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Triple Chocolate Liquor Mill

National Museum of American History

Object Details

J. M. Lehmann Machine Works
Description
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.
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.
Location
Currently not on view
Credit Line
Gift of the Hershey Foods Corporation
ca 1918
ID Number
1980.0021.01
accession number
1980.0021
catalog number
1980.0021.01
Object Name
triple chocolate liquor mill
Physical Description
cast iron (overall material)
stone (overall material)
Measurements
overall: 93 in x 132 in x 41 in; 236.22 cm x 335.28 cm x 104.14 cm
place made
United States: New York
See more items in
Work and Industry: Food Technology
Food
Work
Industry & Manufacturing
National Museum of American History
Record ID
nmah_1301429
Metadata Usage (text)
CC0
GUID (Link to Original Record)
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746ab-e478-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa

Related Content

  • Cocoa and Chocolate

Triple-chocolate liquor mill (in storage)
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IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and media viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. Visit the IIIF page to learn more.
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