Gertrude Hawk Tours This Saturday
If you love chocolate and you don't mind driving an hour, you could be in heaven this Saturday.
Gertrude Hawk Chocolates, which started in Dunmore, Pennsylvania, just outside of Scranton, is hosting their bi-annual open house tour of their factory this Saturday. Chris and I have gone to this event the last two times it was held.
It's like trick or treating for adults. You walk through their factory, which is located at 901 Keystone Industrial Park Road in Throop, Pennsylvania. As you pass through the rooms filled with machines making all different kinds of chocolates. Then they give you free samples as you walk by just about every machine.
Every time I walk past some of the conveyor belts I think of that I love Lucy episode where Lucy and Ethel get a job in the Chocolate Factory, and they fall behind wrapping the chocolates so the end up eating them and shoving them in their dresses.
After you walk through the factory they have huge tents outside filled with yummy Gertrude Hawk candy and chocolates. Some of them were deformed while being made, (rejects if you will) but they are all perfectly safe and available for purchase at reduced prices. One year we bought a 5 lb box of Smidgens for under ten bucks.
One of the cool parts about going through their tents is discovering Gertrude Hawk Chocolates with fillings you've never heard of before. Two years ago we bought a box of Red Velvet Cake Smidgens and brought them home and froze them. We enjoyed them for months afterward.
It's a free event and it only takes place once every two years. It is happening this Saturday from 9 a.m. until 6 p.m.
If you love chocolate you will love their open house.