Normally I don’t let my sweet tooth direct travel planning. But as soon as I read about the recent opening of the Turkey Hill Experience in Columbia, Pa., I put it on the calendar. Further research led to the delicious discovery that within neighboring York, Lancaster, and Chester counties are several snack food companies’ headquarters, most offering free public tours. We took a three-day getaway along Pennsylvania’s “sweet and salty trail,” and I’ve written posts about both types of snack. Today, it’s a salute to the sweet tooth!
The highlight of our entire trip was a visit to the Turkey Hill Experience, which opened in June. This manufacturer of ice cream and cold drinks rehabilitated an old mill building, creating an attraction of 26,000 square feet with exhibits, a dining area and retail space.
This is not a factory tour, but there are video monitors showing the Turkey Hill Dairy production line. It’s actually more like a children’s museum, with nine interactive exhibit areas describing dairy culture and the progressive stages of ice cream production. My kids really enjoyed milking the mechanical cows, sitting in the milk truck, standing in the blast freezer, and creating their own ice cream flavor. We ALL enjoyed the ice cream and iced tea samples!
There’s a fair share of chocolate companies in the region; you may have of heard of HERSHEY’S…perhaps? On this trip we focused on small makers of artisan-quality chocolate. At Wolfgang Candy in York, there’s a lot to see in the alpine-themed visitor center, including the original soda fountain counter, a delivery truck, and display cases of antique chocolate molds. Our daughter loved peering into a multi-story dollhouse. There’s plenty of chocolate available for sale, but it pays to look for discounted “seconds” goodies. Participating on Wolfgang’s 40-minute tour requires advance planning, since it’s not offered every day.
We also visited Wilbur Chocolate Company’s “Candy Americana” museum in historic downtown Lititz. While this company doesn’t run guided tours, we were able to watch a demonstration of pretzels being carefully dipped into kettles of liquid milk chocolate. We also enjoyed the displays of vintage candy machinery and chocolate memorabilia. Here too, among the wafting smells of chocolate, are ample temptations to buy.
Pennsylvania’s Dutch Country claims to be the birthplace of the Whoopie Pie, the sweet sandwich of vanilla cream between two chocolate cake saucers. They’re easy to find at Amish farm stands and bakeries around Lancaster. At the Lititz Family Cupboard Bakery in Lititz, they’ve been upgraded with a dip in chocolate ganache.
We visited with every intention of trying one, but got sidetracked by the seasonal offering of their signature apple dumpling. Time stood still as we savored that cinnamon apple, baked inside a golden, flaky orb of crust, which was served in a pool of warm caramel sauce with a small pitcher of cream to the side.
–Traci L. Suppa
Traci L. Suppa drags her small-town family to see a quirky array of the world’s largest, longest, or tallest things, and blogs about it at Go BIG or Go Home.
