His Story Left a Mark

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This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of The Hershey Company. All opinions are 100% mine.

I have been a chocolate fan for as long as I can remember. I suppose that means my entire life. I have never really thought much about it until recently, but when I think of a chocolate bar, I think of the dark brown wrapper with silver letters: HERSHEY’S. The bar that once opened is twelve squares making the softest click when separated. The bar that I pop one square at a time into my mouth and let it melt. Slowly. And to think, this confection creation almost did not happen. And the fact that it has remained a part of history for more than 100 years, inspires me. Have you guessed? If you live in Hershey, Pennsylvania you know the stories. Your family, or someone you know, has likely worked for The Hershey Company or been touched by Milton Hershey in one way or another. Down here in Texas we just see it as a candy bar. A few weeks back I had the pleasure of meeting with the Hershey archivist, Pam Whitenack. The history of the confectioner who revolutionized milk chocolate inspired and amazed me! His entrepreneurial fire is something I connected with. No matter the failures, Milton Hershey never quit.  In his 30’s, he already accomplished everything he felt he could with his caramel factory in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, as he bored easily. But he found the creation of milk chocolate fascinating and knew his chocolate flavored and chocolate coated caramels were among his most popular products. Knowing how popular chocolate was becoming in the United States, he longed to crack the code of merging cocoa, sugar and milk together – but this brought challenges as it is complex and specific when fat and milk combine.  Add to this, his “lower level school education” was seen as limited by some. As a home educator I find this even more fascinating because it is proof that as long as you have the desire to learn and you strive to continue to educate yourself, you can create success. Education is continuing to learn what interests you, not others, and finding the resources to do so with a passion inside. We forget that in this modern age. I am left amazed as I look at everything Milton Hershey leaves behind and it all became possible thanks to a nickel milk chocolate bar which went on to make him a millionaire in his late thirties. As a business owner myself, this message pulls at my heart strings.   So much of this story revolves around family and perseverance. Milton Hershey’s love for giving to others, truly taking care of his employees and never compromising any element of what goes into creating quality milk chocolate is so obvious. For someone to run their business this way their entire professional career, and then to see their legacy continue over seventy years later with this philosophy tightly woven into their story, says something. It speaks volumes! Still over one hundred years later, HERSHEY’S Milk Chocolate is made with farm fresh milk from local dairies within one hundred miles of their factory. We had the pleasure of visiting Meadow Lane Dairy in Lancaster on our visit and what instantly struck me was this family’s ethics that line up perfectly with Hershey. The care and quality for their animals and the milk they produce was obvious. Their family story was so similar to Milton Hershey and it was just so obvious why they were a perfect match in being a part of the milk chocolate story. Their 500 milking cows generate 94 lbs of milk per day per cow.  Brad Rohrer and his brother are the third generation to run Meadow Lane Dairy. He and his sweet wife have four absolutely precious littles who I can see taking over their operation someday. Brad’s mama, Joyce, was on hand helping shuffle kids and cows and knew every element of the dairy Brad’s dad once ran (and his grandfather before that). From the diets of their cows to the care in the cow maternity ward (did I mention the delivery of a new calf the morning of our visit?), it honestly brought tears to my eyes. For twenty years they have been one of the dairies that provides fresh milk for HERSHEY’S Milk Chocolate. This is a family folks, and it is all part of The Hershey Company and the HERSHEY’S Milk Chocolate we bring into our homes and share with our own babies and brings smiles to all of our faces. As a matter of fact, their farm is close enough to the HERSHEY Factory in Hershey, Pennsylvania that Meadow Lane Dairy delivers to them six days per week! This is farm fresh milk and it has been since the beginning of the Hershey story.  During our visit to Hershey, we also went to the labs and had the opportunity to learn more about chocolate than I ever knew. Unsweetened chocolate is mixed with other familiar ingredients like cane sugar and the farm fresh milk to create the creamy HERSHEY’S Milk Chocolate. I had no idea the processes that go into this – giving thought to the psychology of those who eat chocolate, the flavors that come out of cocoa from different regions, how different chocolates bring different flavors to your mouth (bitter, sour, sweet, etc.), the ways certain chocolate pops or breaks when we open a bar to eat, the fact that some melt easier than others in our mouth. It was all mind blowing. Up until this point chocolate was just chocolate to me. The other two categories were white chocolate and dark chocolate, which I thought I was not a fan of at all. Little did I know… We spent time in the Hershey lab creating our own bars with chocolate that had already been tempered thanks to these two gals! We used machinery to remove the air from each bar in the molds. Super cool (and loud).  We added toppings before letting the bars chill and set. I brought them home and not one is left. My family devoured all of my bars!!  We also got to do a single origin cocoa tasting where we drank a cocoa beverage made from beans sourced from different countries. This is the moment I realized how different cocoa tastes depending on where it is grown. These cocoas were from Mexico (bittersweet, lightly acidic and a note of licorice), Venezuela (Milton Hershey named many streets in town after this region which creates cocoa that is complex and has flavors of red plums and dark cherries), Ghana (a more simple bean that is used to balance the flavors of those more complex) and Tanzania (robust with nutty notes).

Until this visit, I had no idea how loyal Hershey is to their farm fresh milk and quality ingredients. I love to use chocolate in the kitchen and anytime we celebrate. You better believe this has made me a loyal lover of their milk chocolate. 

Did you know that all the farm fresh milk for HERSHEY’S Milk Chocolate comes from within 100 miles of Hershey, Pennsylvania? Let me know that and your favorite way to enjoy HERSHEY’S Milk Chocolate in the comments!