Product Description

America loves to chew on many different kinds of delicious candy bars. This History Channel presentation highlights the rise of the candy bar from its humble beginnings to its status as a multi-billion dollar industry.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DOCUMENTARIES/MISC. Rating: NR UPC: 733961758146 Manufacturer No: AAE-75814

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #41628 in DVD
• Brand: A&E
• Released on: 2006-06-27
• Rating: Unrated
• Format: NTSC
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
• Running time: 50 minutes

Customer Reviews

BEAUTIFUL captions!!
The captions are EXCELLENT--word-for-word, no mistakes, and no messiness. THANKS A&E!!!

The documentary itself is also fascinating, showing everything from the history and harvesting of cacao beans on down to eating in action, even such "treats" as candied scorpions and insects. I found it interesting to see where everyday candy, like Hersheys and Jelly Bellies, come from, as well as candy I've never heard of.

Everything you ever wanted to know about candy and then some
The opening facts about candy are pretty amazing in that Americans consume about 7 billion tons of it every year to the tune of 25 billion dollars in sales. Helping to understand what ingredients make up chocolate and other confections, short but interesting segments are shown on the history, harvesting methods, and preparation of cocoa beans and sugar cane.

Beginning with a stop at the Hershey Chocolate plant in Pennsylvania, here is a fascinating look and history of one of the most prolific and renowned candy makers in the world today. As automation plays a significant role in manufacturing processes, explored here are elements such as robotics and computerization and how they help to produce enormous amounts of candy at their factory each day.

On the other side of the spectrum, some candy making is still considered to be an art form and Schimpff's Confectionary store in Indiana is a good example of this. Privately owned and operated, here is an entertaining look at older tools and techniques which are incorporated into making several different types of hand made treats. Also using a more manual approach to making candy, the See's company shows some methods they use in their preparation, cooking, and inspecting of their products.

Farther along, the spotlight switches over to jelly beans to include a short history of their beginnings and the production processes. The Jelly Belly Company itself makes over fifty different types of beans and they are unique in that some of their more bizarre flavors include dirt, earwax, sardine, soap, earthworm, rotten egg, and booger. Salt water taffy is another fan favorite among many treats so it gets its time in the sun here too.

Closing out this program, final segments look at licorice, gourmet candy, and even real insects that are cooked into items such as lollipops and assorted hard candies and how this is accomplished.

Hands down, `Modern Marvels: Candy' is a detailed, captivating, and fun viewing experience all the way through. It might even make you hungry after seeing all the wonderful creations that were churned out during this program. A solid five stars for this documentary and I happily recommend it to everyone.

Something for Everybody
This documentary had a little for everyone. For businesspersons and engineers, they may like seeing all the machines making candy. Personally, I was more interested in the history of candy. This work taught me what Turkish delight was, as I had no idea what it was when I was reading "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" as a youth. Near the machines, both professional public relations workers and workers fresh off the assembly line got to speak. The work started with chocolate, but mentions other candies too. It showed corporate-produced candy, but also showed the mom-and-pop candy makers. They even discuss Abba Zabba and other candies with which I am not familiar.

All these machines were great, but I wondered who washed them and how do we avoid getting poisoned by tainted candy. For every machine they showed, I wondered about all the blue-collar workers displaced from candy making jobs. I don't have a problem with progress, but I wonder if these machines played a part in rising unemployment. Finally, the obesity epidemic never comes up. The bad side of candy is ignored, basically.

And yes! This did make me want to go out and buy something sugary!