Trip Date: Feb 16, 2008   View This Trip

The Lititz-based Wilbur Chocolate Company lacks much of what made its competitor, Hershey Chocolate, a household name. It has no theme park or amusement rides. It certainly spends less on advertising. It's located off the beaten track, in a smaller Pennsylvania city. Yet all of those missing components are why a trip to Wilbur, and its Candy Americana Museum, can be a fun and refreshing time.

Wilbur does not, for health and safety reasons, offer a factory tour. However, it does have working chocolatiers on staff and on display in the museum's back-room kitchen. They are friendly, patient with questioners, and interesting to hear as they describe and show how specialty candies are created. Consider budgeting 60 to 90 minutes for a visit. The museum is open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and admission is free. Metered parking is available nearby.

Wilbur, which now is owned by food-producing conglomerate Cargill Inc., is no newcomer to the chocolate business. It began manufacturing the Wilbur Bud, a smaller alternative to the highly marketed Hershey Kiss, in 1894. It remains the company's most popular sweet, although the firm produces more than 240 million pounds of chocolates and candies annually, according to its website . Founder Henry Oscar Wilbur combined operations from three sites to Lititz in the early 1930s.

The Wilbur factory, an aging red brick structure of several stories, occupies a block-sized parcel near the center of downtown Lititz. It's a 5-minute walk from the town square, at Broad and Main Streets, to Wilbur's front door. Getting though that door may be a minor challenge. The entrance sits on a small landing atop a short but slightly steep set of masonry stairs. Climbing the stairs may not be suitable for very young children, older adults, parents with strollers, or the physically handicapped. It is highly likely an entrance exists for these visitors as well, but it was not readily apparent and neither the company's websites nor those of area tourism groups mention accessibility for the disabled.

Once inside, stop and smell. Take a B-I-G whiff. The aroma is pleasant, not heavy, and it permeates rooms open to the public. Three are dedicated to sales, where candies of all types, sizes, weights and prices are available for purchase. As a Cargill unit, Wilbur is responsible for chocolate production under different brand names, mostly as a result of mergers with other companies, so a variety of products and logos are displayed. At the heart of the promotional effort, though, is Wilbur's own goods. To that end, visitors are treated to free samples of the Wilbur Buds that made the firm famous. Enjoy your handful!

You'll hear a rumble of machinery overhead as you turn into the two-room museum. That's the factory at work, which you can't see. Its substitute, the museum, presents both a trip back in time and a cameo of Wilbur's current business. The former is showcased in chocolate-making memorabilia and candy packaging and advertising collected during the 1970s by the wife of a former company president. Molds, tins, boxes, early candy-making machines, and even ornate chocolate pots of fine porcelain are on display. These likely will appeal to those who remember when candy bars sold for just one nickle rather than 20.

The modern-day view starts with a continuous video about chocolate-making. You'll hear its voice-over before you see it; small display screens are well above eye-level and almost inconspicuous. Look near the museum ceilings for them. The real star of the show is the candy kitchen at the rear of the second room. It is spacious, tiled, and usually features several craftspeople making or decorating candies. A clear plexiglass divider separates the public from the workers, but some sections are removed so visitors can talk (depending on the crowd) with the chocolatiers.

The best time to visit Wilbur may be during October, when Lititz hosts an annual charitable fund-raising event called the Chocolate Walk. Visitors can buy buttons that grant them free samples of confections at strageic locations throughout town. One of the Wilbur chocolatiers cautioned that buttons should be purchased online at least three weeks in advance; only 2,000 are sold, and they go quickly.

Lititz holds several tourist-oriented events each year. The entire town is enjoyable; its business district is lined with many specialty shops and boutiques, and interesting restaurants.

jzlomek's Rating: 7