roast and even
before getting to Shane,

cocoa beans have to be
grown, then fermented.

These treasured beans
grow inside the pods

of the cacao tree.

Cacao trees are native to
Central and South America.

And the earliest known use
of cacao started there.

3000 years ago, people
in modern-day Honduras

were fermenting cacao.

They were likely [chuckles]
trying to make booze,

but stumbled onto
something that to some

is even better, chocolate.

Today we still grow
and ferment cacao

but only in areas 20 degrees
north and south of the equator.

This section is
called the Cacao Belt.

On the upper end of this
belt is a rare chocolate farm

located in the U.S.

- Aloha, my name is Koa.

We're on the lovely
Island of Kauai in Hawaii.

- [Adam] On a pair of
five acre farms

Koa Kahili grows some of the
most well-known types of cacao.

- There are two large
families of cacao

they're called
Criollo and Forastero.

Forastero accounts for about
95% of global production.

- [Adam] Like all cacao,
both Forastero and Criollo

are grown in the Cacao Belt.

But a Forastero is a
really great burger,

then Criollo is more
like a filet mignon,

more rich, more rare, and
more prized for its flavor.

- Criollo beans are
very, very rare.

And the reason is that
they are very susceptible

to diseases and to pests.

- [Adam] Despite
their differences,

all cacao trees bear pods
and inside these pods

are kernels of a
sweet white fruit

which cover the cocoa beans.

- So we're gonna have to
see which ones are ripe

so you do a quick scrape test.

It doesn't hurt the pod
'cause it's really thick.

If it's green it's not ripe.

If it's yellow or
an orange it's ripe.

[upbeat music]

- [Adam] With a fresh haul
of harvested pods in hand,

the next step will
be to crack them open

and remove the beans
for fermentation.

- We're gonna take our wet
beans and put them in the box.

- [Adam] The beans then get
fermented in mahogany crates

packed with banana leaves.

Fermentation changes
the flavor of the bean

from their natural bitterness

to something closer
to the chocolate

that we all know and love.

- [Koa] On the
underside of the leaf

there's this natural yeast.

- [Adam] As the
yeast chumps away

of the sugars of
the white fruit,

it breaks down leaving
behind a brown bean.

- It takes about
a week to ferment.

- [Adam] And a week later
we're ready for the final step,

drying the beans.

- You wanna sun dry them
for about three weeks

until the moisture
content is about 5%.

That you can take
one in your fingers

and crack it like that.

- [Adam] Most farms dried
beans are then packed

and sent to chocolate
makers like Shane

where they're sorted and
ready to get roasted.

[beans rattle]

- What we're gonna do here

is we're gonna load these
onto these perforated trays.

And some folks roast
in a big drum roaster

kinda like the way
you'd see for coffee.

But here we try to
economize on space

by roasting in a
convection oven.

[beans rattle]

[upbeat music]

- So talk to me a little
bit just about roasting.

How does roasting
affect this bean

'cause essentially that's
what we're dealing with, right?

May I touch them again?

- Of course, yes.

So, you can really
express the best qualities

of a given cocoa
through a great roast

and you could take
what otherwise would be

a really delicious bean

and you can kind of kill
its flavor with a bad roast.

And we're still learning
about new varietals.

It's an agricultural product
and it grows out of the ground

and as such-

- [Adam] There's
lots of variation.

- There's natural
differentiation.

Soil conditions,
rainfall, things like that

they might taste
a little different

so we have to adjust our
roasting to compensate for that.

- You're using terms that are
very much the same terms used

with wine when you're
talking about varietals,

and rainfall, soil composition.

So, I think it's
really kinda cool.

The whole roasting process
time-wise start to finish

is how long?

- For this bean
about 40 minutes.

- [Adam] Roasting is the
first step

in bringing out real
chocolate flavor

but it's far from the last.

After the roast, the
beans are cracked open

to separate the
paper-like outer shell

from the chocolatey inner nibs.

The nibs get fed into a grinder

where they're ground into
this shiny fudgy goo.

That fudgy liquid gets mixed
with sugar and cocoa butter

to sweeten and fatten it
for its transformation

into chocolate candy.

The sweetened molten chocolate
is set into solid blocks

that Shane ages for
two whole months.

Finally, the aged
chocolate is melted down

and cooled repeatedly

because this step ensures
that once it's molded,

it's a shiny bar of
chocolatey goodness.

And the first hint
of that magical bar

at the end of the
road starts right here

with our freshly roasted beans.

I know these are hot but
may I try one of these?

- Yeah, absolutely. Just
watch you don't burn yourself.

- Alright, whoo.

- And we're just gonna kind of

in your hand you're gonna
just kind of crack it up.

You can kind of peel
that outer husk off.

- [Adam] That's the actual
cocoa bean right here.

- And you're left, exactly,
you're left with the inner nib.

- [Adam] So this is all the
husk and this is bean.

It's crazy there's really
none of that vinegary smell

remaining at all.

[upbeat music].

Wow.

- [Adam] The history of
chocolate candy is littered

with iconic brand names
like the Baby Ruth bar.

This block of milk chocolate,
nougat, caramel, and peanuts,

was originally
called the Kandy Kake

but was renamed in 1921.

The same year a
certain New York Yankee

was at the height of his fame.

This sweet treat also happens
to be a childhood favorite

of a certain Yankee
fan, yours truly.

In my experience a Baby
Ruth can help fix everything

from a skinned knee, to a
broken heart [chuckles] .

Just the thought of a Baby
Ruth has me feeling like a kid

in a candy store, which
is exactly where I am.

At Shane, I'm getting my first
taste of chocolate delight.

May I try one of these?

- Yeah, absolutely. Just
watch you don't burn yourself.

[upbeat music]

- A little floral, the
flavor's a little bit

like that corner brownie
where it touches the pan.

- Right, right.

So it's that fudge but more
of a char to it and it has a-

- You taste a
little bit of roast?

- Yeah that roast,

and there's a little bit of
like a chicory coffee note

a campfire coffee note.

It's remarkable that
just time and temperature

have taken this organic thing

and brought out whole new
characteristics of it.

- [Kevin] That's true.
- Wow.

Well, we've unlocked new
flavors in this chocolate,

it turns out we're just
scratching the surface.

- Chocolate is a really,
really complex foods.

There's hundreds of chemical
compounds in chocolate

that give it a
lot of complexity.

- [Adam] In fact, over
600 flavor compounds

have been found in chocolate

making it one of the most
complex foods on earth.

- And it is the complexity
of chocolate flavor

that lends itself to a
lot of different uses

beyond simple chocolate bars.

- [Adam] Some of these uses
include using chocolate

to coat things that are
a little unconventional.

- We normally think of it
as something only in dessert

something that's sweet,

but it's a huge
applications in savories.

- Like bacon, potato
chips, and popcorn.

- Chocolate can go with
so many different things.

It really can coat porcini
mushrooms, and shrimp,

and all sorts of delicious
and bizarre things.

- And when you come into other
cultures, all bets are off.

- There's several
makers in Brazil

and all over South America
really who are making things

with worms, and
ants, and crickets.

- You're gonna find scorpions,

grasshopper's really common in
Mexico for many, many years.

So insects and
chocolate are huge.

That lends itself to what
can't you cover it with?

The only thing that
gets in your way

when you think about what
chocolate might cover,

is how squeamish you are.

- Over at Shane, the next step
is to crack these beans open.

- Now that the rest of the
beans and nice and cool,

- [Adam] Uh-huh.

- I'm gonna dump them on into
the Winnower just like this.

[beans rattle]

Should I do the honors?

- Oh, please do because I
will drop them everyone.

To get out the nibs
inside our entire batch

we'll use a special machine
known as the Winnower.

Alright, so let's
get to winnowing.

Once Kevin loads the
beans into the hopper

and releases a catch, the
Winnower gets to work.

The beans first fall
into the cracker

which has a blade
that will chop them up

into a mix of husks
and dark brown nibs.

The crushed beans then
tumble down a tube

where precise vacuum pressure

will suck up all
the papery husks

leaving behind the solid nibs.

Because the husk is so
much lighter than the nib,

it just automatically
separates it?

- Exactly, yeah.

The heavier nibs will
fall down these tubes

and into the bucket.

And we want the lighter
husks to be sucked back up

and into the vacuum chamber.

Should we fire it up?

- [Adam] Fire it up.

[Winnower squeals]

Like much of the
machinery at Shane

the Winnower here is designed

to handle small batch
chocolate making.

[upbeat music]

But some artisan chocolate
makers [chuckles] go big

like Theo Chocolate in Seattle.

In the 15 years
since their start

Theo has raked in over a dozen

national and
international awards

for their chocolate making.

And they've gone from hand
delivering their chocolates

locally, to booming sales
that have taken their products

coast to coast.

Now, they're one of the
most highly regarded

chocolate makers in the U.S.

And here at their 30,000
square foot chocolate factory,

they deal with sacks
of beans so large

they need industrial lifts
to move them to the roaster.

- Each one of these sacks can
weigh up to a thousand pounds.

[upbeat music]

And this is where they cook.

It's also the reason that
if you come to Seattle

and visit us, there's
a four block radius

around the building where
it smells like brownies.

- [Adam] And once the
beans are done roasting-

- [Man] There we go.

- [Adam] They're
released into a tank

where they're
rotated and cooled.

- This is what 600 pounds
of cacao beans look like.

There's a little hole in
the bottom of this tank,

the beans go through the hole,

up into this machine
the Winnower.

- [Adam] This towering structure
here is Theo's Winnower.

- The beans enter through
that top compartment,

they get hit by a steel
plate so they shatter,

and then move down
the staircase.

As each nib hits each level,

these silver boxes are vacuums

and those vacuums are
sucking up the shell.

- [Adam] The high-tech machinery
at this Washington factory

helps Theo pump out 70,000
pounds of chocolate every week.

But human ingenuity
is also at play.

- At the end of the day,

someone is here checking
the temperature,

someone is here
tasting the nibs,

and seeing if we need
to modify anything.

So even though machines
are helping us out,

it's still relying
upon a human there

to make sure we can
make the right product.

- [Adam] And this human
touch is equally essential

at small batch shops like Shane.

The nibs here might not weigh
in at 600 pounds a batch.

- [Kevin] That all looks
pretty clean to me.

- But it's the
taste that counts.

[Winnower squeals]

So these right here, the
meat of the bean as it were,

is just pure cacao nib.

[upbeat music]

It's funny 'cause I was looking
for a very chocolatey taste

but it's much more
like a roasted flavor,

but then there's
like that back note

of a dark chocolate and
almost like red fruit,

like a dark cherry, a
blackberry kinda note to it.

- And it's really amazing
you'll see what refining does.

It really will pull
that chocolate note out

and kinda like mellow out some
of those other higher notes.

Now that we've
finished winnowing,

these are pretty much
ready to start refining.

- Refining the nibs means
throwing them into a machine

called the melanger and crushing
them into a chocolatey goo.

Mh, just saying that
makes my mouth water.

Alright, so the melanger
is the next step?

- That's right, yes, so
let's head on over there.

- Show me the way brother.

- Alright.

At the oldest candy
shop in the U.S.

chocolate making
can be a real grind.

It usually takes 24 hours

to crush cocoa nibs into
this vat of chocolaty liquid,

but lucky for us Kevin's
got a batch from yesterday

ready for our tasting pleasure.

All right, this is remarkable.

This is just nib, correct?.

- [Kevin] That's right.

- You haven't added any
oil or anything to this?

- [Kevin] No,
nothing up my sleeve.

- [Adam] That's right.

This melty liquid is
just pure cacao nib

ground up and heated
down to a rich liquid

by the friction
inside the Melanger.

- The way this works basically

is these are big granite wheels

and they're rolling
on a granite base.

They're in contact
at the bottom there

and we control the
amount of pressure

that's being applied to them.

- [Adam] Using stone
to grind chocolate

isn't a modern innovation.

- The Olmecs and the Toltecs

were Maya cultures
in Mesoamerica

and they are believed to be
the first culture to cultivate

and to start breeding the cacao.

Nobody knows why, but one
of the theories is that

there weren't a whole lot of
stimulants growing natively

and so they would
have consumed it.

It would have made
them feel energized

like drinking a cup of coffee

and that some of the substances
actually get you high

and they would have used it as
part of their sacred rituals.

- So the Olmecs past
cacao onto the Mayans

and cacao is really important
to the Mayans as well.

- The name chocolate is derived
from a Mayan word xocolatl

which literally
means bitter water.

- [Adam] This bitter
water was a drink

made by mixing ground
cacao and water

and it's use didn't
end with the Mayans.

- The Aztecs use chocolate
for a variety of things.

They would give it to people

before they were
sacrificed to the gods

and it was supposed
to give them courage.

- [Adam] That definitely
redefines the phrase,

death by chocolate.

- There's a really
famous story of

Montezuma drinking
50 jars of chocolate

at the end of this big
ceremony and banquet

and then going off to his harem.

- I'm not sure if I can put away

50 jars of Shane's bitter water,

but there's only
one way to find out.

Is this creamy?

- [Kevin] Well you could
take a taste if you like.

- [Adam] I would
like to very much.

- [Kevin] Yeah I mean,

at this point it's
completely unsweetened there.

So, it's going to be a
little on the bitter side.

- [Adam] Got it, okay.

[chuckling]

Whoa.

Here's the thing, right.

It's not bad.

It's just the richest
single bite of food

I may have ever eaten.

I wouldn't want to make it
seem at all to you guys at home

like it was yucky.

It's chocolate,
but the most pure,

most intense chocolate flavor
I can possibly think of.

That's like the
soul of chocolate.

So we're going to add sugar

and this is cocoa butter
that you've melted?

- [Kevin] That's right.

It's about 8% cocoa
butter added to the system

in addition to the naturally
occurring cocoa butter

within the beans.

- [Adam] So now the elements

that we all love about
chocolate, the creaminess

and the sweetness
we now get to add.

So which do we add first?

So all the cocoa
butter can go in now.

We're gonna add the
sugar kind of gradually.

- [Adam] Okay.

- [Kevin] So I'm gonna
go ahead and dump this.

So you see now how the
texture is really liquidy.

In a second we're gonna
start adding sugar

and that's gonna
tighten it back up

and then these sugar crystals
are gonna refine down

to microscopic size.

So we're gonna add this
sort of gradually here.

I'm going to put.
- [Adam] Can I do it?

- [Kevin] Yeah,
absolutely, go ahead.

- [Adam] Thanks.

So just slowly?

- [Kevin] Yeah, you can
go ahead and start pouring

'til we feel and hear
the machine start to

kind of slow down a little bit.

I can only imagine
once we add sugar,

this is gonna be absolutely
an explosion of flavor.

- [Kevin] We're refining
and we're conching here.

- [Adam] What is the
definition of conching?

- [Kevin] As the particles

run below the
roller stones there.

- [Adam] Right.

- [Kevin] They're breaking down
and they're getting smaller.

Well, if you look at the
chocolate under a microscope,

generally you're gonna have
a lot of small particles,

but they're going to be
all jagged and misshapen,

but conching kind of
polishes off those surfaces,

nice creamy mouthfeel
that we associated

with really fine chocolate

is the result of
little tiny spheres,

as opposed to little tiny
jagged little pieces.

- [Adam] In some cases,

the particles of chocolate here

can measure nearly
50 times smaller

than a single coffee ground.

- [Kevin] At that point,

those solid particles
are small enough

that we perceive them as just
a creamy uniform mixture.

Once we get all this loaded in,

the next thing we're gonna do

is we're gonna start messing
with the tension a little bit.

So I'm gonna gradually
do this on both sides.

- [Adam] Can we, wait a second.

Let's add some
tense violins, go.

[tense violin music]

I feel the tension in the air.

- [Kevin] We're gonna try
to do this nice and evenly.

- [Adam] More violins,
bring up the strings.

- [Adam] Chocolate.

Just saying the word
conjures up images

of some of our favorite treats

like Reese's chocolate
peanut butter cups,

Snickers bars and M&Ms.

While these sweets
are among the top five

highest selling chocolate
candies in the country,

craft chocolate
makers like Shane

have managed to muscle
into the market.

Annual craft chocolate sales

are growing more
than 20 times faster

than the mainstream competition

and there may be no single
craft chocolate maker

more well-known
than Jacque Torres.

- I have kind of a dream job,
making chocolate for living.

The artistry that you
can do with chocolates.

You can sculpt it.

You can melt it.

You can mold it.

I mean, I just love
to work with it.

- [Adam] An accomplished Chef,

Jacques has built
a chocolate empire

on the strength of his name.

With seven retail
locations in New York City

at a 40,000 square foot
chocolate factory in Brooklyn

that ships to customers
around the country.

With sales approaching
$10 million a year.

It's no wonder Jacques
Nickname is Mr. Chocolate.

The company uses over 150
tons of chocolate annually

and all that chocolatey
goodness gets combined

with an array of
tasty ingredients

to create 300 tons worth
of sweets every year.

- The number one selling
product going to be the bonbon.

- [Adam] In French bon bon,

literally translates
to good good

and it's no wonder they
had to say it twice.

This best-selling
confection has two layers.

On the outside is a
tempered chocolate shell

and on the inside is a
filling called ganache.

Ganache is a blend of melted
chocolate and heavy cream.

To make these decadent
nuggets Jacques uses a machine

that oozes a slow and
steady stream of chocolate.

It's called the enrober

and its magic begins
with ganache filling.

- [Jacques] We're going to
remove some of the filling

from the mixer.

- [Adam] First 24 pounds
of liquid ganache filling

are poured into two
plaques and left to set.

When the liquid filling
has cooled into solid slabs

they're cut into 1600
individual pieces

- [Jacques] And now I'm
putting it into this frame

and I'm going to run that
to the enrobing machine.

- [Adam] The solid
pieces of ganache filling

will run through the enrober

and as they roll by,

the enrober will pour warm
tempered chocolate over them.

- [Jacques] That's why we
call that an enrobing line.

It enrobe whatever
center we put inside.

Then the chocolate go under
a fan to push the excess,

shake a little bit and
go into a cooling tunnel

that's going to
refrigerate the product.

- [Adam] But before
the chocolates

enter the cooling tunnel,
there's one important step.

- Go in between the enrobing
machine and the cooling tunnel.

We have this space.

This is the decoration space.

Sometimes we're going
to work with color,

sometime with texture,
and sometime we design.

- [Adam] For this batch,

as the wet chocolates
pass the decoration space,

assistant production manager,

Rachael Barba lays a
transfer sheet over them.

- [Rachael] This will
transfer the image

onto the surface of the bonbons.

- [Adam] Transfer sheets
are plastic sheets

printed with images
drawn in edible ink.

It's the incredible artistry

of the folks who
shaped these sculptures

that makes them more than
just the tasty sweet.

- When you remove the
transfer sheets here

you get the decoration

that was on the transfer
sheets into the chocolates.

Viola.

- [Adam] The bon bons
at Jacques Torres

wouldn't be out of
place in a museum

if they weren't so tasty

and over at Shane, I'm
getting a sneak peek

at their own delectable
works of art.

This fine, snazzily
dressed gentleman

to my left is Ryan Burley,
one of the owners here.

This is called clear toy candy.

Is that right?

- [Ryan] Yes.

- [Adam] A tradition that
dates to the 18th century,

clear toy candies were
gifted to children

during Easter and Christmas.

Shane keeps this tradition alive

and only makes these
candies during the holidays.

- [Ryan] Cheaply made sugar toys

would obviously
be a kid's dream.

- These days, between
January and Easter,

Cadbury's produces 1.5
million holiday cream eggs

every single day,

but imagine unwrapping a
holiday treat that's also a toy.

- [Ryan] So it's actually
a fairly simple process.

It's three ingredients,
it's sugar, water,

and this is glucose,
confectioner's glucose.

This stuff's not super
easy to work with.

It's thick.

- [Adam] Oh really?

- [Ryan] So we just go
right in with our hands.

- [Adam] Oh, it's
almost like silly putty.

- [Ryan] You're welcome
to get into this if you.

- I wouldn't mind. Should
I put my hand in the water.

- [Ryan] Yeah and then
just dunk it in there.

Here, you can put it into there
just to get a sense of it.

Oh my gosh.

- I have to be it's
such a cool feeling.

It's somewhere between
syrup and like,

I don't know, like
wax or something.

I want to recommend
everyone at home.

Go get yourself some
glucose and play with it.

It is the grooviest thing ever.

- [Ryan] This is the time
for us to wash our hands.

- [Adam] Ever wonder
how lollipops are made.

It's just like this,

except instead of using glucose,

it's corn syrup that gets
boiled with the sugar and water

and then the sweet
sap gets molded,

but instead of a lollipop,
we're using toy candy molds.

Oh wow.

Oh, I love that smell.

It smells like cotton candy.

There's this, oh it's like
a toasted sugar smell.

- [Ryan] It is, it's like
a toasted marshmallow.

- [Adam] Once each mold
is carefully filled

all it takes is a
few minutes rest

before we can start
cracking these babies open.

- Wow, wow.

That's Santa,

Look at that one.

- [Ryan] Nice job.

- [Adam] Look at the
detail on it's face

and the hands and the robe.

- [Ryan] That's a beauty.

- [Adam] And then how
old are these molds?

- [Ryan] They're
probably 125 years old.

- [Adam] Oh man,
come on,

come on man.

That is gorgeous.

I am blown away.

I am legitimately blown away.

- [Ryan] Oh, there's
William Penn.

- [Adam] And for those
of you don't know,

even the name of this state,

Pennsylvania means Penn's Woods.

- [Ryan] We've lost his head.

- [Adam] May I
respectfully here,

can I have William Penn's head?

Can I try it?

- [Ryan] Oh, please.

- And I feel it's
only appropriate

if I'm gonna be in Philadelphia
to have William Penn.

- It's odd, because even
though it's not caramel

it has that butteriness to it.

That is delicious.

All right, let me let this
man get back to his work.

- Let's go and
catch up with Kevin

and let's continue
our chocolate odyssey.

- [Kevin] This batch should
be done at this point.

- [Adam] I'm looking at a
batch of fresh chocolate.

That's been combined with sugar

and cocoa butter into
this luscious concoction.

This looks and smells

like the chocolate I've
been dreaming about.

- [Kevin] We can go ahead and
take a test if you'd like.

- [Adam] I would like.

Get you a little smear here.

So this is our house
dark chocolate blend.

- Alrighty, just give
this a little taste.

This is the droid
I've been looking for.

This is, it's like the
essence of chocolate.

You know, it's so weird,
you put it in your mouth

and you're like, I
guess your mind goes to

any time you've had that
liquid chocolate consistency.

So you think of hot fudge,

or the thing you put in your
milk to make chocolate milk.

That's kind a remarkable,

because I only associate
that creaminess

with milk chocolate

and yet here it is with
this dark chocolate blend.

The difference between milk

and dark chocolate depends
partly on who's making it.

- Dark chocolate
typically contains

at least 30% cocoa solids,
plus cocoa butter, sugar,

and often vanilla.

- [Adam] Cocoa solids are
the tiny solid particles

in ground up liquid chocolate.

Milk chocolate only has
a third of the solids

found in dark chocolate.

- A craft or artisan
milk chocolate

often contains much
more cocoa 35% to 55%

which makes it more expensive,

but also more
intensely flavored.

- [Adam] Expensive chocolate
has roots in history.

- As the 19th
century was advancing

a number of people
get into this business

of making bar chocolate

and it's an expensive
high class kind of snack

for the elites of Europe.

- [Adam] Europeans mainly drank
chocolate refined with sugar

until the industrial revolution

and by the beginning
of the 20th century,

Milton Hershey
sought to find a way

to bring this elite
treat to the masses.

- By 1900, he spends some
time trying to figure out,

okay how do I make
milk chocolate?

He wants to keep the
stuff cheap and available.

So how do you make
chocolate cheap?

Chocolate's expensive.

No matter how you cut it,
chocolate's expensive.

You have to import it.

You have to grind it.

What's cheap is sugar and milk.

He's in the middle of dairy
country in Pennsylvania

and so he founds this town
called Hershey Pennsylvania.

Builds a giant factory and
starts producing Hershey's bars.

- Milton Hershey's genius
is that he figured out

how to make chocolate affordable

so that everyone with a
nickel in their pocket

could buy a bar of chocolate

and what this does
is it took chocolate

from being an artisan
handmade product

into a truly industrial product

that everybody in the world
could afford to purchase.

- You know, this idea
of Hershey's chocolate

is synonymous to the
American culture.

These snacks that
we really think of

when we think of chocolate
broadly, are these things

that Hershey's brought
to the American market.

- [Adam] Over a century later,

Hershey's business
model has paid off.

In 2018 they alone
were responsible

for 43% of the total
us chocolate market

and they produce affordable
chocolate candies

at a staggering rate.

70 million Hershey kisses
are made every single day

and all of it happens in the
great state of Pennsylvania

not far from where
I've just had a taste

of Shane's magical chocolate,

but as delicious as
this is it turns out

it's still pretty far
from the final product.

- [Kevin] So once we pull this,

we're going to pull this
batch into a series of blocks

and they're gonna set as
solid blocks of chocolate

and then we're gonna age them
upstairs for about two months

before we go to use them.

- [Adam] What is the
advantage of aging?

Why do we do that?

- [Kevin] So as the
chocolate refines,

those sort of off
flavors are balancing

into that nice
big chocolate note

and then as time passes that
sort of continues to happen.

The flavor becomes a bit
more complex as time goes on.

- [Adam] Do you
have any chocolate

that's already in
the next phase?

- [Kevin] We do.

Upstairs we've got chocolate
that's already blocked up

and ready to go.

So we can temper
and mold that now.

- [Adam] All right,
ready to rock.

After you, sir.

- [Adam] We've reached
the final stretch

of our chocolate marathon.

After sorting, roasting,
winnowing, grinding

and conching our beans

it's time to temper the
blocks of aged chocolate

and mold it up.

First, the blocks
of age chocolate

are melted down in
a special machine.

Soft serve.

- [Kevin] This is our
automatic tempering machine.

Tempering chocolate is basically

the process of
strategically raising

and lowering the temperature.

- [Adam] Repeatedly heating
and cooling the chocolate

strengthens its
chemical structure,

making sure the
hardened chocolate bar

has that classic
shiny appearance.

Do you ever come by and
dunk something in here,

take a marshmallow,
a bipity bip?

- [Kevin] I'll go in for
the occasional taste.

Usually I'll pull the chocolate
out and dip out of that

so I'm not contaminating
the rest of the system here.

- Okay, fair enough.

That's disgusting on my part.

- I have a pastry bag here.

We fill up some
tempered chocolate

and then we'll take it over
there and mold some stuff.

How's that sound?

- Lets.

Shane sculpts their chocolate
into all sorts of shapes.

So when Kevin asked me
to pick out today's mold,

I hopped to it.

- [Kevin] All right so.

- [Adam] So.

- [Kevin] You
picked up the frogs

which is one of
my favorite molds.

So how about this?

I'll fill up the
first like two or so

and then I'll hand it back
off and you can do a few.

- [Adam] Sure.
- [Kevin] Now check this out.

We're going to fill this up

and then I'm going
to take the mold

give it a couple of good taps

and that's gonna kind of
help the chocolate settle out

and ideally it'll
help some air bubbles

kind of force their
way to the surface.

Why don't you give it a try?

- [Adam] I am terrified.

I feeling I'm gonna
ruin all yours.

- [Kevin] So grab me in there
so it doesn't slide out.

There you go.

- [Adam] So should I
do the other end here?

- [Kevin] How about you
do this row right here.

- [Adam] Okay.

When we began this
truck that odyssey,

Kevin mentioned that
handcrafting chocolate

deepens his connection
with what he makes.

Trying to get that bubble out.

I could see it right up here.

- [Kevin] Yeah.

- [Adam] Teamwork
makes the dream work.

There you go.

I get it.

This batch went
from a pile of beans

to a rich chocolate clay

that I'm sculpting
into a confection

and I cannot wait to taste it.

♪ Oh oh oh

Oh, by the way, let
the record show,

he kept this line to go okay,

here are my
beautifully filled ones

and here are these things

that you've created
that you've created.

- [Kevin] Some of
them look pretty good.

A little bit of practice
you'll get there.

This, we could let it
set up at room temp,

but it'll take a lot longer.

What we're going to do is

we are gonna pop
this in the fridge

for just a couple of minutes
just to get it to set up

and then in just a few minutes
it'll be ready to pop out

and we'll have some frogs.

- [Adam] Let's do it.

- And just
a few minutes later

it's the moment of truth.

All right. I want to see
how the master does it.

That is so cool.

So let's say you were doing
quality control on these.

What are you looking for

before it's
officially considered

worthy of being a
Shane chocolate?

- [Kevin] Well, one thing we
don't want is surface bubbles,

but the great thing
about chocolate is

we can just melt this
down and re temper it

and do it all again.

- [Adam] So we've seen these
chocolates from bean to nib,

to liquor, to conch, to temper

to being piped in to a
somewhat messy fashion by me

and a much cleaner
fashion by you,

but this is really the
one we have followed

truly from bean to froggy bar.

- [Kevin] That's right.

- [Adam] Okay, well, I am
going to take a perfect frog.

I'm going to give my man Kevin
some adequate social distance

that I might put this delicious
amphibian in my face hole.

All right.

That's really fantastic.

You bite into it and
it borders on fudge

or a truffle as you chew it.

I personally have a
deeper appreciation

having tasted at
different phases.

You know, we've been
talking about varietals,

talking about fermentation

that I think much
like a great wine

there should be complexity

and I guess I've
always just sort of

taken chocolate for
granted as chocolatey.

It's creamy, it's sweet.

It's chocolate, chocolate
tastes like chocolate

and this it's superb.

It is truly superb.

If you're ever in the
city of brotherly love

may I recommend the frog.

Chocolate has been around
for thousands of years

with the way that people
love and consume chocolate

it's gonna be around for
a thousand years more.

Yeah, we all love chocolate,

but hopefully after
today's deep dive

into this mouthwatering
modern Marvel

you have a deeper appreciation
for this fudgy phenomenon.

I know I do.

In fact, I'm going to
express my appreciation

in the tastiest way
possible with one more bite.