Candy Factory Mystery Read Free

from the smell of candy.”
    â€œWho would want to?” Benny asked as he followed his nose to the candy kitchen.

CHAPTER 3
    A Curious Candy Tour
    M rs. Winkles locked up the candy store and led the children out into the factory area.
    The Aldens breathed deeply. They couldn’t get enough of the good smells of sugar, butter, chocolate, caramel, and roasting nuts.
    When they reached a small room, they found white caps and aprons hanging on pegs. “You need to wear these whenever you go into the candy-making area,” Mrs. Winkles said as she tucked her white curls into her white cap. “Here are some disposable gloves to wear, too. This way everything stays nice and clean.”
    The children giggled after they put on their white caps and aprons.
    Mrs. Winkles led the Aldens into a room filled with gleaming machines, shiny copper pots, and huge silver vats. “This is the candy kitchen.”
    â€œWow!” Benny said. “I’ve never been in a kitchen just for candy.”
    â€œYoo hoo, Meg!” Mrs. Winkles called out to a woman in her early twenties across the room. She had a phone cradled on her shoulder. In front of her, a machine sprayed jets of chocolate into egg-shaped metal containers. The molds moved along on a belt just like groceries in a supermarket.
    â€œThat’s our main conveyor belt,” Mrs. Winkles explained. “We line up our candy molds on the conveyor belt so that they’ll land right below the chocolate sprayers.”
    â€œWhat would happen if the molds weren’t lined up right?” Benny wanted to know.
    â€œA lot of expensive chocolate would be wasted, and there would be an awful mess to clean up,” Mrs. Winkles answered. “That’s why we have markings on the conveyor belt to make sure the candy molds are in the proper place. I’ll have Meg or Tom show you how to do that — if Meg ever gets off the phone, that is. It’s only supposed to be used for talking between the kitchen and the packing room in case someone needs to slow down the belt. Oh, I do wish Meg would do one thing at a time to cut down on mistakes.”
    Benny and Soo Lee couldn’t believe their eyes as they watched showers of melted chocolate squirt into egg molds.
    â€œWhen the molds get to the end of the line, a machine spins them to spread the chocolate evenly inside,” Mrs. Winkles told the Aldens.
    â€œThen what?” Soo Lee asked.
    â€œAfter that, the molds move through a cooling tunnel,” Mrs. Winkles continued, “to an area where we separate the molds from the chocolate. Then we drop in the sugar chicks. Before moving along to the packing room, the eggs get bathed in a final layer of chocolate so they’re all sealed up.”
    â€œI’d like to bathe in a layer of chocolate,” Henry said. “My mouth is watering.”
    Mrs. Winkles laughed. “Oh, you’ll get so used to being around chocolate, you won’t even feel like eating any at the end of the day.”
    â€œNot me!” Benny cried above the hum of the candy-making machines. “I’ll never get tired of eating chocolate.”
    Mrs. Winkles walked the children through different small rooms in her tidy factory. “We’ll see about that, Benny. When I first met my husband, I ate so much chocolate, he said I’d put him out of business. After a while, I got used to being around sweets. Eventually, I almost had to force myself to sample the candy we made to make sure it tasted right.”
    â€œDon’t worry, Mrs. Winkles. You won’t have to force us,” Benny said. “We ate up all the Winkles Chocolate Mice you sent us even though they had no tails.”
    A worried look passed over Mrs. Winkles’s face. “Oh, dear! You didn’t tell me you received the damaged mice, too, James.”
    â€œI’m afraid so, Rose,” James Alden told his old friend. “I didn’t want to mention it; I