Sugar High 6.13.08
Today was round 2 of factory tours…we started out by driving to Fairfield for the Jelly Belly tour. I was a little disappointed as most of the factory was shut down for cleaning but nonetheless, we were able to see other candies being packaged. The tour itself was very informative & fascinating. The factory was HUGE and there were lots of cool things to see like the robots dancing & the jelly belly pictures. The pictures are made of 100% jelly beans – up to 1 million of them – and can take 4 months to create. Back downstairs, we were able to sample all the jelly beans we cared to & purchase products. We bought some ‘Belly Flops’, Jelly Belly’s that didn’t make the cut because of shape (too big, too small, two together, etc) or color. There were lots of people there & the tour left about every 15 minutes with groups of about 30. The history of the company was interesting too! They started with one of my favorite candies…candy corn.
They were promoting a new product called ‘Bean Boozled’…where there were disgusting flavors that were made to look like normal yummy flavors, in the same box. You could get lucky biting into a turquoise one and get Berry Blue…or you could be bean boozled and get toothpaste. Not too bad…but there were worse ones! For instance…skunk spray, vomit, ear wax, black pepper, rotten eggs, moldy cheese, booger, & pencil shavings. Yuck!! I’d hate to be the scientist trying to figure out how these things taste!! I asked for samples of the bean boozled ones and only got through the vomit one before calling it quits for the day.
We left Fairfield and went to Berkeley for lunch. I had read about a great salad & sandwich place just off the UCB campus and was not disappointed. The area was…interesting!! A mix of college students, locals, & wackos. Outside the bar next door was a man dressed in a monkey suit eating a banana, a culinary management student asking people to fill out questionnaires, and all along the street were vendors selling tie-dye clothes, jewelry, bumper stickers, & books. The stores ranged from quaint café’s bars, head shops, clothing stores to anti-establishment book stores. It was very interesting and almost as entertaining as the airport!
From there we went to the Sharffen Berger Chocolate Factory for their tour. Mmmm….Chocolate….a subject near & dear to my heart. The best tour of the 3 – it was incredibly informative. The guide walked us through the entire process of making chocolate from growing the cacao bean, harvesting, fermenting, shipping…and that’s just the beginning! We got to walk around the factory…but again, they were not in production mode as they work ½ days on Friday. Bummer. The tour was made much sweeter by the 4 samples of chocolates we enjoyed. And of course, we purchased some to enjoy on our trip. The guides were incredibly informative & could answer any question thrown their way. This tour is highly recommended if coming to Berkeley/San Francisco.
They were promoting a new product called ‘Bean Boozled’…where there were disgusting flavors that were made to look like normal yummy flavors, in the same box. You could get lucky biting into a turquoise one and get Berry Blue…or you could be bean boozled and get toothpaste. Not too bad…but there were worse ones! For instance…skunk spray, vomit, ear wax, black pepper, rotten eggs, moldy cheese, booger, & pencil shavings. Yuck!! I’d hate to be the scientist trying to figure out how these things taste!! I asked for samples of the bean boozled ones and only got through the vomit one before calling it quits for the day.
We left Fairfield and went to Berkeley for lunch. I had read about a great salad & sandwich place just off the UCB campus and was not disappointed. The area was…interesting!! A mix of college students, locals, & wackos. Outside the bar next door was a man dressed in a monkey suit eating a banana, a culinary management student asking people to fill out questionnaires, and all along the street were vendors selling tie-dye clothes, jewelry, bumper stickers, & books. The stores ranged from quaint café’s bars, head shops, clothing stores to anti-establishment book stores. It was very interesting and almost as entertaining as the airport!
From there we went to the Sharffen Berger Chocolate Factory for their tour. Mmmm….Chocolate….a subject near & dear to my heart. The best tour of the 3 – it was incredibly informative. The guide walked us through the entire process of making chocolate from growing the cacao bean, harvesting, fermenting, shipping…and that’s just the beginning! We got to walk around the factory…but again, they were not in production mode as they work ½ days on Friday. Bummer. The tour was made much sweeter by the 4 samples of chocolates we enjoyed. And of course, we purchased some to enjoy on our trip. The guides were incredibly informative & could answer any question thrown their way. This tour is highly recommended if coming to Berkeley/San Francisco.
More to follow!
Rene
P.S. We originally scheduled these tours on the end of our trip to San Fran, but adjusted the dates which threw them to the beginning of the trip. No need to rearrange…that’s how they ended up 1st! FYI…
posted by Rene & Michael at
9:08 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home