Fulfill Your Childhood Dream: Create Your Own Ice Cream Flavor

Fulfill Your Childhood Dream: Create Your Own Ice Cream Flavor

An Op-Ed by Brett Allen – Narrator of The Official Best Of

Columbia, PA is home to the Turkey Hill Experience, an interactive museum to educate visitors about Turkey Hill's history and all the tasty products they have. When I went to visit the Experience, I knew about the ice cream, but I didn't realize that they make teas, lemonade and even milk! I had to find out more, so I hooked up with Bob Adams, the General Manager, and I got the low down on all Turkey Hill has to offer.

The museum is held in a brick building that dates back to the late 1800s as a silk mill. It's since been repurposed with multiple floors to house their many interactive exhibits. Since Turkey Hill started out as a milk delivery service, an old milk delivery truck is on display that kids can sit in and pretend to drive. There's also an exhibit shaped like a Turkey Hill ice cream carton that you can walk into.

Bob showed me one of the touchscreen exhibits that allows visitors to make their own virtual ice cream, create the packaging for the ice cream, and then create a commercial to promote their new creation! This one is particularly popular amongst the kids. After this, visitors can go to the ice cream taste lab to create their very own ice cream flavor to enjoy. If you're not an ice cream fan (is there such a thing?) they also have a tea discovery class where you can learn about tea from around the world taste them.

I really liked how, in addition to interactive exhibits, there were also facts posted everywhere and little tidbits about Turkey Hill that I found fascinating. There's a board that lists the top ten best-selling flavors and would you believe that chocolate isn't #1? Vanilla is the top seller followed by Butter Pecan (who knew?) and Neapolitan is third. Speaking of chocolate, I also learned that Turkey Hill uses over 500,000 pounds of cocoa a year to make their ice cream. That's a lot of cocoa!

The Turkey Hill Experience is fun for all ages. Whether you're a kid or a senior citizen, there's something fun for you to do, create, and learn while you're here. Not to mention the fact that you can eat ice cream! Bob Adams informed me that they just celebrated their one-millionth visitor. I have no doubt that they'll reach the next million in no time since this is the Best Ice Cream Attraction of Pennsylvania 2018.

Brett Allen is the executive producer and narrator of The Official Best Of series. To learn more about the best businesses, attractions, and trends in your area, you can catch full episodes by clicking here.