By Jimmy Pitenis
How many of you love chocolate? How many of you love coconut? I love both! And was very lucky to visit a famous chocolate factory called Anastasia Confections in Orlando, Florida where they make the finest chocolate dipped coconut patties! Anastasia Confections machine make over 10,000 coconut patties a day. They use over a half a million pounds of coconut each year. That’s the weight of 150 cars stacked up one on top of the other! They also use over 350,000 pounds of chocolate every year. That’s about 100 cars stacked up one on top of the other. That’s huge! 

Have you ever wondered how these candies were made? The whole process
is automated. When I took the tour, their chocolate factory was awesome
and was filled with a chocolate smell. We began our tour in the huge kitchen
area where the coconut filling is made. They take coconut and mix it with
corn syrup and sugar and cook it to 375 degrees. The next day it is poured
into this giant machine that squeezes out the coconut mixture 10 patties at a
time. Then it coats the bottom of each coconut patty with melted chocolate.
This big machine makes sure they get put in a straight line so nothing gets
damaged. Then a worker collects the thousands of wrapped coconut patties
and they get packaged into small boxes that are ready for shipping. On the
day I toured the factory, they were making plain coconut patties, but they
also make other flavors of coconut patties: mango, key lime, orange, and
piña colada. I tried them all. My favorite is the key lime coconut patty.
They also make other chocolate treats. Another machine squeezes out melted
chocolate into shape of alligators. After the melted chocolate fills the plastic
mold, a worker moves the tray onto a vibrating machine that shakes air
bubbles out of the chocolate. This machine makes 10 small alligators at a
time, and hundreds of alligators are made in just a few hours. Then the
alligators are packaged 6 to a box and are ready for shipping. This machine
can also make really big 20 ounce alligators that they sell individually.
They make other yummy treats as well. Anastasia Confections makes the best
salt water taffy in a dozen yummy flavors. They also make citrus candies, and
they also sell sugary gummy worms and blue shark gummies.
This Greek family-operated business has been working hard at making
candies since 1984, first in the Boca Raton area of Florida. They moved to a
larger chocolate factory located in Orlando in 1996 because their business got
so big. They sell their candies all over the United States and Canada and are
known for their Florida Gator and Coconut Patties.

I had the chance to interview the president of Anastasia
Confections, Mike Constantine, who is from the island of
Samos. His wife, Anastasia, is from Kalamata.

Jimmy: How many pounds of coconut do you go through
in a year?

Mike: We go through approximately a half a million pounds
a year. We also go through about a half a million pounds
of sugar and a half million pounds of corn syrup too, and
about 350,000 pounds of chocolate every year.

Jimmy: Where does the coconut and chocolate come from?
What countries supply them?

Mike: Coconut is mainly produced in foreign countries
Philippines, Polynesia, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam. Those are
the main producers of coconut that the entire world is
using. The chocolate is made out of cocoa bean and cocoa
bean is made mainly in Ivory Coast in Africa and South
America and some other places but it’s a vitreous item and
it’s controlled by big buys in big companies. Lately the price
has been fluctuating very much in all these items

Jimmy:How are the fuel costs affecting your business?

Mike: It’s causing a huge problem. Fuel cost had caused a
huge problem on every ingredient and raw material that
we buy to create the product and has increased prices
tremendously over the last year or so. It’s not only the oil
prices but also the ethanol prices because corn and sugar is
used to make ethanol. The price of gasoline has caused the
price of all things to go up.

The best part of this assignment was tasting
all the chocolate. Yum! Yum! Ω