Sometimes, a box of chocolates just isn’t enough to fully express your affection for your sweetheart.
Fortunately, there’s some fantastic chocolate around Ohio, and there are some fantastic opportunities to make it part of a weekend getaway – maybe around Valentine’s Day.
Rich Relaxation
It should be no surprise that the hometown of one of the biggest names in chocolate offers opportunities for visitors to immerse themselves in the stuff.
The Spa at the Hotel Hershey in Hershey, Pa. – roughly six and a half hours from Columbus – is informally known as the Chocolate Spa. It offers a decadent variety of traditional massages, hydrotherapy, facials and one-of-a-kind chocolate treatments.
Travel: Tailgate on the Tides
It also has 54 treatment areas, four relaxation lounges, an indoor pool, a steam room, a dry heat sauna and a fitness center.
“Guests visiting the Spa at the Hotel Hershey experience a part of Milton Hershey’s legacy,” says Robynn Cyr, spa sales manager. “From its signature chocolate treatments to the elegant interiors inspired by Milton and Catherine Hershey’s home, High Point Mansion, the Spa at the Hotel Hershey offers guests a truly unique spa experience unlike anywhere else in the world.”
Some of the spa’s most popular treatments involve chocolate. The signature whipped cocoa bath, chocolate bean polish and cocoa facial experience are among guests’ favorites, Cyr says.
“The Spa at the Hotel Hershey offers an extensive treatment menu consisting of both luxurious and results driven services,” she says. “Our experienced team of spa professionals work with each guest individually to customize their perfect spa experience.”
Couples visiting the spa can have pedicures and massages, or they can just enjoy chocolate martinis in the relaxation areas.
“For guests looking to immerse themselves in the ultimate chocolate spa experience, we would recommend our three-and-a-half hour Chocolate Escape package consisting of our whipped cocoa bath, chocolate bean polish, chocolate fondue wrap, cocoa massage and lunch in our Oasis restaurant,” Cyr says.
The spa adds a few special packages around Valentine’s Day, such as the Chocolate Immersion package, including the chocolate bean polish and chocolate fondue wrap, and the Chocolate-Dipped Strawberry, with a strawberry parfait scrub and a chocolate fondue wrap.
The Spa at the Hotel Hershey
717-520-5888
Best of the Best
Plenty of businesses lay claim to the title, but if you run a Google search for “the best chocolate in town,” your top-ranked result is always going to be the same.
That would be the Best Chocolate in Town, based in Indianapolis, about three hours west of Columbus.
Elizabeth Garber started the company in college as a side job. In 1998, she moved operations to a warehouse space that had been transformed into a kitchen, and in 2007, she relocated again to downtown Indianapolis.
Garber makes all the ganache, caramels and toffee at her location and offers visitors the chance to see how the candy is made through an open kitchen experience.
The Best Chocolate in Town carries 40 different flavors of truffles, along with ice cream, gelato, chocolate bars, bon bons, peanut butter crunch and chocolate-covered popcorn.
“We’re an independent store … but ours is a lot about the experience, the fresh quality of the product,” Garber says. “The fresh chocolate brings people here, (as does) the experience of being able to interact with my staff … in a great little environment where you can ask questions and talk to people.”
Conveniently, several downtown hotels serve treats from the Best Chocolate in Town – at least two of which, the Alexander and the J.W. Marriott, have Valentine’s Day couples packages – as does a bed and breakfast called, go figure, the Nestle Inn.
There’s plenty to do and see in the downtown area for couples who might be looking to come to Indianapolis, Garber says, with gift shops, museums and independent restaurants among them.
“Downtown is a cool place to be, and you can definitely fill up your weekend for Valentine’s Day both inside and outside,” she says.
The Best Chocolate in Town
317-636-2800
Sharp-e Diem: Seize the Treat
Three generations of candy-making expertise means a wide selection of delectable chocolate options at Sharp’s Candies in Lexington, Ky., about three hours from Columbus.
Even with 100 different varieties of candy on the menu and a high level of demand that only decades of renown can bring, everything at Sharp’s is still made from scratch and cooked on-site using the old equipment from the mid-20th Century.
“All of the recipes are the exact same since my grandfather started in 1952,” says Owner Rob Sharp. “Everything is done in a very old-fashioned manner that’s just not found much anymore. Folks say we do everything the Amish way.”
Pecan logs, caramels and chocolate fruit creams are just a handful of hand-crafted candies that can be found. Three different styles of bourbon chocolates are also available for people looking for something unique.
The bourbon cherry – a cherry surrounded by a bourbon-infused chocolate shell – is the strongest of the three different types of bourbon chocolates for sale. The bourbon cream, Sharp says, has a “nice, mild hint to it for someone who may not be a real big bourbon fan, but would like a hint of bourbon in the product.” Bourbon truffles round out the trio.
“It’s perfectly balanced where it’s not too chocolately and not too strong of bourbon, but it’s got a good, strong bourbon oak tone to it as opposed to the cream, which has a mild hint to it,” Sharp says.
In that vein, Sharp suggests bourbon tours to Lexington visitors. And believe it or not, some of the hot spots in Kentucky’s bourbon scene do have romantic offerings for Valentine’s Day, including Buffalo Love, a bourbon tasting and food pairing shindig at Buffalo Trace Distillery (in Frankfort, about four hours from Lexington), and a dinner, cocktail and romantic lantern tour at Woodford Reserve Distillery in Versailles (also about four hours from Lexington).
For a shorter drive, a few of Lexington’s hotels offer Valentine’s Day packages, including the Campbell House and the Hilton Lexington Suites, both within 10 minutes’ drive of Sharp’s.
Sharp’s Candies
859-276-4625
Matthew Kent is a contributing writer. Feedback welcome at gbishop@cityscenemediagroup.com.
