HERSHEY, Pa. (AP) -- As a stressed-out restaurant owner, Heather Cave has been a visitor to many European-style spas. But nothing quite compares to the spa treatment she got here.
"I just floated in a chocolate bath," said Cave, 28, of Mount Laurel, N.J., her face aglow after emerging from the whirlpool. "I just kept smelling it and thinking, 'When can I eat?"'
Welcome to The Hotel Hershey's new $7 million spa, which opened this week. Featuring unusual treatments such as chocolate baths and fondue wraps, the spa is aimed at slathering guests with overindulgent treatments while paying tribute to Milton Hershey's legacy in the town.
Guests quietly enter private rooms with whirlpool baths mixed precisely with one-eighth cup of Hershey's unsweetened cocoa powder and a one-third cup of instant nonfat dry milk. Down the hall, another guest is coated in rich dark mud mixed with cocoa essence in a room with burning chocolate-scented candles.
Indeed, it is all part of the spa's pitch that guests really can have their chocolate -- and benefit from it too.
"Certain components of chocolate have physical benefits," said Caroline Koefoed, the spa's public relations coordinator. She noted that cocoa contains antioxidants like vitamins A and E, which increase blood circulation, and that cocoa butter moisturizes and soothes chapped skin.
Since opening Monday, the 17,000-square-foot spa has received more than 20 visitors a day -- some of whom flew in by private jet for the experience. It offers food-related therapy as well as traditional spa services such as massage, facials, pedicures and scalp treatment.
The chocolate treatments attract the most attention, however. For $265, visitors can indulge in the three-hour Chocolate Escape -- a Whipped Cocoa Bath, Cocoa Butter Scrub, Chocolate Fondue Wrap and a choice of massage or facial. A single 25-minute cocoa bath, the most requested item, costs $45.
Food-related spas have been popular in Asia and Europe for years, wrapping clients in mixtures of milk, saffron and honey. The Absolute Spa in Vancouver, British Columbia, which opened three years ago, also features chocolate treatments, including its "Chocolate Mousse Hydrotherapy Bubble Bath" and a "Chocolate Raspberry Pedicure Soak."
Over the past year, food-related spas in the United States have been popping up, featuring unusual treatments involving delicacies special to a region.
The Crescent Court Hotel in Dallas, for instance, offers a Texas barbecue wrap, using a mix of honey, tomato paste, spices and cayenne pepper, while the Arizona Biltmore gets chefs from its kitchen to extract cactus juice for its "Cactus Flower Wrap."
Hershey Entertainment & Resorts, which began planning the spa at Hotel Hershey five years ago, hopes to capitalize on the chocolate craze that helps bring more than 1 million visitors to the town each year, headquarters of Hershey Foods Corp.
Cave, who spent a recent lazy afternoon at the spa, said she couldn't pass up a chance to get a specialty treatment in a town where chocolate is king.
"I had to come because it's here in Hershey, where chocolate is so famous," Cave said. "It had to be better."
