Family Fun at Turkey Hill Experience in Pennsylvania

Last Updated on April 6, 2016 by Babita

Our Turkey Hill Experience was not blog related or sponsored in any way. During our spring break last week we decided to  go to Pennsylvania. We stayed in a small town called Bird-in-Hand, which is smack dab in Amish country. Before leaving for our trip I researched for places to visit and came upon The Turkey Hill Experience, in Lancaster County which was around 20 minutes away from where we stayed.

After looking at their website, I felt it would be perfect for our family. So I reserved our tickets online.

On the day of our visit to the Turkey Hill Experience, we arrived early. I was so glad I had advance reservations because all of the morning slots were sold out.

 

 

Unlike other tours, the Turkey Hill Experience is not a guided factory tour. It is an indoor interactive attraction. It is not a working factory tour, and I am glad this is clearly mentioned on their website. We had the choice of either buying tickets for their Interactive space (this one is cheaper) or their Taste Lab. We opted for the Interactive Space plus Taste Lab.

We started our visit by reading about the Turkey Hill Dairy story and checking out their history, maps, videos, and a dairy exhibit.

 

 

Once we were done reading up, we went through to their Interactive space where we were treated to unlimited samples of ice cream and iced tea. Off course my little one ‘S’ was on cloud nine when she heard about the unlimited samples. She forgot all about the interactive space and focused in trying as many samples as she could. Each of us ordered our favorite flavors and relaxed for our turn at the test lab.

 

 

Since we still had some time for our session of The Taste Lab to begin ‘S’ tried her hand at milking the mechanical cow. She found it amusing when it sprayed water instead of the milk.

 

 

She then created her virtual ice cream flavor which she was able to save and email it for her records.

 

Finally it was time for The Taste Lab. Looking around I could see kids as well as parents equally excited. Once we entered the room, we were asked to wash our hands. Depending on the number of people in our group we were seated around the lab. We were given a pint of plain ice cream and then educated about flavors. We were instructed to add only 4 – 6 drops of any flavoring of our choice. I think ‘S’ chose strawberry.

 

 

Next we were asked to select our condiments and other knicks knacks. As you can see below there were many options to choose from.

 

This is my creation below. I started off with coffee flavoring. Since I am a very visual person I wanted something colorful. So I added strawberry and caramel condiments. At this point I was totally going for the look rather than the taste. I also incorporated some dry pineapple and cranberry bits. I know it was all over the place, but it was delicious.

 

 

This one was TEE’s creation. She was more methodical with her creation. She blended coffee flavoring with a bits of chocolate and tons of peanut crackers. The result was awesome and heavenly goodness.

 

 

Once we were done creating our flavors we had to hand back our ice cream back to the Lab assistants who placed them in deep freeze again. In the meantime we were quizzed about Turkey Hill ice cream and their history. Lastly we were asked about their most popular current flavor, and was surprised to find out it was Butter Pecan.

 

 

We ended our Turkey Hill Experience feeling elated. I don’t know about my girls but my husband and I felt like small children. This is one place I would strongly suggest everyone to check out. It offers tons of fun for people of all ages. I can personally vouch for that fact because in my group, we had kids, parents, grandparents, and even a young couple without kids.

The one advice I would give is to select the morning sessions. They are less crowded and kids are able to spend quality time in the Interactive space.