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Private Notes
Launched in the 1920s as a tasty way to fortify milk, Bosco Chocolate Syrup is produced in New Jersey and it has a blockbuster connection to Hollywood. Now outselling hamburger and hotdog buns, tortillas are taking America by storm, and this Boston facility can pump out more than half a million of Maria & Ricardo's Flour Tortillas every day. And, first served by Thomas Jefferson at a state dinner in 1802 and now America's number-one comfort food, Mom Made's great tasting good-for-you mac'n'cheese contains hidden veggies.
Beating out gummy bears as America's favorite candy, saltwater taffy got its misleading name quite by accident. And in Ocean City, New Jersey, Shriver's winning recipe hasn't changed in over a century. Seven hundred French alpine goats have relocated to New York's Hudson Valley to help make Coach Farm's triple cream goat cheese, that's got a surprising connection to luxury handbags. And, a Massachusetts factory produces nearly a million Haviland Thin Mints in a single batch, and every one of them enjoys a delectable chocolate shower.
Necco Candy Wafers have been around since 1847, but there's nothing old about their awesome flavors or the cutting edge technology used at the company's massive Boston factory. With their secret gravy recipe, two entrepreneurial Brits moved to Buffalo, New York, and now they literally make thousands of mouthwatering handcrafted pocket size steak and ale pies every day. And, proponents of ginseng claim it can seriously boost your mojo. And with 18 custom flavors, GinsengUp has combined the pleasure of soda with an ancient root that's often called "the king."
At the Highliner factory in Portsmouth, New Hampshire mountains of frozen cod are coated, flash fried, and transformed into 300 million delectable ready-to-eat fillets every year. Born and raised in Philadelphia, Peanut Chews were first developed as high-protein ration bars for troops in World War I, and now 2.5 million of them roll off the assembly line every week. And, this iconic New England soda is so cool it spawned its own adjective! First created as a cure-all remedy, Moxie soda was patented in 1885 and the gutsy beverage is still going strong with its secret recipe and signature zing.
Papa John’s Louisville, Kentucky kitchens make enough dough for 300 million pizzas a year; Ray’s Original Chilli is cooked right in the can; and, fruity Danimals yogurt cups are made at a massive Ohio facility where robotic forklifts work 24/7.
Accidentally invented by a farmer in the 1930s, today's Cheez Doodles empire is located in Berwick, Pennsylvania where 44,000 cheesy balls are formed, baked, and sprayed with atomized liquid cheese every minute. With a winning recipe that hasn't changed in decades and a daily output of 100,000 crispy shells, Golden Cannoli in Chelsea, Massachusetts is the world's largest supplier of the Italian delicacy. And, in Youngstown, Ohio, two best friends turned their delicious idea into a major industry by adding beer to every drop of their Yuengling Barbecue Sauce.
At nearly 100-years-old, White Castle is the oldest burger chain in America, and since 1986, the company has sold more than three billion of its frozen cheeseburger sliders. Red Gold Salsa is made from tomatoes grown on more than 50 farms in several states, and it takes three kinds of chilies to give the popular condiment its signature zing. A family business since 1892, Asher's Chocolates in Pennsylvania has perfected the art of making rich and fruity chocolate-covered Cordial Cherries.
If you're a chip lover, consider making the pilgrimage to Nottingham, Pennsylvania, where Herr's thick and sturdy kettle cooked potato chips are lovingly sliced and fried to perfection. Lollipops got their name in the 1920s from the inventor's favorite racehorse, and today in Brian, Ohio, 2.5 billion Dum-Dums Original Pops are produced every year. And, with their shocking shades of blue, pink, and purple, it takes tons of flour, food coloring, and a top-secret recipe to turn out 5.7 million Joy Cones ice cream cones every day.
Nicknamed the king of beers, Budweiser's St. Louis brewery remains true to its roots, and still uses the very same yeast that first launched the brand back in 1876. Meet the inventor and the cryogenic processor behind Dippin' Dots--the fruit-flavor ice cream beads that literally chill out in a bath of liquid nitrogen. If carrot cake is your thing, you'll go bananas for Ne-Mo's Escondido, California headquarters where 80,000 cakes are baked and iced daily.
First created in 1795, meet the great grandson of legendary bourbon-maker Jim Beam at the Kentucky factory where a single batch of White Label starts with a million gallons of crushed grain and water. Nicknamed the friendly city, Athens, Tennessee is also home to the celebrated dairy farm where TruMoo chocolate milk is blended by the truckload. The country's number-one top seller, over a million Tina's Burritos roll of a California assembly line every day, and every single one is rolled by hand.
Producing a savory meal that's ready in three minutes, Nongshim is South Korea's top selling brand, and its giant California facility alone produces over 200 million ramen noodle bowls per year. It takes an "octopus", a "guillotine", and a chocolate waterfall to produce Look candy bars--the classic American treat that combines chewy peanut-filled nougat with a delectable dark chocolate coating. Though the company admits its name is half-baked, Semifreddi's bakery produces fluffy and flawless Challah--the hand-braided egg bread that's kosher, doughy, and delicious.
At Del Monte's massive green bean operation in Markesan, Wisconsin, garden-fresh beans are always picked and packed on the same day at a staggering rate of 45 tons an hour. Steeped in Italian history, Barilla's Iowa facility uses wheat, water, and state-of-the-art machines to produce authentic bowtie shaped farfalle pasta by the truckload. In Sacramento, California, 60,000 gallons of Marley's Mellow Mood iced tea are produced daily, and every single drop is infused with the spirit of reggae.
Jamba Juice's Red Fusion smoothie is so cool that its freshly harvested raspberries are individually quick frozen in liquid nitrogen. Founded by a self-proclaimed mad scientist in the late 1950s, 400,000 frozen Bake'n'Serv AnyTime! cinnamon rolls are made daily at this giant Wisconsin facility. After making giant batches of Ben & Jerry's New York Super Fudge Chunk ice cream, employees at the company's Vermont factory get to take home three free pints a day.
Producing America's number one Halloween treat for more than half a century, these sweet sisters oversee the production of 30,000 Smarties tablets per minute at their family-run candy factory in Union, New Jersey. For a company that spends no money on advertising, Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix has cornered the market and makes enough mix to produce 1.5 billion muffins per year. It takes mechanical shakers, a river of fruit, and high-tech camera equipment to produce 10 million tart dried cherries every year.
With an impressive list of presidential customers, it takes 1,800 staff members and a full-time knife-sharpener to keep up with the demand for Omaha Steak's mail-order filet mignons. With no artificial flavors, colors or preservatives, 1.4 million Annie's Cheddar Bunnies crackers hop through the company's 200-foot tunnel oven every hour. The name may not sound too appealing, but Zatarain's Dirty Rice Mix is downright delicious and has been a New Orleans favorite since 1889.
Follow the amazing journey of McDonald's French Fries as they travel from Idaho potato fields through a 70-mile-an-hour slicer, and finally on to one of the company's 14,000 restaurants nationwide. It takes a keen eye, massive silos of sugar, corn syrup, and popcorn, and a whole lot of riddles to produce boxes of caramel-coated Cracker Jack candy by the truckload. In order to make 80,000 hand-finished frozen pizzas per day, this family-run factory features a cheesy waterfall that grinds through six million pounds of cheese in a single year.
While not actually French, French's calorie-free signature yellow mustard is the number-one selling mustard in America and its recipe has been a carefully guarded secret for more than 100 years. Featuring turkey, duck, and chicken meat all stitched together in one giant dish, it takes scores of dedicated workers, vats of stuffing, and a metal detector to produce Turduckens by the thousands. It takes specially-selected apples, 20 tons of caramel a day, and half a billion dry-roasted peanuts per year to keep up with the demand for sweet and crunchy Affy Tapples caramel apples.
Every year, Jack Link's South Dakota factory turns almost 100 million pounds of meat into beef jerky, the go-anywhere snack and preferred outer space protein among NASA astronauts. At a century-old Louisiana refinery, mountains of raw sugar are cleaned and steamed into dainty Domino sugar cubes by the millions. Brownies were originally a culinary mishap, and at this New Jersey factory they're so popular they're baked in a Ferris wheel-style oven and chopped by a robotic knife.
Meet the famous cookies that make millions for charity; this innovative ice cream sandwich combines vanilla and chocolate; and, visit the global headquarters of cheese-filled pretzel pockets.
Follow the incredible trajectory of Welch’s Concord Grape Jam; enjoy these grandma-perfected pierogies; and, visit the factory that turns out flipping delicious chocolate-covered pretzels.
To keep up with global demand for the iconic Egg McMuffin, this mammoth California facility bakes half a million English muffins every day. At this seaside family farm in Washington State, four-year-old beach oysters are shucked in three seconds flat. As America's top-selling kosher wine, it's up to a no-nonsense rabbi to make sure every drop of Manischewitz makes the grade.
What started as a one-man operation has grown into a massive hot-sauce empire that now sells more than 40 million bottles of spicy Sriracha every year. This ancient fruit was popular with Egyptian pharaohs, and today every 16-ounce bottle of California-grown POM Wonderful contains the juice of four `Wonderful' pomegranates. A traditional Mexican treat you can eat on the go, these spicy pork tamales are hand-wrapped in cornhusks before being steamed and x-rayed.
Making astronaut food is serious business at this massive Oregon facility where it takes 18 hours to transform savory beef stew into a freeze-dried meal that's perfect for outer space. Nearly 200 million squeaky clean California lemons are washed, waxed, sized, and sorted at this Sunkist plant every year. It's worth the drive to Texas just to get your hands on this decadent pecan pie, and if the bakery is closed once you get there, the vending machine outside is open 24/7.
Deep in Texas cowboy country, pork bellies are brined, tumbled, smoked, and sliced to produce perfectly delectable kitchen-ready bacon. In the middle of a California desert, water from an underground river is one of the secret ingredients to a bacon-flavored soda that's popular with a legendary kilt-wearing pro wrestler. What began as a Texas turkey farm is now home to an innovative family business where salty crispy bacon bits are smothered in rich creamy chocolate.
Among the army of dedicated workers behind every custom serving of Cold Stone ice cream, it's the senior taste-master who's got the best job of all. There's an all-American rags-to-riches story behind these delectable buttery cookies that were born in France but later perfected by five brothers from Vietnam. Watch out for airborne fish when you order up home-style crab cakes at this Seattle's Pike Place market where fishmongers are famous for literally throwing seafood around the shop.
This episode heads to Texas to explore some of the Lone Star State's favorite foods. Every delectable Smokehouse Brisket sandwich from Arby's can be traced back to this massive Texas operation where 150,000 pounds of raw brisket are lovingly hand-rubbed and smoked daily. Combining layers of crunchy candy and a whole lot of peanut butter, it's no wonder why chicken-free Chick-O-Sticks have attracted a major cult following. Every two-ounce shot of Hangover Joe's Git'R'Done Energy Drink delivers a Texas-size wallop along with some comic inspiration.
Producing more than half a billion beef patties every year, it takes mountains of meat and this massive Ohio facility to keep up with the demand for White Castle's iconic square sliders. If you've got a hankering for juicy hand-picked mandarin oranges, head to this California facility where an awesome high-tech machine processes 1.7 million pieces of fruit every hour. At this California bakery, 750,000 heart-shaped crackers are showered with love and sesame seeds every day.
First invented as a breath mint in 1927 and known worldwide for its iconic dispenser, a single batch of PEZ candy produces nearly half a million fruity-flavored tablets. First created in the 1950's, you get a whole lot of cheez-y goodness when you combine two crispy mini-waffles with this top-secret bright orange filling. Inspired by an Italian family recipe and overseen by Mamma herself, there's plenty of `amore' in every bite of Michael Angelo's chicken Parmesan.
Reportedly invented by the Girl Scouts nearly a century ago, these sweet S'mores are lovingly made in Pennsylvania and give you all that campfire goodness without ever having to rough it. Always fresh and never frozen, Five Guys sesame-studded burger buns are baked fresh in Washington, D.C. every night and shipped to restaurants across the country. It takes more than 600,000 pounds of corn every week to keep up with the demand for popcorners--the chip-shaped popcorn that's become a popular snack in the sky.
Woody and bunghole are technical terms at Jack Daniels' Tennessee headquarters where its world-famous whiskey is lovingly brewed using fire, fresh spring water, and 150 years of expertise. Help celebrate Coca-Cola's iconic contour bottle's 100th birthday at the massive Georgia facility where its special formula remains one of the best-kept secrets in the world. Wahlburgers takes pride in its red-hot Hollywood connection and their six-inch all-beef all-American wieners.
First founded in 1950, visit the massive roasting facility that allows Dunkin Donuts to serve 30 cups of coffee per second for a grand total of 1.8 billion cups every year. A hearty soup that's steeped in history, New England clam chowder starts at sea where fresh surf clams are harvested by the shipload. First invented in 1920 and proudly produced in Boston, the iconic multi-colored Slap Stix lollipop features creamy caramel swirled with banana-flavored nougat.
An authentic French brand steeped in history, visit Babybel's South Dakota headquarters where 600,000 pounds of milk are transformed into one million bite-size cheeses every day. Famous for his soup-slinging antics on the sitcom Seinfeld, meet the official face of Soupman and find out how the company cooks its hearty lentil soup right in the box. Part slaw and part salsa, Slawsa combines super-food cabbage with a tangy kick, and just a single batch makes enough to fill nearly 5,000 jars.
It takes three truckloads per day and a million pounds of flour every week to keep up with the demand for Quiznos toasted subs. At this Florida farm, up to four million pounds of green tomatoes are harvested daily and then placed in a special vault where they ripen twice as fast. In a single day, this Georgia factory secretly transforms 100,000 pounds of cheese into perfectly crispy mozzarella sticks.
Featuring a massive milking operation and a centuries-old recipe, these hardworking goats help produce 300 wheels of decadent triple-cream goat cheese every day. There's a giant rabbit mascot at this Missouri factory where 1.4 million cheddar bunny crackers hop off the assembly line every hour. It takes a state-of-the-art extruder and atomized liquid cheese to make 44,000 cheese doodles per minute. Cheese `nudes' become crispy mozzarella sticks at this Georgia facility where the final product is stretch tested in a lab. Before being smothered in cheese at locations across the country, every single Pappa John's pizza starts out as a dough ball in Kentucky.
Head to Gloucester, Massachusetts, where one of America’s longest-running companies reveals the secret to making golden square-shaped fish fillets. A fairground favorite since the 1920s, this Indiana outfit turns out 40 million pounds of corn dogs every year. These gourmet rice crisps are baked in a massive triple-decker oven before being fried to crispy perfection in just 90 seconds flat.
Head to North Carolina, home of Mt. Olive's picklicious plant that produces plenty of pounds of pickled pepperoncini peppers everyday. Crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside, New Yorker Bagels legendary everything bagel`s key ingredient is really in the water. What began as a small beef company, Barber Foods now boasts a 175,000 sq. ft. facility that produces 426,000 iconic cordon blue frozen stuffed chicken breast daily.
A visit to Big League Chew; a creamy horseradish from Baltimore; and Pennsylvania cupcakes factory that was put in the spotlight following a national security incident and an investment from a TV celebrity.
A million cups of applesauce every year; the art of ultra-creamy fudge at America's longest-running family-operated candy maker; a billion crispy onion rings.
Spotlighting a bakery that makes 28 donuts per second; factory employees who straighten ingredients by hand to make pepperoni; and a multigrain snack that is drizzled in chocolate.
Iconic cheesecakes on a stick, hand-dipped in chocolate; a monster wheel of cheddar; irresistible blondies sent across the country.
It takes a top-secret recipe and a waterfall to make deep-fried cheese curds; keeping up with the demand for cow pies; pecan caramel clusters drenched in rich creamy chocolate; the science behind carbonated pop-in-your-mouth candy.
Keeping up with demand for zesty salsa verde; caramel-pecan praline is made by hand; Buffalo's Anchor Bar's tangy sauce.
A low-fat fig Newton that's literally 80-feet long; fresh organic cream churned into an impossibly large chunk of bright yellow butter; pomegranate-flavored treats.
IThe Charleston tea plantation; a hoisin sauce that has twice been sent into outer space; ice cream sandwiches that have been a San Francisco tradition since 1928.
Turning plump green fruit into sliced black olives; frozen fruit pops are like guilt-free smoothies on a stick; wafer-thin cookie chips.
A secret spice blend, a giant steam peeler, and a massive processing facility turn farm-fresh potatoes into bite-size Mexi-Fries; these chocolate almond toffees have a connection to Hollywood royalty; perfecting the art of making absinthe.
