Three Girls, A Guy and a Chocolate Place *

2007-06-08 11:18 p.m.

“You only live twice, or so it seems,” goes part of the song. Well, I’ve hardly live life as a kid more than once, but well you can’t say you never will. Today, in the company of three girls, It was hard not to bring back childhood times. I think the title—Three Girls, A Guy and a chocolate place gives the summary as to the whole story.

I woke up late by my standards and 10 to 9 a.m. although it was the post examination period. Too long to take the trip to Shackleton for Breakfast so after some ham, cheese and bread, I busied myself with some travel arrangements before popping up to Flat 72 armed with the last of my surprise gifts. Jenny and Helen received theirs while I placed Laura’s in front of her door. Then off we trouped to the train station, with Stacey’s Middle School friend tagging as he was heading home. We to what I would say was the long route to University Station, up past Nuffield Hospital and finally to the roundabout near the Economics Department. Surprisingly enough, we made it just in time for the 11:41 train to Bournville, which , if you guessed from the title of this entry, is where Birmingham’s famous Cadbury World and Factory is located.

Heather would later remark that “You can’t have stayed in Birmingham without visiting Cadbury World.” That is true, that place ist another distinctive attraction after the Bullring and others. Cadbury Chocolate is of course famous along side so many chocolate brands, but to be in the heart of the factory making process and see molten chocolate drip before very eyes is of course a dream come true. It’s Mr. Willy Wonka’s factory in reality, with of course the absence of the fictitious magic like the Oompa Loompas and the Glass elevator.

Still, it did seem so Ronald Dahl like as we exited through a purple coloured archway and signs pointing the way to the magical place. On the way, we passed terrace houses with people’s names inscribed on them and I believe after the tour, that they were the houses of prominent people from the Cadbury Organisation. We first walked through a garden and the aroma of chocolate grew even stronger. This made everyone squeal in delight (yeah me too), especially Heather. I think she was the most excited amongst the four of us throughout. Then we passed a brownish lake and someone shouted, “look, a chocolate lake!”. Ok, that’s not true but if you are a child (which we were trying to be) you would immediately think of Mr. Wonka’s Chocolate lake. Oh well.

Being a student has its ultimate perks—it was only 5 pounds per head to pass through the wonderland of Cadbury World. Stacey noticed school kids and made a comment about being children which the lady at the counter followed up upon. There was continous laughter as she processed our tickets. An all too common part of British sales and service personnel—more about that later. Then, after being loaded with a bag of scrumptious Cadbury Milk Chocolate, we headed back in time, discovering the history of cocoa and chocolate.

So we were “kids”, and being kids we did continue squealing and screaming (most from the girls.) at each lighted booth, we took turns reading the history of cocoa. It was rather educational. Well, I probably read about it before in children’s books but parts were interesting such as cocoa was used as a currency for trade and that 100(or was it 1000) cocoa beans could buy you a slave, whom we jokingly named Rhys. Then we heading to the history of Cadbury and snapped many funny poses with models of shop owners and the shop.

“Right this way,” a Cadbury employee pointed and we entered a mini theatre which showed us the history of the main factory itself (there are various plants scattered all around the Bourville/Birmingham area). Then, the announcement said “please proceed to the next room and those with medical problems, please sit at the rear.”

What on earth could happen? The answer was that we treated as how cocoa beans were treated through the harvesting and refining process. We were shifted about in our seats and air was blow from below, mimicking the heating and de-shelling of the cocoa beans. Of course, it prompted us to shout and laught along—almost everyone in the room did that.

Willy Wonka was very secretive over how his chocolate varieties were made but the next booth or so showed that Cadbury was partly the opposite. That was hardly the end, for we trouped up flights of stairs to the actual factory area itself. “No photography allowed,” the signs said, so we regrettably pocketed our cameras. Still, we continued to be amazed and the speed which chocolate bars were made and wrapped by the machines.

Down through another corridor or so, we encountered electronic booths that had mini quizzes on them, to test our knowledge of chocolate and Cadbury’s World so far. We (or rather the girls) scored 82% on the first one and I remarked, “if only this was our exam.” “Yay! We got a first!” Stacey said and we proceeded to the next booth. We weren’t so lucky with the next booth, but still scored 76%

3-D animation of a machine was next, which was well, far better than a normal modern Disney movie. Then we were loaded with another CDM bar which Stacey and I each polished off to satisfy our growling stomachs.

Cadbury’s World spared no expense in turning us into young children again. If you guess it right, the next part was that of a train ride through Cadbury’s land, filled with little Cadburys or round chocolate figures. “Cute!” “Adorable!” “Ah, so wonderful!” and other such “kiddy” cries came out from us as we journey through the place. I used to enjoy well the Smurfs and Gummy Bears when I was younger, but well, Cadburies would be a good substitute, although none were fro sale.

Glancing at the automatic pictures taken of our childishness, the next section was more “Universal-World” like. We could pose and have our imaged moulded by chocolate (digitally seen of course), place with chocolate bubbles on a screen and other stuff. Oh yes, backtrack, we were given the chance to write our names in chocolate, and being the terrible art student, mine didn’t come out that well, but still, photos were taken.

How do you spell “HAPPINESS” we had fun pushing the lighted buttons—again children type game. Then as much as we wanted some more, the doors lead us to the shop.

One will never leave Cadbury’s World without something with the name Cadbury on it, be it chocolate or non-chocolate. But my priority was that of chocolates for the friends back home (those who read this, be prepared to get fat) but I hadn’t a clue which ones to buy. In the end, following Heather’s advice, I bought the factory –bits, which you’ll never find in shops. Picking up another few Cadbury products, I took a long time to pay cause kids in front of me were just too hyper-active at the sight of chocolate.

That was hardly all. Mission two was to really taste oozy molten chocolate and that’s where we found ourselves. I chose fruit bits along with the sticky thick chocolate but they were almost like winegums, which Stacey had. Photos were snapped again. Then, the ultimate kid pastime—playing on a play ground was relived. I just tried the balancing see-saw while the others went through slides, monkey bars and a swing like device. I should think Helen was the fastest of all, sometimes its great to be not so tall.

There was another round of purchasing at the factory shop although I didn’t get anything there. Then it was back to Tennis Courts, our hands filled with chocolate, our mouths still sticky with molten goodness and our childish part of us relived. God bless Sir Dominic Cadbury (who incidentally is the Chancellor of The University of Birmingham—yay!) and the staff of Cadbury’s world. God bless Stacey, Helen and Heather for a wonderful day.

previous - next