A Look inside a Real Candy Factory...Annaliese's Dream Come True

Tuck started our morning off (Dec. 21st) with a preview of what was to come.  We found him among none other than the game Candyland.  Little did Annaliese know that morning we would actually visit a "candyland."  Gammy picked us up after breakfast and we headed to South Norfolk to visit The Williams Candy Company.  Baba had taken me there before and Lynn had been there but Annaliese had never been.  When Gammy suggested that we take her there I was beyond excited.  Just to see her face among all of that candy would be priceless.  The field trip didn't disappoint at all.  We really got some royal treatment...getting to smell all of the flavors, watch the candy being made, and eat warm candy straight from the table!  What a great little tradition to start for the holidays! 

Tuck's clue to the event of the day

The whole factory

Adding colors and beginning to mix

Swirling colors

Colors are spreading

Candy as slick as glass

Adding a tart powder

Checking out the big cooking pots

Storage room with pounds of sugar

Barrels of corn syrup

Gammy and ANT in the factory

Learning all about how the candy is made

Boxes of candy to be shipped out across the nation just in time for Christmas

Smelling the various syrup flavors - this one orange

Ingredients

Various food colorings

Corn syrup...down the pipe

Candy's getting harder

Breaking it up to start molding it ( 4th generation Williams)

Beating and stirring with a rod

Candy...oooooohhhh!!

Molding each color separately

20 pounds of coconut center

Taste test of the coconut!

Loved taking pics of this copper pot

What a cool day in the candy factory

 

Very old pot...used every day

Over a 100 year old machine that used to be cranked by hand

Stretching the candy

This very old machine has been used for generations in the Williams' family

Tasting the hot candy straight from the cooking table

Folding and flipping the candy

Heaps and mounds of candy

One color was kept separately to rotate on its own

Starting to stick colors together

Adding the coconut center

Closing up the coconut center

Putting all the colors together

"Beached whale"...of candy

Feeding it into the machine

Coming out of the machine with perforated lines

Zig-Zagging across the belt

Candy is going u under all of the syrups

Here comes our batch of candy all the way to the other side of the factory

Lines and lines of candy

First piece is getting ready to drop

When they drop a majority of them break apart on their own

 

Piles and piles of candy

Scooping it out of the way to make room for more

Beating up the pieces that didn't break apart on their own

Sprinkling and spraying the finished candy

Taste testing the finished product that we just made

Next step the candy gets bagged up.  This was a batch we saw when we first came in.

Trashcans full of various flavors of candy

The customer table.  This place was hopping with customers.

Annaliese with her candy and THE Mr. Williams (a 3rd generation candy maker!)