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Finding Your
Inner Charlie
Chocolate
Factories
& Sweet Adventure
BY MELINDA WRIGHT
© COPYRIGHT 2005 BY PARENTS'
PRESS, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
This article originally appeared in the July 2005 print edition
of Parents' Press.
Admit it. You're more excited
about the release of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
than your kids are. You still relish the classic Gene Wilder
flick, and you occasionally daydream of golden tickets when you
unwrap a chocolate bar. And while you can't take the kids to
visit Willy Wonka's fictional factory, many places do exist in
the Bay Area that can satisfy the entire family's sweet tooth
and help you find your "inner Charlie" once again.
The Real Deal
Only 14 chocolate-making factories exist in the United States,
and the Bay Area is home to several. Sadly, Hershey's Oakdale
plant no longer offers public tours. But Ghirardelli and Scharffen
Berger both have local facilities that offer a glimpse into how
to make delicious chocolate, even without the help of Oompa Loompas.
The Ghirardelli Flagship Store is a great way to anchor a trip to the
Fisherman's Wharf area of San Francisco. The store is located
in Ghirardelli Square, which the company bought in 1894 to house
their growing company.
This store has a small "manufactory"
that offers visitors a glimpse into the chocolate-making process.
Here the kids can watch the cocoa bean roasters, chocolate mill,
melanger, and conching machine at work while they wait for their
ice cream. Visitors can enjoy ice cream concoctions in the main
café or browse the two adjacent chocolate shops.
Scharffen Berger chocolates really cater to sophisticated
palates, but chocolate is chocolate, and your kids will surely
enjoy a tour of their Berkeley premises, especially the free
samples. The newest kid on the chocolate block makes chocolate
the old-school way, with restored vintage machinery imported
from Europe.
The tour touches upon the history
of chocolate and explains the involved chocolate-making process
that begins with harvesting cacao trees and ends in its retail
shop. The tour ends in the retail shop, too, where chocolates
in all shapes, sizes, and percentages are for sale.
This very informative and fascinating
tour only allows children ages 10 and up. Parking can be tricky,
so give yourself plenty of time. Reservations are strongly recommended,
and you must wear closed-toe shoes (i.e., no sandals) to enter
the factory.
Note: While Dreyer's Ice Cream
is still a Bay Area institution, its Union City plant no longer
offers public tours.
I Scream, You
Scream
Why Willy Wonka bothered with whipped cream (and hair cream,
for that matter) but not ice cream is a secret we'll never know.
But for many chocoholics, it doesn't get any better than an ice
cream sundae drenched in hot fudge. While everyone has their
favorites, here are two very different yet delectable ice cream
parlors to investigate.
The venerable Fenton's Creamery
in Oakland is worth the trip just to be part of its history,
as many Bay Area natives probably remember going there with parents
or grandparents. It won't be the Fenton's of your youth
the whole shop was renovated after a fire in 2001 but the
atmosphere is much the same. Fortunately, the mammoth ice cream
extravaganzas haven't changed a bit. Other fare is available,
but you shouldn't leave without at least an ice cream cone to
go.
Chocolate lovers must visit Screamin' Mimi's in downtown Sebastopol to experience
Mimi's Mud, the shop's signature chocolate flavor. All of Screamin'
Mimi's ice cream is handmade and uses fresh ingredients. The
flavors range from standards like strawberries (with the freshest
chunks of berry imaginable), to the seasonal, like Crane Melon
Sorbet (a melon first developed in Sonoma County), to the whimsical,
such as a recent batch of "Judy Moody" in honor of
Megan McDonald's children's book character. (Yes, this is the
ice cream store described in her Judy Moody books. Author McDonald
lives in Sebastopol.)
If You Want
to View Paradise. . .
Prepare to see a lot of children on sugar highs at the Jelly Belly Factory free samples will do that to you.
The downstairs floor is Wonka-esque, with a huge candy emporium,
chocolate candy-making facility and shop, free sample bar, and
cafeteria. Bargain hunters will rejoice at the 2-pound bags of
"Jelly Flops" that can purchased for at least half
off the regular price.
Guests can enjoy free tours of
the second floor factory, which begin every 15 minutes and last
for 40 minutes. Tours are offered every day of the week. Weekend
tours happen during non-production time, so you see the equipment
but not the candy being made. (Video segments are shown instead.)
Kids might be more captivated by the weekday tours, but all tours
end the same way, with a free bag of Jelly Bellys.
The quirky Pez Museum
in downtown Burlingame is the only place in the United States
known to house every Pez dispenser ever created. The Austrian
candy was created originally to help adults quit smoking in the
late '20s. The dispensers were introduced in 1950, and the museum
offers a tasty way to see the past five decades of pop culture
chronicled through these trinkets.
Museum admission is $3. Kids
will love identifying some of the classic cartoon characters
housed here, and they can purchase collectible and new Pez dispensers
at the museum's memorabilia store. Recent arrivals to the store
include Madagascar and Revenge of the Sith dispensers.
If you're in the touristy Fisherman's
Wharf Area perhaps after a visit to Ghirardelli's
wander into the San
Francisco Chocolate Store.
It carries many local chocolate brands, such as Joseph Schmidt
truffles for mom and dad. With barrels of taffy, rows of lollipops,
and shelves of souvenir boxed treats, this store provides plenty
of eye candy for its visitors.
But no candy store evokes the
image of the candy shop of your youth (or the one you dreamed
of) like Powell's
Sweet Shoppe in Windsor,
a few miles beyond Santa Rosa. This store seamlessly blends kid-favorite
candy from past and present with imported and artisan chocolates.
Tucked away in one corner are movie theatre seats where you can
sit and watch (you'll never guess) Willy Wonka and the Chocolate
Factory. This truly is a delightful store, and you can make
it a wonderful day trip by combining a Sweet Shoppe visit with
one of the summer events happening at the adjacent Town Green.
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BELOW
 Chocolate exhibitin
San Francisco
Fair
trade, child labor, and chocolate
Hours, directions, costs
A Delicious Exhibit
Tour the Chocolate exhibit
currently running at the California Academy of Sciences, and
prepare for a sweet experience. The exhibit showcases the natural,
historical, and cultural roots of chocolate, and takes visitors
on a journey that begins in the rainforest and ends at the supermarket.
The tour, which was developed
by the Field Museum in Chicago, is supplemented with a variety
of public programs, films, demonstrations, and special events.
July 30 and Aug. 20 will feature
activities for families from 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Chocolate demonstrations
occur every Friday afternoon.
Most remarkable are the solid
chocolate sculptures carved by Bay Area artist Arthur Escoto.
Must-sees include a hand-painted fresco using melted chocolate
as his medium, and his 325-pound sculpture, Death by Chocolate.
The exhibit runs through Sept.
5 at the California Academy of Sciences, 875 Howard St., San
Francisco.
Admission is $7 for adults,
$4.50 for youth 12-17 and seniors, $2 for children 4 to 11, and
free for children 3 and under. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. every
day. For more information, call (415) 321-8000 or visit
www.calacademy.org
More
About Chocolate
www.globalexchange.org
Theis site has a brief discussion
about fair trade and child labor issues in cocoa farming, with
links to a detailed report.
www.ynhh.org
Short discussion in their "nutrition-online
advisor" section of the health risks and benefits of chocolate,
by a nurse practitioner at Yale-New Haven Hospital.
If You Go
Ghirardelli Chocolate Shop & Caffe
Ghirardelli Square
900 North Point
San Francisco
(415) 474-1414
Open Monday-Thursday, 8:30
a.m, to 9 p.m.; Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Saturday, 9 a.m.
to 10 p.m.; and Sunday, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Scharffen
Berger
914 Heinz Ave.
Berkeley
(510) 981-4066
The factory store is open from
10 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day. Several tours are offered daily.
Tour times can be found at www.scharffenberger.
com
Fenton's
4226 Piedmont Ave.
Oakland
(510) 658-7000
Open Sunday-Thursday, 11 a.m.
to 11 p.m.; Friday-Saturday, 11 a.m. to midnight.
Screamin'
Mimi's
6902 Sebastopol Ave.
Sebastopol
(707) 823-5902
Open every day, 11 a.m. to
11 p.m. (For more about the Judy Moody books, see www.meganmcdonald.
net.)
Jelly
Belly Factory
1 Jelly Belly Lane
Fairfield
(800) 9-JELLYBEAN
Open every day from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. (tours until 4 p.m.).
Pez
Museum
214 California Dr.
Burlingame
(650) 347-2301
Open Tuesday-Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
San
Francisco Chocolate Store 145 Jefferson St.
San Francisco
(415) 614-9440
Open Sunday-Thursday, 9:30
a.m. to 9:30 p.m.; Friday-Saturday, 9:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m.
Powell's
Sweet Shoppe
720 McClelland Drive
Windsor
(707) 836-0808
Open Monday-Saturday, 10 a.m.
to 9 p.m.; Sunday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
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