A Chocolate Lover’s Guide to Hershey, PA

We're going to keep this one short and sweet: Hershey Pennslyvania is one of the most chocolate-filled and desert delicious towns in America.

With a namesake like Hershey, is that so hard to believe?

While Hershey Chocolate World is clearly one of the frontrunners in chocolate related entertainment here in 'Chocolatetown USA', there are also a couple other must-mentions on the sweet trail around PA! Put on your stretchy pants and let's get down to business, chocolate business that is!


    • Hershey Chocolate World - Welcome to the Tour de France of chocolate, Hershey Chocolate World. This facility allows guests to 'explore the many wonders of chocolate' with several different one of a kind experiences, each one more delicious than the next. Try the free Chocolate Tour first, a 30-minute journey that will take you from the farms of West Africa in the midst of cocoa bean fields to the dairy pastures of PA.  Next Create Your Own Chocolate Bar in a 45 minute, completely kosher session, picking your own ingredients and designing your own wrapper.

      Afterward head to the 4D Chocolate Mystery and immerse yourselves into over 100 different chocolate-filled story variations, ending it with the Chocolate Tasting Experience, complete with everything from light milk to extra dark flavors! There is also Trolley Works, a historic town tour running Memorial to Labor Day in which you will hear the story of Milton Hershey through the sites and sounds of the city itself. During the holidays this turns into the Holly Jolly Trolly, complete with hot cocoa and cold carolers!

      Of course, you will have plenty of shopping, eating, and sampling opportunities throughout this whole facility!

  • Hershey Story Museum - While still presenting the same scrumptious brand name chocolate and history, the Hershey Story Museum focuses more on the life of Milton Hershey than his products. Walk around and explore all the interactive exhibits, the museum presenting Milton's early failures and industrious orphan school endeavors. Plan hands on games such as ISpy and then head to the Chocolate Lab to see how the in-house experts make the chocolate so rich and creamy.  The presentation will allow you to explore ingredients and get your hands dirty yourselves!

  • Artisan Confection - This chocolatey-gem is oftentimes overlooked in this city, but we can't pass up good chocolate when we see it (or smell it)! Artisan Confection is a local store that holds two major chocolate brands inside; Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker and Dagoba.

    Scharffen Berger specializes in gourmet chocolate and gifts, the rich and smooth chocolate bars ranging from 33% to 82% cocoa. Enjoy flavors such as coffee, orange, mocha, sea salt, and pistachios here, either in full bars or tasting squares.

    Dagoba is a more 'pure and exotic chocolate', a rainforest alliance certified chocolate company that has a bakery section, tasting section, and drinking section. Try the famous Xocolatl, with chili so hot and chocolate so sweet you won't want anything else. There are also such popular flavors as lemon ginger or lavender blueberry, though the whole range of cocoa goes from 37-87%. This company will be very open with their conservation standards, from the bean fermenting process to the drying, roasting, shelling, and grounding.

  • Grove's Brittle Work - 60 years of experience here in Hershey does not disappoint, Grove's Brittle Work being one of the most authentic family-owned and operated candy shops in the whole state! Here you will find really delicious 'homemade, high quality, deluxe brittles and confections', the ultra thin and super secret brittle recipe winning over guests since 1956.

    The brittle itself comes in original, chocolate webbed, and cranberry walnut, plus their newest and most talked about flavor: BACON BRITTLE. If this sweet and salty treat doesn't sell you, the sea salt caramels or peanut butter straws will. Try to get here during a Candy Making Talk, a truly entertaining and informational session filled with plenty of samples!