Dolly Parton’s Dollywood is making interesting headlines.
The “Jolene” singer’s family theme park in Pigeon Forge, TN recently caught a lot of attention after a TikTok video from user Stonewall Kelsey highlighted a 25-pound apple pie sold by the theme park for $230.
“You know we had to try a piece,” Stonewall Kelsey captioned the video. In the clip, a chalkboard sign at the theme park’s Spotlight Bakery indicates a whole pie sells for $229, while a single slice goes for $19.99.
But just how did the expensive apple pie come about?
Dollywood’s 25th Anniversary
The massive apple pie was created to commemorate Dollywood’s 25th anniversary in 2010, according to Outsider. The pie, which weighs 25 pounds, takes around 40 to 50 apples to make and has since become a “renowned delicacy,” the outlet indicated.
The fact that the pie weighs 25 pounds is also intentional.
The Dollywood Company’s public relations manager, Ellen Liston told the New York Post that they purposely wanted to create something weighing 25 pounds for the theme park’s 25th anniversary.
“For our 25th anniversary season, around the park, the different teams on park came up with different ideas and things that might be a fun way to commemorate this anniversary,” Liston told the outlet.
“So, our culinary team thought, ‘Well, wouldn’t it be cool to have like something that was 25 pounds?’ So they came up with the idea of having a 25-pound apple pie.”
“It’s a fun thing to try,” she continued. “It’s delicious [and] It’s a lot of apples, and you know, when you think about apple pie, you think about just all-American, and so, you’re eating an all-American food in an all-American place, a theme park and with everybody’s favorite Dolly, so it kind of fits in the scope of what we have to offer.”
“We like to do things big and it’s just a fun item,” she explained.
Besides discussing the premise behind the theme park’s famous pie, Liston also revealed why the item is so expensive.
“It’s priced that way for several reasons,” Liston told the New York Post. “One, because of all the ingredients that go into it, it’s kind of a time-intensive thing. It also includes the giant cast iron skillet with it. It’s just all incorporated into it.”
Although the pie is pretty expensive at present, it actually used to sell for a slightly cheaper price. According to Visit My Smokies, the entire 25-pound apple pie sold for $189.99 in 2018, while a single slice of the pie sold for $18.99.
The Internet Divided
Stonewall Kelsey’s TikTok video about the Dollywood pie, which garnered over 170,000 likes, left social media users divided over whether or not the price of the pie was reasonable.
“Does Dolly come with it?” one social media user wrote.
“Went to Dollywood last year for the first time and EVERYTHING IS WAAAAY OVER PRICED. If you took $200 then you can afford a shirt and a bag of candy,” another claimed.
“They could put Dolly on top of it and I wouldn’t want it for that kind of money!!,” a third social media user said.
Stonewall Kelsey had a bit of a different opinion, however.
Despite social media division over the pie’s price and admitting he and his wife didn’t actually order the pie themselves, Stonewall Kelsey said the deal seemed “pretty good.”
“If you break it down, $230 for 25 pounds of pie is a pretty good deal,” he said, according to Insider.
Stonewall Kelsey may not be wrong.
According to a promotional video published on the theme park’s YouTube channel, just one slice of the 25-pound pie can feed a family of four.
That’s certainly something for Dolly Parton fans to chew on.
The apple pie is one of Dollywood’s most popular Spotlight Bakery items besides its cinnamon bread and cinnamon buns, Liston told the New York Post.
