Hi, folks.

Sorry to those who have to pay for their email, but it *is* late Friday.
(Rhetorical question: Who actually pays by the message anymore anyway?)

On Fri, 21 Nov 1997 16:28:54 -0500, Greg Stigers <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
|When I was job-hunting, and got asked (frequently) what my ideal job
|would be, I liked to reply, taste tester for a Swiss chocolate maker.
|That was usually good for a laugh.

Several (pre-"ex") years ago my ex-wife and I got a tour by her dad at the
M&M/Mars factory where he (now ex- ;) worked.  That facility made Snickers
and Twix and StarBurst and something else I think but can't remember what.
It was a very interesting and fun tour, sort of a cross between a Saturn
car advertisement and Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.  More on the
Willie Wonka side, I think.  ;)

One of the biggest surprises to me was that anyone in the plant, visitor or
employee alike, can eat all the unwrapped candy they like.  And let me tell
you, it's even better when it's so fresh it's still warm!  Now... when it
comes to candy bars I've been a Snickers man most of my life.  It's the
chocolate that makes it for me.  But the best Snickers I ever had was one
from that line right *before* they poured the chocolate over it.  Yum!

I wondered aloud during the tour how they ever managed to get anything
wrapped with a whole factory full of folks munching on the products.  I was
told that when a new employee started they were told the policy and often
took advantage of it frequently... for the first day or, in rare cases, the
first week.  After that, however, they would decide that they'd had enough
candy for a while and it was seldom that an employee was seen doing it.

One other thing I found amazing was how the Twix cookies in the middle of
the candy bar are poured out as batter onto a conveyor belt-like baking
sheet, molded into the long strips with holes spaced every inch or so and
then pass through an oven to be cooked and only after being baked were they
cut into the correct lengths to be candy coated.  In other words, the baked
cookie was still connected in one long strand all the way back through the
oven, through the shaping machine and into the giant bowl pouring the batter
down all the strands.  I'm still stunned.  (Can't you tell?  ;)

Have a great weekend!
--
Jeff Woods
[log in to unmask] at Unison Software
[log in to unmask]   at home  [PGP key available here via finger]

"Shirley MacLaine could go to group therapy all by herself."
      --  Cynthia Nelms