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Tuesday 7 July 2015

The Hershey Company

After trying unsuccessfully to manufacture candy in New York, Mr Milton Hershey (1857-1945) returned to his home state of Pennsylvania in 1886, He founded there the Lancaster Caramel Company, whose use of fresh milk in caramels quickly became an outstanding success.

Hershey became fascinated with German chocolate-making machinery on exhibit at the 1893 Chicago International Exposition. He bought the equipment for his Lancaster, Philadelphia plant and soon began producing his own chocolate coatings for caramels. The following year the Hershey Chocolate Company was created as a subsidiary of his Lancaster caramel business.

In 1900 Hershey sold his caramel company for $1,000,000, and began to concentrate on chocolate manufacturing.

That same year, the Hershey Chocolate Company introduced the first Hershey milk chocolate bar. It was priced cheap enough to make his chocolate bar an everyday item.


Milton Hershey kept his employees working during the Great Depression by having them construct buildings in Hershey, Pennsylvania including a school, arena and hotel. When a steam shovel was brought in for construction, Hershey told his foreman to get rid of the shovel and hire 40 men instead.

The Milton Hershey School was established in 1909 by the chocolate tycoon and his wife, as a school for poor orphans. Milton Hershey left his entire fortune to the school, including a controlling interest in the Hershey Company, and it now has an endowment in excess of $12 billion.

Chocolate was classified as “candy” under the Revenue Acts of 1918 and 1921, and so it was taxed as such. In 1931, the Hershey Chocolate Co sued to recover about $8,000,000 in taxes by arguing it was “food”, and so had been wrongly taxed. The Supreme Court ruled it was “candy”.

Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups are round chocolate cups filled with a creamy peanut butter filling. H. B. Reese, a former dairy farmer and shipping foreman for Milton S. Hershey first created them on November 15, 1928. Hershey’s company first manufactured the iconic cups the same year.

The author Scott Fitzgerald died on December 21, 1940 of a heart attack listening to Beethoven's Eroica Symphony whilst eating a chocolate Hershey bar in his girlfriend, Sheilah Graham's, Hollywood apartment

During World War II, the majority of chocolate issued to military personnel was produced by the Hershey Company. Their military chocolate was very different from normal bars. Since its intended use was as an emergency food source, it was formulated so that it would not be a tempting treat that troops might consume before they needed it.

Hershey's World War II military chocolate for the US Army remained solid up to 49C (120F) and was poison gas proof but was also very bitter. Troops called it "Hitler's Secret Weapon" because of what it would do to their bowels.

Mars were originally asked for their M&M's product to be included in E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial. After Mars refused, Hershey was asked instead and agreed. Reese's Pieces were added to the movie, resulting in the product's sales shooting up 65% in the first two weeks after the movie hit the theaters.

The largest individual chocolate was a chocolate Hershey’s Kiss weighing 30,540 lbs (13,852.71 kg). The chocolate was made to celebrate Hershey's Kisses 100th anniversary and was unveiled at Chocolate World, Hershey, Pennsylvania on July 7, 2007.

In 2015, Hershey announced that they had acquired Krave Jerky, marking the company's first foray outside of the confectionery market.

Despite being founded in the same city, in the same year and having the same name, Hershey's ice cream and Hershey's chocolate have no affiliation and in fact have had multiple legal disputes due to their shared name.

Hershey's does not meet the legal minimum cocoa content to be described as chocolate in Britain.

Hershey's Kisses are called that because the machine that makes them looks like it's kissing the conveyor belt.

A Hershey's kiss contains 26 calories, which takes about four minutes of kissing to burn off.

The paper flag that sticks out the top of a Hershey’s Kiss wrapper is referred to as a "NigglyWiggly."

Hershey's makes one million miles of Twizzlers every year— enough to circle the globe 40 times.

Hershey's Skor candy bar is supposed to mean 'brittle' in Swedish. But that's with the รถ spelling. As it is, it just means 'shoes'

The main road in Hershey, Pennsylvania (where Hershey's candy bars are made) is Chocolate Avenue. 

The Hershey Ice Cream Company is a completely separate entity from the Hershey Chocolate Company, despite both being founded in Lancaster County in the same year by unrelated men named Hershey.

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