The Amici Veloci Gang Goes to a Chocolate Factory

[jobob]

Oh, what a great day !

Those of us going on the ride met up nice and early at the Scharffen Berger chocloate factory in Berkeley. Somehow, we managed to roll out by noon

Here we are, almost ready to roll out:



L to R: Sarah (SadieKate), Bill (Bubba), Candy, Marty, Ann (BikerZ), Melissa (melissam), and Jo (jobob).

And here’s our photog, Lee (leebob)!



We went over the I-80 bike/pedestrian bridge and rode up the bay trail, with a side trip out to the Berkeley Marina and around Cesar Chavez park.

We were toodling along the waterfront admiring the San Francisco skyline when off in the distance we see another pair of Amici Veloci jerseys approaching us.



It was Nicole and Mary, who had joined us on our Alameda Creek ride last month !



Nicole and Mary couldn’t join us on the factory tour. They were doing a ride on their own, and donned their AV jerseys and timed meeting up with us to perfection.

After a brief chat we all went on our ways again. Lee and I stopped at the kite field to say a quick hi to a couple of friends from our kiteflying days – we hadn’t been there in ages! – but alas it was still too early in the day for our friend Tom (the guy who introduced us and was best man at our wedding) to be there.

We continued on the Bay Trail up to Point Richmond. The weather was really nice, clear and sunny and not as windy or chilly as I had expected (still, I’m glad I had my vest on). We stopped briefly at the nice park in Pt. Richmond before we headed on back again. BikerZ and melissam got frisky and tried to leave us in a cloud of dust but SadieKate reeled the breakaway back in. Meanwhile Bubba and leebob were bringing up the rear and yapping nonstop.

We got back to the factory right on time, and met up with the rest of the group for a delicious lunch at the café adjacent to the factory. The dessert display was calling to me as we left the café …must go back sometime …

We then went into the gift shop to wait for our tour to be called. Walking into the shop we were hit with the most incredible smell of roasting chocolate, it smelled like the best chocolate brownies you could imagine. What a heavenly contact high !

We got to wander through the gift shop for a few minutes oooh-ing and ahh-ing at all the chocolate goodies for sale. Here we are before the tour:



L to R: Bubba, jobob (hey slinke, lookit what I’m holding!), Candy, Amy (dachsund), Sarah (maillotpois), melissam, Emily (petitpois), Cindy (CindySue), BikerZ, leebob, Marty, Janet (snapdragen), and SadieKate.

Our guide brought us to a demo room where we learned about the history of the company and the history of chocolate, how cacao is grown and harvested, and how Scharffen Berger turns it into the stuff of dreams. It was all pretty cool, and we got to sample different kinds of chocolate along the way.

We then donned our tres stylin’ caps and earmuffs and entered the factory.



We got to see the machines that roast the cacao beans, break open the roasted beans to release the nibs (little nuggets of pure cocoa and cocoa butter), grind down the nibs into a thick paste & blend in the additional ingredients (sugar, vanilla beans, sometimes additional cocoa butter, an emulsifier called lethicin, and additional ingredients depending on the final product), the machine where the chocolate is tempered, and the all-important conveyor belt on which the final molded product is packaged. Most of the machines were operating, but alas, the conveyor belt wasn’t operating today. Which was probably just as well

We then ended our tour back in the gift shop. What can I say, Scharffen Berger did well by us.

Leebob simply couldn’t wait until we got back home …



This was so much fun ! Many thanks to SadieKate for organizing the tour, and to BikerZ for the superb ride leadership.

Next field trip: the Hangar One vodka factory. Oy.