Last week we had our Fall A finals (in Stats, Micro and OB). To celebrate the end of a sleepless week, Our group of close friends from the Village gathered together to an afternoon tour at Scharffen Berger chocolate factory here at Berkeley.

We started at the factory’s cafe with a great lunch and even better deserts.

We then moved to a very entertaining session about the factory’s history. Scharffen Berger’s history is not that long actually, as the factory is 11 years old. They specialize in dark chocolate on various percentage categories (less percent means more sugar!). We also learned about some of the internals of the chocolate making process, the machines, the different ways to grow it etc. We also learned that we prefer the cheap, unbranded milk chocolate over the expensive quality dark one.

The event concluded with an actual tour in the factory, which was a bit disappointing, as no chocolate was involved. No chocolate rivers, candy bar trees or even big bowls filled with steamy, thick cacao. Just many many iron machines. Nevertheless, it was still lots of fun, the company was great as usual, and it was exactly what we needed after final’s craziness.

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