This slide show will give you a glimpse of our kitchens where we make the candies, jams, and jellies you see on the website and can buy in our stores.
The four kitchens are called the Jam and Jelly Kitchen, Hot Kitchen, Candy Kitchen, and the Molding Room. You can watch all four kitchens in action through the viewing windows in our store.
Chocolate candies are made in molds filled with liquid chocolate that solidifies when it cools.
Bulk creams are made in the Hot Kitchen then hand-rolled and shaped into round centers that will be enrobed in chocolate.
Enrobing is the term for coating candy centers with chocolate.
All our candies are hand decorated with a design that identifies each flavor.
The candies are individually selected and placed into each box.
The ingredients for the meltaways are heated and stirred in the copper kettle. When the candy is ready, it's poured into a frame on the cooling table.
After the candy has solidified it is cut by hand using a roller cutter.
All the coatings are prepared and poured onto freshly popped popcorn. It is then mixed in the copper kettles until the popcorn is completely coated.
The warm popcorn is poured onto special tables to cool and harden. Before packaging, some popcorn flavors are also mixed with chocolate.
Wild berry juice is cooked with other ingredients to 224° F. The liquid candy is poured onto a frame on the cooling table.
The candy is evenly spread out to an even thickness. After the candy has set it is cut into individual squares with the tool we call the claw.
After the candy has been cooked, other ingredients such as nuts can be added. The candy is poured out onto the cooling table into a frame.
Slabs of fudge are run through a cutting machine that slices it into pieces.
Liquid toffee is poured directly onto a cooling table at 312° F.
The toffee is spread into a metal frame on the cooling table then the frame is removed and the candy is cut into squares. These squares will be used for either Black Bear Toffee Crunch or our chocolate-covered Klondike Toffee.
Liquid toffee is poured directly onto a cooling table at 312° F. Toffee is poured and spread directly onto table without a frame. It's cut into slabs that are then coated with chocolate and dusted with ground almonds.
The toffee slabs are flipped over and coated with chocolate and almonds on the other side.
The caramel is cooked in a machine called a Fire Mixer. It continually agitates the caramel during the entire cooking process. When the caramel has completed cooking, it will be poured into a metal frame on a cooling table to solidify.
The caramel is cut into slabs that are run through a cutting machine to make individual squares.
Caramel is made the same way as for the caramel centers but this time it's poured into the Caramel Depositor.
The depositor drops dollops of caramel onto trays of nuts. When cool, these candies are removed from the trays and enrobed in chocolate.
Hot liquid sugar is mixed with fruit purees. As the sugar cools with constant agitation, it crystallizes and changes color and texture until it forms a cream.
The bulk cream is hand rolled in the enrobing kitchen before it is coated with chocolate.
Some berries such as these lingonberries are ground for jam or sauces before they are cooked.
Alaska Wild Berry Products also uses locally harvested and gathered wild salmonberries, mossberries, rose hips, blackberry, raspberries, high bush cranberries, black and red currants, and wild blueberries, organic rhubarb, and fireweed blossoms.
Berries are heated to help release all their natural juices before being strained and used for candy or jelly.
Ingredients are added to our signature Sourdough Sauce that has been made by Alaska Wild Berry Products since 1946.
The Sourdough Sauce is whisked to distribute the spices evenly, making a delicious product.
Hot jams, jellies, and sauces are pumped into the hopper then they are deposited automatically into jars.
The jars are capped automatically then flipped over to heat seal the lid to the jars.
We hope you have enjoyed our little walk through the kitchens. Although we have only touched the surface, it should give you a better understanding of what we do here. Thanks for joining us!
