chocolate

Chocolate
Comments -
1. For industrial chocolate giant companies like Hershey or Nestle simply pour beans into one end of a factory and truck boxes of finished candy bars out the other.
2. In the end does it matter? Valrhona, by almost any measure makes the best range of commercial sealed chocolate anywhere.
3. Getting permission to visit Valrhona is a little like applying for a North Korean visa. There is seldom an outright refusal, yet ther visit does not take oplace unless someone decides it is in the company's interest.
4. For those who are deemed Valrhona - worthy, or who otherwise manage to weasel their way past the heavy steel gates, there is a pleasant surprise. The haughtiness of the public face is missing in the inner sanctum. Valrhona employs Frenchmen who, as God is my witness, all but whistle while they work. Among a full- time staff of four hundred, thirty - year veterans are common.
5. Confidences are not blithely divulged. Most employees would sooner eat a Mars bar than betray their familytrust. Just in case, Valrhona takes no chances. Sacks of beans are coded with numbers and left unlabled. Only a few senior company officals can determine the country of origin, let alone the specific plantation.
Questions -
1. Why does the world look down on American chocolate companies like Hershey's and Mar's when they are so successful?
2. Was Valrhona actingf like Willy Wonka with their fear of theft or is it a legitimate fear?
3. With modern technology, couldn't someone just take a piece of chocolate and have it duplicated?
4. What makes emplyees during this time remain so loyal to a company like Valrhona and why?
Vocabulary -
1. blithely - joyous, merry, or gay in disposition; glad; cheerful.
2. divulged - to disclose or reveal (something private, secret, or previously unknown).
3. haughtiness - disdainfully proud; snobbish; scornfully arrogant; supercilious.
Literary terms -
setting - In France at the Valrhona chocolate plant.
exposition- The author is trying to get into the plant and interview workers.
outline -
The Valrhona chocolate company in France is considered to be the finest in the world. It is also a company that while having very satisfied employees, is filled with a lot of distrust of the public. They will not allow any non employee on the premises for fear of theft, unlike companies like Hershey's who encourage tours.