For chocolate lovers, there really aren’t many places better than Hershey, Pennsylvania. Not only is there a whole theme park devoted to chocolate but you can find some of the largest chocolate bars around, shirts, goodies and a lot more all inside Hershey World. I visited Hershey as a kid, and again a few years ago for a conference and I’m always amazed at the changes I see to the town that is built up around candy. But on our most recent visit last month, we were able to try a few different things that were newer including the Make Your Own Candy Bar attraction.
As someone that loves chocolate, the idea of making my own candy bar is almost too good to be true. What I didn’t expect was the popularity of the attraction and the lines even when we arrived for our scheduled time. You have to have a ticket to make your own candy bar before you get in line, and they do different timed rounds through the chocolate factory. Get your feet ready, you’re going to be standing through the whole process from start to finish!
Guests are handed hair nets and an apron, they are mostly for show but since you are walking into an area that is producing food you have to wear them in order to even start your experience. Your ticket holds the key to everything during the process and before you even get started you will be asked to scan it and put your name into the system. This will help you not only keep track of your candy bar as you go, but also figure out which one of the hundreds made each hour is yours at the end!
Every candy bar made through the Make Your Own Candy Bar experience is given a chocolate base you can select – milk, white or dark chocolate. No matter what you choose, keep in mind your candy bar will be coated in milk chocolate at the end. You can choose up to three different mix in fillers. There are six different options, and you can even add sprinkles at the end. I made sure that our candy bars were unique and that what I put inside mine would result in a gluten free candy bar at the end of the line.
As the candy bar heads down the belt (check out our video below – it’s actually really neat to watch), you can see the different filling pieces shaken into the chocolate base of each candy bar. I was a bit nervous watching as my candy bar went under items like pretzel pieces because I didn’t want anything to be cross contaminated. But each unit is measured precisely, and the chances of any cross contamination is extremely slim. You can follow your candy bar as it goes through the whole process and watch as your chocolate bar is made right, coated in chocolate and sprinkles (if you selected them) – all the way down to the packaging you selected.
The process is a lot of fun, but does require you to stand and walk slowly through the whole experience. It was fun to watch everything we selected be used in our own candy bars down to the custom tin and stickers we selected. And at the end, we got a delicious reward – a candy bar we ordered custom to us!
The Make Your Own Candy Bar Experience is wheel chair accessible, and the ticket price is the same for any age group. Tickets are $21.95, which includes the experience, your candy bar, a metal tin and custom name wrapper. Overall the experience is fun and would be a great idea for special occasions or your first visit to Hershey!
Watch as our Hershey Bars are made with our selections!
For more information and pricing on the Make Your Own Candy Bar Experience visit Hershey’s Website.