Last Updated: May 2026
We were crossing Pennsylvania and couldn’t resist stopping at Hershey Chocolate World. What started as a quick detour turned into a full afternoon of chocolate history, cacao science, and a very necessary beer at Troegs Brewery.
Hershey Chocolate World
Milton Hershey lived from 1857 to 1945. He worked for a candy maker as a teenager, then launched two candy businesses — both failed. He eventually learned to make caramels with fresh milk and grew that business successfully. But chocolate was always his true interest. At an 1893 World’s Exposition in Chicago, he was captivated by German chocolate-making equipment. He sold his caramel business for $1 million and turned his full attention to chocolate. By 1900 he was manufacturing Hershey’s milk chocolate bars for the mass market.
In 1903, Hershey broke ground on a new factory in Derry Township — the heart of Pennsylvania’s dairy country, chosen for its abundant fresh milk supply. The surrounding city would eventually take his name.
Hershey sources its cacao from three regions: 13% from the Americas, 69% from West Africa, and 18% from Southeast Asia. Each cacao pod is harvested by hand. Inside each pod are 20 to 40 beans, which are separated, fermented to develop rich flavor, then bagged and shipped to Hershey for roasting. It takes 270 beans to make one pound of chocolate. The almonds, for what it’s worth, come from California.
Hershey’s Kisses were introduced in 1907. Today, 80 million are produced every single day. Hershey’s Syrup followed in 1926 and semisweet chocolate chips in 1928.
Milton Hershey married Catherine Sweeney. They never had children. They established a boarding school for orphaned children, and before his death he transferred the bulk of his wealth to the school to ensure it would outlast him. The Milton Hershey School still operates today and currently serves around 2,100 students from low-income families — tuition, housing, meals, and medical care all provided free of charge.
Twin Grove RV Resort
We needed a base for a couple of nights. The park was less than a quarter full when we arrived. Wifi was slow — 2 Mbps down, 1 Mbps up at best. Cable was good with a nice channel selection. Two bars on Verizon. Pedestal power and water pressure were both solid. The park itself is enormous: ferris wheel, carousel, movie theater, arcade, miniature golf, recreation center, restaurant, ice cream parlor, three dog parks, volleyball, basketball, disc golf, and two pools. It was early in the season — low 50s and rainy — so most amenities were still closed. By Friday night the park had filled completely and things came to life, including a live band. Not a bad place to land.
Troegs Brewery
After all that chocolate, we needed lunch and a beer. Troegs has a spacious tasting room that also serves food. The beer and food were both quite good — a perfect follow-up to Chocolate World.
Visitor Information
Hershey Chocolate World is free to enter; individual attractions (chocolate tour ride, tasting experience, etc.) are ticketed separately. It’s adjacent to Hersheypark and can get crowded on weekends and in summer. Troegs Independent Brewing is about 5 miles from Chocolate World in Hershey — their tasting room is open daily and no reservation is needed for small groups. Twin Grove RV Resort is in Pine Grove, PA, about 25 miles northwest of Hershey, and transforms into a full-activity resort on summer weekends.
Practical Tips
Hershey Chocolate World is genuinely worthwhile even if you skip the paid attractions — the free chocolate-making tour ride alone tells the whole story well. Arrive early on weekends to avoid lines. The Milton Hershey School legacy is one of the most remarkable philanthropic stories in American business history and worth reading about before you visit — it gives the whole place a different weight. Troegs pairs perfectly as a lunch or dinner stop; their Nugget Nectar and Perpetual IPA are both worth trying if they’re on tap.
