13 Delicious Desserts At Hersheypark You Need To Try
At the turn of the century, arguably the nation's most notable candy maker decided to treat his employees to a sprawling, 121-acre refuge situated in Central Pennsylvania, the place of his birth. That man was Milton Hershey and Hersheypark, which opened its gates in 1906, is the entrepreneur's chocolate-dipped vision continuing to thrill visitors of all generations. Between iconic roller coasters such as the Comet and Skyrush, as well as a zoo, hotel, and campground, the destination enthralls devotees of theme parks and the classic chocolate brand alike.
Yet in the heart of Hershey, Pennsylvania — otherwise referred to as "Sweetest Place on Earth" — it's the treats that overflow with temptation, merging nostalgia with over-the-top brilliance on behalf of the park's plentiful vendors. The grounds are your candy store, and visitors can frolic from booth to booth for imposing milkshakes or battered bites incorporating Reese's, Kit Kats, Twizzlers, and Jolly Ranchers. Coming for the rides might only be secondary to the goodies harbored at Mr. Hershey's amusement metropolis, and if you haven't made a visit yet, you're in for the sugar rush of your life. For all the candy lovers out there, these are the delicious desserts you need to try at Hersheypark.
1. King Sized Milkshakes
Even counting Milton Hershey's confectionery past (running his own soda fountain, for starters), we don't imagine the candy titan couldn't have predicted anything as outrageous as the King Sized Milkshakes. Simply Chocolate is where these viral sugar highs dwell, and every 28-ounce mug is chock-full of goodies upon goodies. If you think the toppings stop at whipped cream, think again. With every sip, you'll encounter full-sized desserts made for nibbling along the way. A silky slice of cheesecake, homemade peanut butter tarts, or a humongous chocolate chip cookie are just a few of the possibilities, accompanied by candy-coated pretzel rods and sprinkled rims for garnish.
The core lineup consists of Reese's, Cookies 'n Cream, and Wildcat's Revenge, the latter featuring an explosion of chocolate soft serve, chocolate sauce, chocolate syrup (is there enough chocolate on this thing?), and topped with sprinkles and a maple bacon waffle, but the holidays bring seasonal versions too. Tromping from ride to ride will work up an appetite — and a hefty step count on your pedometer — so grabbing one of these monstrosities, in our books, is unmissable. Many visitors gasp at the daunting size, so take one Reddit commenter's advice and share it with a buddy or two; after all, they're "an absolute must."
2. Hershey's Funnel Cakes
Your Disneylands and Six Flags know the ways around solid fair food like the funnel cake, so feel free to add Hersheypark to the list. Right down on Founder's Way, Shorty's douses everything from chocolate sauce to peanut butter on this midway favorite, and it's one of the park's most delicious desserts. While powdered sugar is the usual topping of choice, strawberries, caramel syrup, and pieces of candy are a testament to how sweet things lurk behind every corner. And because everything tastes better deep-fried, the shop also slings Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and Oreo cookies straight out of the fryer.
Chocoholics as well as peanut butter lovers will hit a gold mine with the booth's assortment of combinations. For the latter, The Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Funnel Cake oozes with the candy brand's peanut butter sauce, chocolate syrup, and a fine sprinkling of confectioner's sugar — and who could forget the chunks of peanut butter cups scattered on top? Fluffer Nutter channels the classic sandwich with rivulets of peanut butter syrup enveloping sticky dollops of marshmallow, while S'mores evoke the campfire treat splendidly. When all else fails, conjuring some fairground flavors is always possible with an old classic, cinnamon and sugar.
3. Chocolatetown Cheesecake
Going to Hersheypark requires stuffing your face with an unapologetically chocolatey dessert, no? Meet the Chocolatetown Cheesecake. It's located at The Sweeterie, a candy shop churning out cakes, cookies, and pies by a fleet of bakers that essentially make your wildest dessert dreams come true. PennLive.com reports the bakery opened for business at the resort in 2021, and by many accounts, it's already considered heaven on earth. The gourmet stature is boosted by the fact that the confectionery's head, Cher Harris, is an expert pastry-maker, and her prior experience at Hotel Hershey gives a sense of the expertise that's in command.
This is a monument to Milton Hershey's legacy in edible form. Every layer of this miniature cheesecake bursts with chocolate, and it goes without saying that if you're a casual consumer of the confection, you might find it a tad hardcore. The bottom consists of a hard foundation of crumbled cookie, followed by a fluffy center of dark chocolate cheesecake. From there, your fork will pierce blossoms of rich ganache decorated with an array of candies, including a marbled Hershey Kiss and a gigantic rectangular slab inscribed with the destination's name. It's all made with love — and of course, Hershey's chocolate.
4. East Coast Mini Donuts
Knowing how much chocolate you'll gorge on during your food tour of Hersheypark, taking a (temporary) reprieve from the hard candy is very much advised. East Coast Mini Donuts is parked right out front by the boardwalk depositing fried-to-order mini donuts, and for visitors, they're a must-eat. Customers can order between half a dozen to 36 pieces, with options ranging from a sweet snack to an extravagant dessert. Dunk them in your choice of icing — the four flavors are peanut butter, vanilla, strawberry, and chocolate — or for a dose of sweetness undoubtedly putting your dentist on speed dial, the Iced Mini Donuts are coated in glaze and colorful sprinkles to boost the usual doughnut hole.
The Sugar Rush Bucket is the food truck's pièce de résistance, an extensive sampling of the truck's wares visitors can easily split between a group of people. The fine print: 20 mini donuts done up to your liking, plus half a dozen deep-fried Oreos battered in (you guessed it) fluffy donut batter for around $25. The good value — and the portable plastic tub — are excellent for carting around the grounds, though you might want to walk it off before hitting The Laff Track.
5. Chocolate Fun-due
When you have a sweet tooth — which is probably why you're at a chocolate-themed amusement park in the first place — saving room in your tummy is crucial, especially when you're with a group. The Chocolate "Fun-due" (get it?) turns the charcuterie board on its head with baked goods, and a communal dipping pool of melted chocolate, and park-goers are swooning. Once again, The Chocolatier is the mastermind behind this platter, priced at about $20, that rivals some of Hersheypark's notable staples.
As we've just mentioned, it's shockingly frugal for the amount of desserts the restaurant saddles you with, and the variety, mixed with the charming presentation, is on point for an amusement park specialty. The mission is to incite fun, and that's exactly what you get with the goodies on board. Sit in a cozy booth — the seats are constructed out of old roller coaster carts — and plunge bite-sized pieces of Rice Krispie Treats, Chocolate Chip Cookies, shortbread, and more into a molten core of chocolate — Hershey's chocolate — at the center. Another reason the sweet sampler justifies the hype? The Chocolatier makes the desserts in-house, stunning skeptics with the beautifully rich quality of its most notable sumptuous slices of vanilla cheesecake.
6. Homemade Fudge
Anticipating a long line at your favorite Hersheypark coaster? Thankfully, ride enthusiasts can nibble on something sweet to tide over the wait, including some extremely portable — and delectable — homemade fudge. Walk into The Sweeterie on any day, and you'll find rows of different fudge flavors entirely whipped from scratch in the shop's kitchen. PennLive.com confirms that every batch is manually mixed by staff for 90 minutes at a time, creating the super-luscious texture that could outshine world-class confectioneries in a heartbeat.
At this point, the fact that any dessert will incorporate candies out of the chocolate brand's lineup — Hershey bars or Reese's — should surprise no one, least of all fans stepping into the theme park's sugary-sweet world. For example, the Reese's-centric Take 5 is a blissful tribute to the original bar, fusing peanuts, pretzels, and luscious caramel, but all of the candy shop standards we know and love (Cookies 'n Cream and Mint Chocolate Swirl, anyone?) never fail to make our mouths water.
Another tip for getting your fill of Hersheypark treats? Buy a Season Pass. You receive loads of bonus perks when you sign up such as discounts and early admission, as well as the ability to buy sweets during the shop's off-hours.
7. The Chocolatier Cake
Even with the theme park's blitz of multi-colored candy, we're game for satisfying our sweet tooth in a more sophisticated way, too. The Chocolatier Cake — served at The Chocolatier, of course — lives up to the hype as a menu signature, and it's a dazzler from the get-go. Let's start off with how the cake is served, shall we? The theme is obviously cookie-themed, so you're going to see a lot of chocolate chips sprinkled about. The graham cracker cake is speckled with mini chocolate chips, cookie dough ice cream, and a whole chocolate chip cookie plunged into a velvety pile of whipped cream. Chocolate sauce rains down the top. Spectacular as it may be, the cast iron pan it arrives in — shaped like a Hershey's Kiss, mind you — suspends the cake in a lava-esque puddle of (what else?) melted chocolate.
Containing a gingery note that pairs scrumptiously with the chocolate, it's notable The Chocolatier Cake remains hard to resist among a plethora of irresistible picks at Hersheypark. Although The Chocolatier's sweet-meets-savory menu gets all the talk — see chocolate-drenched cheeseburgers and a chicken sandwich hawking Reese's peanut butter — we wouldn't fill up too much at dinnertime where this is concerned.
8. Reese's Peanut Butter Milkshake
Loosen your belt buckle as we dig into another delight off the Hersheypark menu. If Reese's is your ride-or-die candy, then the Reese's Peanut Butter Shake is bound to be up your alley. Grandiose in appearance, it's the kind of wallet-busting dessert (around $17) that would make Harry Burnett Reese beam with pride, and you can order it at The Chocolatier. A smooth, chocolate-peanut butter ice cream greets your tastebuds, and from there you'll encounter slivered peanut butter cups, a pretzel stick rolled in Reese's Pieces, a peanut butter chip rim, and whipped cream. Sitting regally at the top? A hefty slice of homemade peanut butter pie, featuring a silky filling cradled within a chocolate cookie shell.
Over-the-top milkshakes aren't exactly new at theme park eateries, but customers can agree it's worth the calories. In addition to the outrageous load of chocolate and peanut butter, the ice cream's quality is what raises this child-like treat into a gourmet experience. According to Theme Park Foodies, Milton's Ice Cream Parlor, another attraction housed in Hersheypark's Chocolatetown, is thought to produce the vanilla ice cream that the restaurant mixes in. The proportions, although hefty, still scratch that itch for sugary-sweet bliss. Who knows — you might be able to finish one on your own!
9. S'mores Tower
The nuts and bolts of the S'mores Tower: think a chocolate mousse tart, stuffed with layers of crunchy graham cracker, a chocolate center (and cake bottom) with charred cinnamon meringue. Once again, you'll find this gourmet confection at The Sweeterie, where park-dwellers frequently score some of the best desserts that the amusement park delivers. It's stacked in an immaculate column that's attention-grabbing straight from the display case, and while it's one of the resort's many s'mores-inspired treats, it's the first one we've encountered that's so ... divine.
Regular s'mores are a popular hit with crowds at Hershey's Chocolate World, mainly because of the ability to customize. In our opinion, the S'mores Tower is unique and simply harder to recreate outside the park. The mixture of dark chocolate with milk chocolate is at a perfect ratio, while the flaky crunch from the graham balances out the creamy texture of the filling. With the caveat that you may or may not wolf down the extravagant treat (and risk ruining your appetite), one of these can potentially get messy; all it takes is spearing it head-on with your fork to topple it Pisa-style. Keeping that in mind, treasuring it during some downtime from the coasters comes highly recommended.
10. Cinnamon Bread
Interested in trying a candy-less dessert from Hersheypark? It sounds counterintuitive, but we recommend it. First-time visitors are urged to get their paws on the Cinnamon Bread, and make no mistake, your tastebuds will thank you. Attendees can purchase these sweet loaves over at Chocolatetown Treats, where buttery pretzels are twisted on-site. The tearable treats are made by hand, in a similar style to the menu's savory twists, and can be ordered plain (dusted in cinnamon and sugar), as well as a sweet dip — assuming there isn't enough sweetness already — in rich chocolate or in a tart, creamy Apple Butter.
Now, one Reddit commenter described the Cinnamon Bread as "out of this world" while making an apt comparison to the version baked every day at another major amusement park: Dollywood's. Much like the down-home offering from Dolly Parton's attraction, the dough is plush, fluffy, and steaming hot with every mouthful — and trust us, you'll be taking a lot of them. The fact that Chocolatetown is centrally located also makes it feasible to swing a stop during your outing, so you can grab a gooey batch on your way to the parking lot or your first thrill ride of the day.
11. Jolly Rancher Sorbet
Jolly Ranchers has over 70 years of dental mayhem under its belt, but its entry into Hershey's fold didn't occur until the mid-1990s. Fitting, then, that there's a place at Hersheypark to get your fix of the tart candy. The Frozen Spoon, a food truck, churns out refreshing sorbets that are equally colorful and creamy. If you're near Pioneer Frontier — that's the home base of Chickie's & Pete's legendary Crab Fries — you won't miss it.
Admittedly, most of the concessions here haven't been super inclusive to anyone struggling with lactose intolerance, which is why we're excited The Jolly Rancher Sorbet exists. Dairy is the dividing line between sorbet and ice cream, and none of the offerings (minus the Mixie Shake) contain any milk whatsoever. Plus, Hershey's is just as much a candy company as it is a chocolate haven, so we think fans can appreciate having a fruity option when perusing the peanut, nougat, and chocolate-drenched wares. The basic pitch? You can savor all the colors of the rainbow (whoops, wrong candy) in the form of four flavors — either Grape, Cherry, Green Apple, or Blue Raspberry — or scoop up a flight for the full lip-puckering effect.
12. Comet Coaster Bar
Like any theme park, Hersheypark's taken the liberty of basing sweet treats off of popular rides. One could argue the fanfare around Reese's Cupfusion-inspired cheesecakes or Candymonium-themed ice cream outshines the original attraction, and the Comet Coaster Bar is no exception to the rule. When we say it's a peanut lover's dream, we mean it. Inside, you'll bite into a fluffy peanut butter cake that's joined by an extra-silky peanut butter filling, followed by some otherworldly garnishes dotting the outside. The coating isn't milk chocolate (or dark chocolate) like a majority of the bakeshop's inventory — instead, the kitchen drenches the bar in a hard shell of white chocolate and minced peanuts.
This compact brick of confectionery magic is The Sweeterie's ode to the Comet, a signature roller coaster prized for its bumpy, free-wheeling terrain. We've praised The Sweeterie's gourmet goodies countless times already, and if there's any place capable of honoring one of the most beloved thrill rides Hersheypark offers, the bake shop is a prime contender. Simply put, this dessert delivers spectacularly. One fan on Instagram puts it in the same vein as another delicious dessert, the Chocolatetown Cheesecake, in case you needed any more convincing to put this on your checklist.
13. Sundaes from Milton's Ice Cream Parlor
Leaving Hersheypark without trying a classic ice cream sundae is tantamount to, well, not eating chocolate. They're one of many nostalgic offerings inside Milton's Ice Cream Parlor, the park's one-stop-shop for freshly-churned scoops, along with savory bites like grilled cheese, and Chicken and Waffles. The creamery, confirmed by PennLive.com, launched at the same time as The Sweeterie, and boasts an old-timey atmosphere that mimics the confectionery business Milton Hershey oversaw prior to his chocolate factory.
Not only are the flavors (around 10 total) crafted in-house, but the shop sources the ingredients from working farms across the state. In other words, you won't find a fresher sundae on the premises. Leave it to the Ice Creamologists behind the counter to assemble menu specialties like Banana Splits with Whoppers candy, or take a cue from your own creative drive to whip up an original concoction. Choices range from simple (vanilla or strawberry) to jam-packed (Graham Cracker Swirl or Chocolate Brownie Blast), and this unlimited spectrum applies to the toppings, too. For a park exclusive, try Wildcat's Revenge Sundae. It's a junk food paradise bursting with candy — Kit Kats and Twizzlers, anyone? — chips, both chocolate and strawberry sauce, and three different ice cream flavors.