1Chocolates and mints are enjoyed by many people.
2Then someone discovered putting the two together makes for a delicious experience.
3The cool zestiness of the mint offsets the rich creaminess of the chocolate.
4It is one of the sweetest matches in candy history.
5Chocolate or mint? With a chocolate mint, the decision is easy,
6because the two flavors are wrapped into one.
7To make chocolate mints, they pump liquid sugar into a heated mixer and add granular sugar.
8The mixer blends it into simmering syrup exiting through strainers.
9Then it's moved into a vacuum-sealed cooker.
10It sucks out moisture, and the syrup thickens to a jelly-like consistency.
11A worker transfers it to a second mixer and adds the mint flavoring.
12Thorough mixing thickens it and lightens the color substantially.
13He transfers the mint-flavored candy to a work table.
14Powerful mechanical arms massage the slab to cool and harden the candy.
15Next, a hopper funnels the candy into pressurized rollers that squeeze it into a long sheet.
16The sheet rides an inclining conveyor.
17Once it reaches the top, an employee wraps the end around a long steel tube.
18The tube revolves and twists the mint candy around it.
19The long candy sheet takes the shape of the tube.
20They melt and mix chunks of pure chocolate with cocoa, powdered milk, and icing sugar.
21They add coconut oil and lecithin to bind the ingredients.
22Once mixed, the employee transfers it to a hopper next to the big mint candy tube.
23From here, the chocolate is injected into the hollow of the mint candy tube.
24The tube rolls off the forming cylinder and passes by rollers that squeeze the diameter down to a rope size.
25A compactor then mashes the candy rope to give the filling a honeycomb texture.
26Pullers now stretch a second slab of mint candy until it thickens and turns a lighter color.
27The worker cuts it into chunks that fit into the next rolling machine.
28It presses the candy into a sheet, which then lands on top of the mint chocolate.
29The two layers now enter the next forming machine.
30This one wraps the outer layer around the chocolate-infused one,
31creating a chocolate-filled mint tube.
32Rollers reduce the diameter to half an inch in size.
33Next, the chocolate mint rope enters a die cutter.
34It shapes and cuts the rope into mints.
35The mints spill into a spreader, which distributes them evenly across a perforated conveyor.
36Fans blow air through the holes in the conveyor to cool and solidify the candies.
37Once the candies have hardened, they head to the wrapping station.
38Here they ride a rotating circular platform and fall into candy-sized slots.
39Glossy metallized film wrap unwinds.
40Mechanical arms collect the chocolate mints as they fall out of the slots.
41They hold the candies for wrapping while devices twist the ends.
42It takes only a fraction of a second to wrap a candy.
43Then it's on to a weigh station.
44Scales release the individually wrapped chocolate mints in increments.
45They fall into bags, ready for retail.
46Approximately 2,400 chocolate mints are made every minute at this factory.
47Two flavors in one candy, they're quite a treat.