Day 266 – North Cascades Loop

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Day 266 of a Year Long Road Trip Along America’s Scenic Byways

After tooling around the Town of Winthrop, which looked like it had been preserved since the late 1800s, though the old-fashioned facades were erected in 1972, we turned south to Cashmere to complete a loop drive.

Cashmere, Washington

Aplets and Cotlets Candy Factory Tour

Cashmere is home to Aplets and Cotlets, a candy factory that provides tours of the facility.  The company was founded in 1920 by two Armenian immigrants who bought an apple orchard and together with their candy recipes from home created Aplets.  Later, they expanded to include a variety of fruit and nut confections.

I’m not the biggest fan of fruit candy, but I did enjoy the short factory tour.  We started in the kitchen where they ran four enormous double boilers to cook the ingredients.  The mixture is poured onto long, metal trays, the flavor is marked, and it is allowed to cool to room temperature for two hours before it is moved to the freezer for almost a day.

The candy slab is then covered with cornstarch and sent through the cutter.  The slab is cut into approximately 7,200 pieces of candy that fall into a tumbler which shakes off the cornstarch and adds powdered sugar.

The factory line workers then place the candies into the plastic trays.  They sort over 10,000 candies per hour.  The trays of candy flow along the conveyor belt to packagers who fill the boxes which are then sealed and inspected for tight packaging. There are other factory lines that produce chocolate products, but they weren’t on display.  It was fun to watch for a few minutes anyway.

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The candy factory turned out to be our only stop for the day.  We spent the rest of the day traveling and ended the evening in Yakima.  We plan on visiting Mount Rainier National Park tomorrow.
ETB

Map of My Road Trip Across the USA

For a summary about my road trip across the USA, click HERE. For the interactive map, see the below link.

Other Articles About Washington You May Like

• Day 262 – North Cascades Loop
• Day 263 – North Cascades Loop (Part 2)
• Day 264 – North Cascades Loop (Part 3)
• Day 265 – North Cascades Loop (Part 4)

Shop

Check out the photographic note cards and key chains at my shop.  Each card has a travel story associated with it.  20% of proceeds are donated to charity.

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