A Lady in London

Today I went to Berkeley to tour the Scharffen Berger Chocolate Factory. I had passed by the factory a few times before, and my combined love of chocolate and interest in how it is made prompted the visit.

The tour begins in the gift shop, where they make you wait for ten minutes before it starts (clearly they’re hoping to make a sale here, but I refrained in silent protest of their scheme). The guide then leads the group to a big room that somewhat resembles a lecture hall. In my case, the group consisted of me, an Israeli family, and an older couple with an adult daughter.

In the next hour and a half, I learned pretty much all there is to know about how chocolate is made. I had no idea the tour would be so exhaustive, but at least they kept a steady stream of samples coming my way.

The guide was a young guy, and he made quite an effort to spice up the tale of chocolate production. At one point, he described how the flavors are all blended so that the chocolate bar doesn’t become like a poorly mixed burrito, guacamole on one end, salsa on the other. It was at this point that I learned the Hebrew for “what the hell is a burrito?”.

As the tour progressed, he got more detailed, telling us what exactly went into the chocolate we were eating. We learned all about the beans, the nibs, the powder, the cocoa butter, and of course, the soy lecithin. It was at this point that I learned the Hebrew for “what the hell is soy lecithin?”.

At the end of the tour, we walked around the actual factory and I got to nag the guide with all of my questions about the company’s acquisition by Hershey (not much has changed, apparently) and the purchase of the manufacturing equipment (mostly made in Germany but purchased in New York).

I finished off my tour with a few more samples and once again silently protested the gift shop as I made my way out the door and over to Cafe Fanny, Alice Waters’ little brunch place down the road in Berkeley. I had a croque monsieur (delicious!) before making the journey back to San Francisco. Speaking of journeys, I head to Washington, DC tomorrow and Paris next week!