Sweeeet!

Your hand and your mouth agreed many years ago that, as far as chocolate is concerned, there is no need to involve your brain.
― Dave Barry

Today was the sweetest day yet of my journey--literally. I spent last night at Clifty Falls State Park in Indiana, and I wanted to check out some things that were unique to the state.  A little bit of Googling around on the Internet led me to chocolate.  How perfect is that?  I found three candy factories that were “native” to Indiana.  Of course, none of them were near the park.   Clifty Falls is on the very southern part of the state, right near the Kentucky border.  The closest chocolate factory, DeBrand Chocolates was in the northern part of the state in Fort Wayne, about 220 miles away.  Normally that would be a bummer, but since I’m technically on a road trip it seemed like a worthwhile journey.   I decided that my adventure for the day would be a visit to several different candy factories.

Entrance to the "tunnel"
at Clifty Falls Park

Since I was going to be loading myself with sugar, I figured I’d better make a little room it all.  I got up at 6:15am this morning and did a quick 3-mile hike through part of the park.  The trails were absolutely gorgeous.  They led alongside a deep limestone canyon that was carved by a little stream.  Little waterfalls occasionally ran down the sides and tall, leafy trees grew up from the center of the canyon.  There was a tunnel carved through about 600’ of the stone alongside one of the trails I was on.  It was built between 1852 and 1854 by a man named John Brough who was attempting to construct a railroad.  Eventually, it proved to be too difficult of a venture and the project was abandoned, but they left behind the tunnel.   I didn’t have a flashlight with me so I only ventured a few feet into it.  Calling it a “tunnel” is pretty generous. It was by no means large enough for trains to go through—it was perhaps 5’ tall at the highest point.  It did look like it would be fun to walk the entire length of it, though.  If I ever come back this way, I’ll have to remember to bring my flashlight next time.  I finished my hike at about 8:00 and decided I had burned enough calories to justify the indulgences that lie ahead down the road.

The first stop on my list was the DeBrand Chocolate Factory.  It was about a 3 ½ hour drive from Clifty Falls Park and during the whole trip my mouth watered with anticipation.   As I got close to where it was located, the Google maps lady on my phone told me to take a left turn onto a street called Auburn Road.  As I got onto the street, though, there was a city barricade across it that said “Construction Ahead:  Local Traffic Only.”  Well, I was in the area so I considered myself local.  I went around the barricade and found the DeBrand Headquarter building.  The parking lot was mostly empty, and as I pulled in I noticed a few nicely dressed women standing out front of the building.  I wondered if it was in fact open, or even if I could buy chocolate at the location. Maybe the head quarters was just the “business” operations of the company?  I parked my van and walked to the front door. 

DeBrand Chocolates
Definitely the most elegant of the bunch!

The nicely dressed women outside eyed me skeptically as I came out of my van.  I walked past them and pulled open the front doors.  I half expected to see a business-like setting with a receptionist at a front desk, but was quite pleased when I stepped into a chocolate shop.  There was a display case in front of me, elegantly lit and filled with gold boxes and lots of chocolates in several hues of rich browns.  There were shelves that contained a variety of chocolate bars in fancy wrappers and elegantly labeled boxes and packages.  The ladies who were outside came in a few moments behind me, and a woman behind the counter told them “The shower is being held off to your right!”  That left me alone with a room full of chocolates—how wonderful!  A young man named Zack asked if I needed any help, and I told him I was overwhelmed by all the choices.  He explained to me their different collections.  One of them was a “Connoisseur Collection” which he described as being more “adventurous.”   They included delectable such as chocolate covered cheese, jasmine tea infused chocolate, and sesame and poppy seed brittle covered with tahini and chocolate.  Next to the Connoisseur chocolates were their truffles.  My eyes oozed over the choices of Peanut Butter truffles, coconut truffles, and key lime truffles.  Beyond that, they had the more traditional choices of choices like chocolate cream filled and caramels.   He went to get me a sample of one, and while he was gone, a lady named Betty came from behind the counter showed me their café menu.  She tempted me with their ice cream and chocolate drinks, and told me that they even make their own chocolate and fudge sauces.  Zack came back with a sample of a coconut caramel chocolate, and it was absolutely incredible.   I bit into the crisp chocolate and it melted in my mouth.  Small bits of coconut blended with the creamy caramel in just the right proportions.  I ended up buying a box of chocolate, several bars, and a few extra loose pieces thrown in for good measure.  I would have purchased much more, but I knew I still had 2 more candy stores ahead of me.   I thanked Betty and Zack for their help, and headed out for the South Bend Chocolate Factory.

At DeBrand you can even get an edible box made
of chocolate.  This is one of their fancier ones

The South Bend Chocolate Factory is located in the city of South Bend--about 1 ½ hours from Fort Wayne.  As I arrived, again I worried that I was at the wrong place.  The building was an old brick building and the parking lot was completely empty.  A sign out front indicated that they were open, though, so I parked my van and walked in.  Again, the world transformed.  While the outside looked a bit derelict, the inside had several display cases filled with chocolates and display racks in the center of the room that spilled over with cellophane-wrapped packages of chocolate covered pretzels, chocolate covered cherries, and chocolate malt balls.  A kid with a plastic hair-cap on and a name badge that introduced him as “Hot Latte” welcomed me in and told me to let him know if there were any pieces I would like to sample. 

“How many samples can I have?” I asked him, grinning.

“As many as you like—you can try everything if you want to,” he told me.  I was in heaven!  I sampled a peanut butter melt-away, a coconut haystack, and a caramel cluster.  I could feel my blood sugar spike and my hands got twitchy.  I selected a box full of mixed chocolates and a few pieces of peanut butter ones as well.  And then Hot Latte told me “Oh, and out in front we have those 25-pound boxes stacked up—those are on clearance.”  I went to go see what they had.  In the front of the store there were several boxes stacked up with labels “Milk Chocolate Balls,”  “Chocolate Pretzels,”  “Dark Chocolate Cherries.”  In a week I’m visiting a friend whom I used to work with at Cisco.  She has three daughters that I used to babysit on occasion, and when I did I would always load them up with cookies and sugar before sending them home, much to the dismay of their mother.   What better gift could I bring them than a 25-pound box of malt balls?  I picked one up and heaved it onto my shoulder.  I can’t wait to give it to them (I hope she’s not reading this blog!!)!  I thanked Hot Latte for his help, and left with my workout-load of chocolates. 

South Bend Chocolates

Next I made my way to the Albanese Confectionary Factory, which was another hour and a half away from South Bend.  The Albanese Confectionary Factory was a little bit different than the first two as they not only made chocolate, but they also made all kinds of gummies.  Also, the Albanese Confectionary Factory was different in that it did not look deserted when I pulled up.  The parking lot was full of cars and lots of people.  The building looked like a large, white gingerbread house.  It had windows that were trimmed in bright red and yellow and blue.  Planter boxes just below each window were exploding with colorful flowers like popcorn spilling out of a machine that had been carelessly loaded with too many kernels.  There was a pet-adoption fair going on in front so people milled around the puppies and kittens, ooh-ing and ahh-ing.  When I walked in, it was complete chaos. One section had dozens of clear plastic bins filled with every color and shape of gummy possible, another section was had jelly beans, another section had chocolates, and another section had a variety of different kinds of nuts and snacks.  There must have been at least a hundred people in the store: adults carrying baskets loaded with different candies, children running around screaming, parents chasing after kids.  It was completely chaotic!  It was almost as if the air was charged with sugar and it stirred everyone into a feeding frenzy.  Near the front of the store, a lady was filling up barrels with large 4.5-pound bags of “Gummy Goofs.”  These were the ones that came out looking not quite right and which they didn’t want to sell with the “perfect” candies.  She told me those were on sale for $6.  Well I couldn’t pass up a deal like that, so I picked up 9 pounds of gummy gunk.  And just for good measure I had them throw in a few pieces of chocolate as well.

The Albanese Confectionary Factory was a
little bit like Disneyland

By this time it was getting late in the day and I still had another hour and a half to get to my campsite for the night.  I had driven almost 400 miles and covered nearly the entire state of Indiana in my candy adventure.  My van is now loaded up with enough sugar to start my own rolling candy shop if I wanted to.  Hopefully the 25 pounds of malt balls won’t melt by the time I get to Colorado, and my risk of diabetes won’t increase too much as well.