Chocolate Butter

I just ate chocolate butter.

What the hell is that? This pretty rosette of chocolate butter was served with a dollop of herbed butter and a basket of rolls at the Hershey Grill restaurant (located inside The Hershey Lodge) on Saturday. It was like regular, creamy butter with a bit of cocoa and sugar added, producing a flavor similar to chocolate whipped cream. Carl and the girls liked it, but I'm not fond of starting a meal off with sweet.

Why did I eat this? I was starving! We woke up at 7am on Saturday to hit Hersheypark. The plan was to visit the park early - guests staying at Hershey properties can enter an hour before the general public - and then cut out for lunch once the crowds got thick. I went down to Cocoa Beanery, the hotel's café, at 7:30am to fetch coffee for the grown-ups, as well as juice, milk, and corn muffins for the kiddos. As usual, I didn't have the stomach for food at that hour.

We arrived at Hersheypark just before 9am. At around 11am, the park was packed and we were famished, so we took the shuttle bus back to the hotel and decided to have lunch at Hershey Grill.

After we sat down, our server arrived, brandishing two large, glass bottles of water. They looked like wine bottles with hinged corks; one contained sparkling water and the other distilled. She made a big deal about these watery offerings and the fact that they were served in recyclable glass bottles. I couldn't determine why this was important or how the fancy bottles were refilled once empty. Did they have big vats of sparkling and distilled water in the back that they pumped into the bottles? Were they just dumping in smaller bottles of water to top them off? (That's not environmentally friendly!) I suppose I should have asked about the water, but I honestly didn't care.

While waiting for our meal, Carl amused himself by adding sugar packets and lemon to a glass of sparkling water to see how much sugar it would take to make the mixture taste like soda. (Answer: at least six teaspoons.) Though the rolls that came with the flavored butters were dry, the rest of the food at Hershey Grill was quite tasty. More to come...

Satisfaction rating: 2