Colorado,  Family Travel,  West

Take Your Kids on a Hammond’s Candies Factory Tour

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What kid doesn’t like candy? Our kids love candy, so why not take them on a tour so they can see how it’s made? The Hammond’s Candies factory tour was the perfect way to wrap up our 7-day trip out West.

Earlier in the week we spent some time in Denver, Colorado Springs, Wyoming, South Dakota, and Nebraska. The last leg of our trip led us back to Denver where we thought it would be fun to get some candy to take back with us on our flight home.

Hammond’s Candies offers free factory tours daily. We didn’t make a reservation, we just walked in. There were probably 20 people on our tour, 13 of us and a few others. The first stop of the tour is their movie theater where we watched a video about the history of the company.

Carl T. Hammond Sr. started Hammond’s Candies in 1920 in Denver, Colorado. The first original candy he created was a chocolate with coconut on top. In the early years Hammond Sr. was a one man show, doing everything that needed to be done to keep his business running.

In the 1930s Hammond’s Candies started making a candy called the “Mitchell Sweet,” which is marshmallow and caramel. The ‘Mitchell Sweet’ is still a popular treat today. You can try it with chocolate caramel or vanilla caramel.

Hammond’s Candies is currently owned by Andrew Schuman. Schuman bought the company in 2007 and has helped the company to double in size.

After the movie, our tour guide took us into a large viewing area where we could watch the candy being made. Our tour guide was wearing a mic so everyone could easily hear what she was saying. You can look through the windows and watch candy being made. Or there are also tv screens above the windows so you can get an aerial view to give you another perspective.

Our tour guide walked us through what everyone was doing and what part of the process we were seeing. She had a pair of scissors that they use to cut the candy, and let us hold them to see how heavy they are. We couldn’t believe how quickly the gentleman was cutting the candy with those scissors.

We got to see several different stages of the candy making process, such as melting the chocolate, rolling out the caramel, cutting the candy canes, and packaging the candy for sale.

The tour was very laid back, and throughout the tour our guide frequently stopped to answer questions. At the conclusion of the tour everyone got a free lollipop from their ‘rejects’ bin.

They have a retail store on-site, and we let each of the kids pick out something that they wanted to try. We made them save their candy for the plane ride home. Rob picked out lemon drops and sour balls. I figured his candy would be pretty safe from small hands because it didn’t sound like something the kids would be interested in trying. Boy was I wrong! Silas, Cullan, and Micah couldn’t get enough of the lemon drops and sour balls. Poor Rob! I’m not sure how many he actually got to eat.

I wanted some chocolate, but it took me awhile to decide which one I wanted to try. There were over a dozen different varieties of chocolate bars. Here are the ones they had available –

Midnight Snack – milk chocolate with pretzel, cookie, brittle, marshmallow and cereal
Toffee Brittle – dark chocolate with toffee brittle
Cookie Dough – milk chocolate with cookie dough filling
Sea Side Caramel – milk chocolate with sea salt caramel
Pigs ‘n Taters – milk chocolate with potato chips and bacon-flavored bits
Red Velvet Cake – milk chocolate with red velvet cake ganache
Coconut Cream Pie – milk chocolate with creamy ganache and shredded coconut
Salted Almond – dark chocolate with sea salt and almonds
Bourbon Pecan Pie – milk chocolate with bourbon pecan caramel filling
Sodapop! – cola-flavored milk chocolate with fizzy popping candy
More S’Mores – milk chocolate with marshmallows and graham
PB&J Sandwich – milk chocolate with peanut butter and jelly
Peanut Butter Cup – dark chocolate with peanut butter cup
Malted Milkshake – milk chocolate with malted milk
Mint Chocolate Chip – dark chocolate with mint creme center
Chicken and Waffles – chicken and waffles chocolate with maple syrup

So many unique choices, I mean chocolate with potato chips and bacon? And chocolate with fizzy popping candy? How cool! I ended up going with Cookie Dough and it was delicious.

I found some other chocolates that looked good too and decided to get a Pecan and Caramel Piggyback to try too. I love Turtles chocolates, and this one was about 3 times the size of a Turtle, and so yummy.

Cullan wanted to try the ribbon candy because he liked seeing how it was made on the tour. I’m pretty sure he also just liked how it looked. Since Hadassah was only 3 we just let her eat her free lollipop.

For another look at our visit to Hammond’s Candies, check out our YouTube video below.

You can also read about Day 1 of our trip and our visit to Red Rocks Park and Amphitheater and Casa Bonita, and Day 2 of our trip to Colorado Springs and our stops at the Garden of the Gods, the Manitou Cliff Dwellings Museum, the Manitou Springs Penny Arcade, the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum, and Magic Town.

You can also go back and read about Day 3 at the Western Museum of Mining and Industry, the Money Museum, the Colorado State Capitol, and the Molly Brown House Museum. Day 4 started with a stop at the Southeast Wyoming Welcome Center and a drive down Happy Jack Road to Curt Gowdy State Park before stopping at the Wyoming State Museum.

Our visit to South Dakota on Day 5 started with a morning visit to Mount Rushmore, and an afternoon exploring Keystone and driving down Needles Highway. On Day 6 we drove from South Dakota to Dobby’s Frontier Town before stopping at Carhenge. Day 7 was a day spent exploring Rocky Mountain National Park. This trip is the first trip of our “50 States Before Graduation Challenge” series.

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