After all that, the Green Grove factory is a great place to stop for a tour, a feed and a coffee. I ignore the guff about them being organic and simply enjoy the best coffee for a hundred miles in any direction; good reasonably priced food and an always interesting and entertaining tour of the factory. Yes, they make licorice here, as well as lots of other chocolate coated goodies. The first time we visited, I think we spent $100 on chocolate and licorice, and a few hundred more on some art work. I love to watch stuff being made. I could sit in a car factory all day and watch cars being put together, or a steel mill and watch steel being poured. A licorice factory is much more fun - if you like licorice. I am no fan of it, but I get a kick out of watching people pouring raw ingredients into machinery at one end of a room and seeing a guillotine slicing up little licorice sticks for packing at the other end.
The secret is obviously out. The place was completely packed on the weekend. The carpark was overflowing, tables were being fought over and they'd run out of half the food on the menu by the time we ordered. Who cares - it's great.
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Not too many miles from my SW Ohio home is a family-owned dairy where you can watch ice cream being made (quite good ice cream, well known throughout the Midwest US). I have also stood outside pizza parlors here and there, watching dough crusts being made (some by hand, some by machine) that are worthy of modern dance. In the American South, you can find any number of taffy-pulling candy shops --- truly hypnotic. But the true magic-making is found in southern chocolate shops, where masters create chocolate and fudge masterpieces in front of you, at the same time performing a schtick funnier and more profound than that found in any comedy club. These impresarios are to be found from tourist centers in Florida to Louisiana, and their patter makes the various sweets worth far more than the price you pay for it.
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