Do you love ice cream? I think everyone does, right? Well have I got a fun place to go for you! The Turkey Hill Experience in Columbia, Pennsylvania! Not only do you learn about how Turkey Hill makes their ice cream but you get to eat as much ice cream as you want! Plus you can make your own creation.
When you arrive is is a very large brick building. The parking may be limited however there is some on street parking or parking a short distance away with a free shuttle that will take you back and forth to your car. We were lucky enough to land on street parking right across the street.
We loved this big cow that you can pose with outside.
When you enter there is so much to do and see. I recommend 2-3 hours for your whole experience.
We started out trying some Turkey Hill Iced Tea. My kids absolutely love Turkey Hill Raspberry Iced Tea. I buy at least 4 half gallons per week.
Then from there we entered a small theater that talked about what we would experience. From there we of course had to try some ice cream. There is a stand with 10 or so flavors you can try. You can go back as many times as you want.
Here you can see some of the flavors we had. The Butter Brittle and Black Raspberry were so good!
Next you can create a virtual ice cream including three steps. The flavor you want, the packaging you want and then make a short commercial for your new flavor.
You use your ticket to track your creation from station to station.
Here is Evan filming his commercial. There is a pre-written script related to a few different themes that you can select from.
Lauren did her commercial interviewing cows about the new flavor.
There are other fun activities throughout the experience.
Then off to the highlight of our visit the Taste Lab where you are given vanilla soft serve to start with and you can create your own flavor with any toppings mixed in that you want. I would suggest booking your Taste Lab in advance online here. If you wait till the day of I noticed many of the times were filled up and people could not get in for several hours.
You have someone stepping you through as you make your creation so that you don't go to crazy and put too many options in to your creation. Biggest tips - don't over stir, and don't add to many different options. All those extra additions may sound good separately but all mixed together may ruin your ice cream.
You start out with the flavoring. They will let you know how many drops you should use as this is concentrated flavoring. Chocolate takes more drops, here is Evan adding about 10 drops to make chocolate.
Here you can see all of the flavorings and toppings you can add.
Next you head to the inclusion wall and pick some yummy stuff that you want to add to your ice cream.
Last but not least you can add a swirl of flavor like birthday cake frosting shown here, or marshmallow, strawberry, fudge and more.
After your creation is done you learn a bit more about Turkey Hill ice cream creation while your ice cream sits in the quick chiller to harden it up a bit. The kids approve their creations and are eating the fruits of their labors. You could get a cover and wait to eat your creation, but be careful as they will melt quickly so you might as well eat them.
There are so many cute photo opportunities. I was very surprised to find out that Butter Pecan is Turkey Hill's top selling flavor, with Vanilla in 2nd place.
Silly Lauren.
Funny Evan!
The cow is very important to ice cream.
Oh dear, they let a Boston driver drive the Turkey Hill truck.
The gift shop has some cool stuff. We bought a small cooler with 6 flavors of drinks. They had Strawberry Lemonade which I had tried earlier that I really like that they don't sell in our stores.
If you are in the area it is definitely worth the visit!
Find them online: http://www.turkeyhillexperience.com/
Disclosure: I was provided with tickets for my family to the Turkey Hill Experience including the Taste Lab. No other compensation was received and as always all opinions are my own.
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