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>> Howdy, it's me Gage.
You know me, the kid who finally got in the bell tower.
Yeah, that's me.
Anyway, it's December, it's
the holidays and it's cold in Logan.
Today, I'm off to a new place,
and it's actually quite new.
Most alumni and even locals may not know about it.
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Hidden in a deep corner
of the blue square apartments,
in the shadows of the maverick stadium,
[MUSIC]
perhaps these are the reasons,
some people haven't yet seen
this USU staple, I don't know.
But today my fellow Aggies,
it will be seen and my mouth is
watering because we have arrived.
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Chocolate, ah yes.
Here we are at the Aggie Chocolate Factory,
just Northwest of the campus.
One of the few bean two bar facilities in the country.
[MUSIC] Oh man, look at this.
[MUSIC] Tucked just around
the corner here at Blue Square. Who knew?
>> Hey Gage, welcome to the Aggie Chocolate Factory.
>> Hey, thank you so much. I love your lab-coat get up.
>> Thank you.
>> Tell me Zack, why am I at an apartment building?
>> Having a small environment like this for
a pilot plant chocolate factory is great,
because it gives a lot of
opportunity for hands on learning.
Speaking of hands-on learning Gage,
we're going to bring you inside the chocolate factory.
We have a few activities for you to learn
the chocolate-making process.
By the end of the day, you
yourself will be a chocolate connoisseur.
>> I can't say I know much about fine chocolate,
but I'm excited to elevate my appreciation today.
So take me away, Mr. Wonka.
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Today, we're going to take you to a few
different spots around the factory,
and the first place we're going to go is the bean room.
Our beans come from all over
the world from countries that
are either 20 degrees North and South of the equator.
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>> I feel like I'm getting ready to go and
test people at a COVID hot spot.
>> It might feel that way, but in some ways,
you're actually pretty right.
Because these beans have just come from the farm,
so there hasn't been any process
to kill any type of bacteria.
It's very likely that we'd have salmonella,
we've had E. coli,
it's not uncommon for us to find things like rocks,
twigs or things like that in our beans as well,
that we have to sort through.
[MUSIC]
To sort beans,
what you do is you'll actually crunch them in your hand,
and as you can hear,
all the cracking does actually consider it bad beans.
>> How hard am I suppose to squeeze?
Because I'm worried that
I'm going to break all of your [inaudible].
>> You're not. It's just a light squeeze.
>> I thought it would be more automated so it's
impressive that each chocolate bar is actually.
>> A little bit more care than you think.
>> The same [inaudible] here.
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>> Next place that we are going to take Gage is
into the clean side of the facility.
So this is where all the magic of chocolate happens.
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>> You have to tell me everything
about this machine, please.
>> All right. This is called the Melanger.
This is two granite wheels and
a granite slab that are just continually rolling.
>> Wow.
>> Grinding down some of these so that it has
a better flavor and has a smaller particle size.
After about an hour or so it'll become liquid.
We'll add our other ingredients like sugar, milk powder,
whatever other things are
needed for that type of chocolate,
and then we'll pull it out after
about seven days and put them into bars.
>> I can't stick my hand in there.
>> No, of course.
[LAUGHTER] [MUSIC] So I'm
going to explain to you how to make a bar but
then I actually have a surprise for you.
>> Okay.
>> We had some on-campus friends that
developed a mold that actually has a tower.
>> No way.
>> A picture of the Bell Tower.
>> Look at that, so cool.
That's what I thought it was going to be.
At first, I was worried I was going
to get stabbed or something.
>> Surprise.
>> That's so cool.
>> Is that a stream of chocolate?
>> Yes. Are you ready to try?
>> Yes.
>> [LAUGHTER] All right.
>> I'm just nervous I'm going to mess it up.
>> That was okay, I guess.
Well, that wasn't very good.
Much better Gage, good job.
>> All right, so now you'll go ahead
and press that pedal and shake it up.
>> I definitely don't want to mess this up.
Old Maine deserves nothing but the best
and I need to be very delicate and precise.
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>> Looks good. While we're waiting for that to cool,
we're going to teach you how to taste fine chocolate.
>> Awesome.
[MUSIC]
>> You're going to start out with your milk and
then you're going to slowly move darker.
>> You're first going to smell it?
>> I can't smell anything. [LAUGHTER]
I told you my nose doesn't always work.
We'll try that again.
Let's see if it it works. [NOISE] Okay.
Ready? I still can't smell it.
We'll just take this tasting it.
>> Let the chocolate just melt on your tongue.
>> I don't know how to describe it.
>> You start looking for these very specific flavors,
and you start trying to be able to
identify what it is you're tasting.
>> Has an oaky afterbirth.
It's so good, it's just tasty.
I don't normally let it sit.
>> Well that's what is interesting about fine chocolate,
is fine chocolate should be an experience.
It's similar to going to the movies.
>> This isn't a Netflix bar.
This is like a David Fincher type of bar.
Now that I know what goes into it,
there's a little bit of extra added appreciation for it.
It's interesting. I noticed a cafe over there.
Is everything in there also made with
Aggie chocolate from the chocolate factory?
>> Yeah. Let's go take a look.
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>> What's meat seasoning.
>> Yes, it's really good on red meat.
We also have a lot of different pastries to choose from.
We've got gift boxes, baskets.
One of our most recent developments
was we actually developed a hot cocoa mix.
Here is our famous Aggie hot chocolate.
[MUSIC]
We have this gift basket for you.
Inside of these packages are your Bell Tower bars.
>> No way. Thank you so much.
>> You're welcome.
>> They've got this [inaudible] seal.
[inaudible] It's a nice basket too.
Wow. Honestly, thank you.
>> You're welcome.
>> That's awesome.
>> I can do this right?
There's a tab. You didn't have to write that.
[MUSIC]
That's so cool.
I made it. I'm going to call my mom,
tell her I made chocolate today. That's so cool.
[MUSIC]
What an awesome experience.
I'm speechless.
It was just really cool to learn about
the process of how chocolate is made.
If you guys have any questions
about the Chocolate Factory,
the process of how things are
made, or have any questions,
please feel free to follow them @Aggiechocolate on
Instagram or you can come and visit and take a Tour.
The wonderful staff here will answer any of
your questions and maybe if you're lucky,
you can take some of the stuff that I got too
today. What the heck?
I'll just give you guys something too.
Comment below some of your favorite chocolate treats,
and a few lucky winners that I get to
pick will receive one of these gift baskets.
Until next time Aggies,
peace out.