Efficiency in gum making

I learned several years ago about how they make gum. It may or may not apply to today’s methods, but I’ve always been fascinated by the technique.

The challenge is that cleaning the machines take a relatively long time and is costly, so you want to avoid that as much as possible. So what they do instead is start with the mildest, weakest flavor, and then go to progressively stronger flavors, ending with licorice as the king of flavors.

That way, in essence, each flavor contains residuals of all the flavors that have gone before it, but it’s okay, because the latest one dominates, so you can’t really tell. Clever, no?

I was reminded of that story today as I was having some dark chocolate (Edelbitter) from Ritter Sport, and it struck me how it tasted so much like their other chocolates, like their Marzipan og Nugat varieties.

Could they be applying the same technique to chocolate making?