Hershey's Trip Part 3 | Beantown Baker

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Hershey’s Trip Part 3

Today I’m going to wrap up my recap of my trip to Hershey’s. In case you missed it, I posted about Day 1 and the first part of Day 2 a while ago. Every time I sat down to write this post, I just couldn’t find the words. Call it writer’s block or whatever, but I finally carved out some time to sit down and finish up the recap of my trip to Hershey’s.

After we finished our chocolate lunch, we headed over to the test kitchens. First we got to meet some of the bakers who work in the test kitchens. It was really interesting for me to learn about their backgrounds and how they all go jobs testing recipes for Hershey’s.

We had the opportunity to ask any questions we had and then we broke up into small groups. I teamed up with Caryn from Rockin’ Mama and Patsy from Consumer Queen. We headed off to our assigned test kitchen to bake a batch of cookies. We made the Triple Chocolate Cookies. It was a lot of fun baking together and our cookies came out amazingly! While we were baking, we were chatting it up, posing for photos, and tasting some of the cookies that had already been baked.

Next we all met in a conference room to learn about the Milton Hershey School. Children from all over the country go to the MHS to get an education that they might not have been able to get otherwise. The students live on site in large houses with children of their same age group. The school does so many amazing things for these students, I can’t possibly talk about all of it here. If you would like more information, definitely check out their website.

Now that we had freshly baked cookies in our possession, it was time to go to one of the family homes to meet some of the students of MHS. Our team met with a bunch of girls in the 3rd to 5th grade levels. We enjoyed a pizza dinner with them, got a tour of their house, learned all about the chores they each do, and finally got ready for our cookie swap. We piled into cars and headed over to one of the houses of boys to swap and decorate cookies.

Talking with the house parents was an amazing experience. The house parents are married couples who’s full time job is to take care of their students. The kind of people who give their lives like that are just amazing.

The next morning, we were all getting ready to head home, but for one last treat, we all were able to choose a spa treatment at the Chocolate Spa. I decided to get a treatment I had never had before, the Chocolate Fondue Wrap. After being exfoliated from head to toe, I was lathered in warm chocolate fondue and then wrapped up like a burrito. It was one of the most relaxing hours of my life and I would highly recommend it!

After my spa treatment, I had a few minutes to hit up the shops in the hotel before catching a shuttle back to the airport. I can’t believe all the activities (and all the chocolate) they crammed into 3 days at Hershey’s, but it was definitely one of the most fun things I’ve ever done. Thanks again Hershey’s for whisking me away for a few days.

Travel

6 comments »

20 Responses to “Hershey’s Trip Part 1”

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Chelsea — January 19, 2011 at 5:28 pm

Wow, that sounds like an incredible trip! I really hope to make my way over there someday. So nice of Hershey to do all that!
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Fun and Fearless in Beantown — January 19, 2011 at 5:37 pm

Wow, this looks like a fantastic trip! I went to Hershey World once when I was small and all I remember were the rides! 🙂
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Cupcake Kelly — January 19, 2011 at 5:48 pm

That chocolate tour sounds really fun! I went on a Callier facotry tour in Switzerland. It was pretty lame and not as high tech(they did have a tasting room though).
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Cupcake Activist — January 19, 2011 at 6:05 pm

How can I get in on this action next time?! How fun!! I think I would go crazy with that much chocolate.
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Sarah — January 19, 2011 at 6:06 pm

Hershey is a fun place to go, even as an adult. I go every 6 months with 2 friends of mine and we spend a day at the Chocolate Spa at Hotel Hershey (hopefully you had a chance to go – it’s AMAZING). The Hotel Hershey is gorgeous and is even better in the spring/summer, when the gardens behind the hotel are in bloom. And I love shopping at Chocolate World for all of the baking items that are so hard to find elsewhere! Can’t wait to hear about the rest of your trip.
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Rachel @ Baked by Rachel — January 19, 2011 at 6:11 pm

Wow! Totally jealous of that trip! And I am so going on a mini pb cup search soon – my kitchen needs them 🙂
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Kris @ everywhereorange.com — January 19, 2011 at 6:20 pm

I live about an hour from there and we were just there on New Year’s Eve. Looks like you had an amazing time. Don’t you just love how it smells like chocolate everywhere?!?!?!? I have never stayed at the hotel hershey because we live so close, but maybe hubby and i need to do a night away!!! can’t wait to see the rest of your trip!!!
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Daisy — January 19, 2011 at 6:28 pm

Chocolate bubble bath?! nice! What a great experience for you. I went on a family road trip here (and to Reading, PA – Amish Country!) when I was a kid. I had so much fun!!!
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Shannon — January 19, 2011 at 9:31 pm

how neat you got to make your own candy bar!! awesome choices 🙂

the shaws by me has cinnamon chips now, if you need any more 😉
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Georgia (The Comfort of Cooking) — January 19, 2011 at 10:01 pm

Wow, what a trip! I’m somewhere between insanely jealous and ravenously hungry now, haha. Thanks for sharing! It looks like you had a lot of fun. I’m so glad I found your blog. Looking forward to exploring your recipes and seeing what’s next! – Georgia
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Heather Lynne — January 20, 2011 at 1:02 am

I love Hershey:-) It’s always been one of my favorite places. It sounds like you got the royal treatment, jealous!
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aimee — January 20, 2011 at 1:52 am

i have to say, i never thought of visiting hershey…but it sounds like you fun, and i am a sucker for any “food factory” tour. it was so nice of them to show you ladies such a good time!!
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kitchenmisfit — January 20, 2011 at 2:41 am

Looks like you had a ton of fun! And now I want to take a chocolate bubble bath too
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Amy (The Petite Filet) — January 20, 2011 at 3:04 am

Your chocolate bar looks amazing! And the store looks pretty cool too. I’d love to go to Hershey at some point.
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The Small Boston Kitchen — January 20, 2011 at 12:45 pm

How cool! I love the make your own candy bar part and I agree with you, I would have wanted lots of salty pretzels in there! So fun!
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Leslie M. — January 20, 2011 at 1:00 pm

Great Post and we had a fabulous time! It was wonderful meeting you and your Blog is fabulous!
Leslie
Leslie Loves Veggies
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oliepants — January 20, 2011 at 9:57 pm

Talk about a delicious trip! You have totally made me want to go! I love the make-your-own. I definitely would be a toffee and dark chocolate person!
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Julie (thelittlekitchen.net) — January 21, 2011 at 2:07 pm

What a cool trip! Looks like you had fun. Can’t wait to hear about the rest of it!
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Megan — January 21, 2011 at 11:01 pm

This sounds absolutely fabulous. You might have to go into business with that candy bar. I was ready to buy one after the description… with more pretzels please. rom the accommodations to the shopping to that chocolate bath… wow!
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Kerstin — January 24, 2011 at 1:05 am

How fun! I want some mini Reese’s cups to bake with!