Hammond’s Candies has been making candy in Denver for more than a century, and its factory tour is the classic free ‘how it’s made’ field trip on the Front Range. Tours leave every 30 minutes from 9:15 a.m. to 2:15 p.m., Monday through Saturday, and last about half an hour. You walk past the candy-making floor with video screens filling in the process, and everyone gets a free sample at the end. The factory turns out more than 5,000 pounds of candy a day.
For homeschool families and co-ops, the logistics are easy: one person can book a whole group (tours cap at 45 people), there is no age minimum, and the route is wheelchair accessible. Reservations are required online at least 24 hours ahead and can be made up to six months out; call 303-333-5588 for same-day availability. The store is open Sundays 11-4 without tours.
Lesson hooks
- How it’s made: pulling, shaping and cutting hard candy; simple machines on the factory floor.
- Colorado history: a Denver company founded in 1920 that still makes candy by hand.
- Math: scale up a recipe to the factory’s daily output.
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