Simon's Candy Company - Factory Tour

Take a Tour of the Simon Candy Co. Plant

The pictures below will take you through the candy-making steps at our Elizabethtown plant, where we still make candy one batch at a time. We manufacture all of our Simon brands here, including College Farm Organic.
This is one of the copper kettles we use to cook the candy mixture. Temperatures can reach nearly 300 degrees F as the sugar and corn syrup (or tapioca syrup) are heated to just the right consistency. When the ideal temperature is reached, the boiling mixture is dropped into the bottom of the kettle and the water drawn off.
Open Copper Kettle Here is a view of the hot candy mass after it drops into the lower portion of the kettle. At this point additional ingredients such as flavors and colors are added and stirred in by hand. The candy mass weighs between 80 and 100 pounds, and is well over 200 degrees in temperature. Next it will be poured into the silver carrier(shown above) that will transfer it to the kneading table.

This is the kneading table, where the hot candy mass is squeezed and squished until the colors are thoroughly mixed. Both the table and the kneaders are water cooled, to gradually reduce the temperature of the candy mass. From here the candy goes up to the conveyer belt where it begins the cooling and shaping process.

Tempering The candy mass is flattened into a large ribbon about a foot wide. In the photo, the candy is being fed into a machine that will gradually reduce the batch to the size of a thick rope where it comes out at the bottom.

On the rope sizer, the candy "rope" goes through a series of gradually smaller gears until it comes out in a snake-like ribbon only about an inch in diameter. Now the candy is ready to be cut into individual pieces.

The die cutter converts the candy ribbon into pieces, then shoots them onto the cooling belt. The candy pieces continue through a cooling tunnel and then up a conveyer at the other end for inspection.

Candy Inspection After emerging from the cooling tunnel, our employees inspect the candy for quality, removing any broken, misshapen, or inconsistently colored pieces. The candy pieces are stored in tubs and moved on to the wrapping station.

Candy Wrapping Machine After allowing sufficient time to cool, the candy pieces are taken to one of our wrapping machines. We have two wrapping styles - double twist wrap, which has a twist at each end of the candy, and sachet wrap, which has one twist at the top. The wrappers can produce more than 1000 finished pieces per minute, faster than the human eye can see.

Bagging Machine Sorter Wrapped candies are then taken to the bagging department, where they are loaded into the sorter. The candy pieces drop into several little "buckets" where they are weighed for the size of the bag they are to fill. The weighing process takes just a split second.

The right amount of candies drop down the chute at the same time the flat bag film is being formed into a bag. The finished bags are then packed into displays or shipping cartons and are ready for the journey to your favorite store.

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The pictures below will take you through the candy-making steps at our Elizabethtown plant, where we still make candy one batch at a time. We manufacture all of our Simon brands here, including College Farm Organic. This is one of the copper kettles we use to cook the candy mixture. Temperatures can reach nearly 300 degrees F as the sugar and corn syrup (or tapioca syrup) are heated to just the right consistency. When the ideal temperature is reached, the boiling mixture is dropped into the bottom of the kettle and the water drawn off.
Here is a view of the hot candy mass after it drops into the lower portion of the kettle. At this point additional ingredients such as flavors and colors are added and stirred in by hand. The candy mass weighs between 80 and 100 pounds, and is well over 200 degrees in temperature. Next it will be poured into the silver carrier(shown above) that will transfer it to the kneading table.
This is the kneading table, where the hot candy mass is squeezed and squished until the colors are thoroughly mixed. Both the table and the kneaders are water cooled, to gradually reduce the temperature of the candy mass. From here the candy goes up to the conveyer belt where it begins the cooling and shaping process.
The candy mass is flattened into a large ribbon about a foot wide. In the photo, the candy is being fed into a machine that will gradually reduce the batch to the size of a thick rope where it comes out at the bottom.
On the rope sizer, the candy "rope" goes through a series of gradually smaller gears until it comes out in a snake-like ribbon only about an inch in diameter. Now the candy is ready to be cut into individual pieces.
The die cutter converts the candy ribbon into pieces, then shoots them onto the cooling belt. The candy pieces continue through a cooling tunnel and then up a conveyer at the other end for inspection.
After emerging from the cooling tunnel, our employees inspect the candy for quality, removing any broken, misshapen, or inconsistently colored pieces. The candy pieces are stored in tubs and moved on to the wrapping station.
After allowing sufficient time to cool, the candy pieces are taken to one of our wrapping machines. We have two wrapping styles - double twist wrap, which has a twist at each end of the candy, and sachet wrap, which has one twist at the top. The wrappers can produce more than 1000 finished pieces per minute, faster than the human eye can see.
Wrapped candies are then taken to the bagging department, where they are loaded into the sorter. The candy pieces drop into several little "buckets" where they are weighed for the size of the bag they are to fill. The weighing process takes just a split second.
The right amount of candies drop down the chute at the same time the flat bag film is being formed into a bag. The finished bags are then packed into displays or shipping cartons and are ready for the journey to your favorite store.