Asher's Chocolate

There are three kinds of chocolate people:

1. The honest person who likes milk chocolate;
2. The snob who tells you milk chocolate is garbage and dark chocolate it the only chocolate worth eating; and
3. The anti-American types who prefer Cadbury or some other country's chocolate, like Switzerland.

As a real American, my preferred chocolate is, of course, milk chocolate. The gold standard for me has always been, and continues to be, Hershey's chocolate. No matter what people will tell you, it's the best chocolate for the taste and value. Other chocolates are good undoubtedly, but Hershey's never fails to satisfy the consumer.

Asher's Chocolate in Souderton, PA is a nice change for someone who appreciates chocolate. The milk chocolate is soft and creamy, the dark chocolate is firm but not bitter and the other "chocolates" (white and peanut butter) are delectably smooth. What makes Asher’s regionally famous are its chocolate covered pretzels and graham crackers—a perfect balance of sweet, salty and crunchy. But anyway, chocolate aside, there was a factory tour as well, of course.

 

The tour was a pretty simple tour, really not much of a tour at all actually. It was an observation corridor of two large rooms with mostly nothing to see but conveyor belts with blue covers obscuring our view of any actual candy. One belt, right next to the corridor’s window, was a full view of pretzels rolling under a milk chocolate waterfall, air dried and then under a second chocolate waterfall. This was without a doubt the highlight of the day. The kids easily watched the pretzels acquire their chocolate for 20 minutes before we headed back to candy store to purchase some chocolate.

 

The Asher’s factory candy store was, as you would imagine, packed with candy—Asher’s candies as well as some other brands. When we walked in, there was a tray full of different flavored nonpareils for sampling—it said to only take one, but I think we all went back a couple times for more since it took a while for the kids to decide what they wanted to buy as they were limited to only one thing (a difficult task in a candy store).

Overall we were very happy with what Asher’s had to offer at the store and on the “tour.” The store did have some things discounted and even sold broken chocolate covered pretzels which was a nice touch, but everything else was sold at retail prices. The variety was nice and they offered samples of anything you wanted to try.

It would have been nice if there had been someone to answer questions about the factory or even a pretzel to eat fresh off the line, but it’s clear this wasn’t a true factory tour; just a factory viewing.

One thing to note: The factory doesn’t run on Sundays, as much of central and eastern Pennsylvania doesn’t work on Sundays for religious reasons.

We knew what to expect of the factory going in, but there were still a few things that could have been done better, therefore this is a 3 out of 5 star experience. Compared to Hammond’s which provided an actual tour, a more personal video and gave things away, Asher’s left a bit to be desired. We spent less than an hour in the entire facility, so be sure to find other things to do in the area besides this factory if you are planning a trip there.

Kashrus note: Also, almost everything made in the factory is kosher and labeled as such. Be sure to check each product though.

Overall Rating: 3 our of 5 stars

Website: http://www.ashers.com/where-to-buy/

Location: Souderton, PA

Affordability: Free

Nearby Attractions: 35 minutes from Center City Philadelphia