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A chocoholic's dream come true

A magical experience at CadburyWorld in Bourneville, near Birmingham

ENTER THE CHOCOLATE KINGDOM At Cadbury World

The deep purple of the Cadbury's chocolate wrapper on the walls loudly announced the Cadbury World factory site. The familiar royal purple colour was there everywhere, on the door and the stairway, at Cadbury World, Bournville, near Birmingham, a few hours drive from London. After buying our tickets, we walked into a small and dark hall with heavy curtains, and voila! there were bars and bars of chocolates, which we liberally helped ourselves to. In the crowded room, we were `introduced' to the founder of the Bournville factory — John Cadbury. An audio-visual presentation took us through the life of a visionary with a dream and how he and his sons fulfilled it through sheer hard work and dedication.

We moved into another large room with rows of chairs. It was actually a theatre with `shaking' seats. While the older people were asked to take the last rows, the young ones sat in the front rows.

The bean story

What followed was yet another audio-visual presentation, this time about the journey of the cocoa bean. The story of the bean continued into the next room as well. Here one got to see how the cocoa bean is transformed into its final product in various forms — crunchies, nut and grape, plain milk or three roses. Delicate hand-crafted figurines made from chocolate added to the overall ambience of the place.

Walking on, we soon got to see the manufacturing unit, complete with huge machinery, from behind thick plastic, see-through panes.

The piece de resistance, especially for the children, was the toy train ride, which took us from room to room, as we learnt more about the life and journey of cocoa beans from different countries. Replicas of colourful flowers and bushes, streams and shrubs greeted the children, much to their pleasure. Appropriately lit with the sound of gurgling streams, the buzz of insects and the chirping of birds, the scene was truly enchanting. We got to see the homes of `bean' families in Africa and South America.Soon, the scene shifted to the snow-capped fields of Santa Claus, where even the fir trees had snowflakes on their boughs. There was magic in the air as we thoroughly enjoyed the train ride.

Finally, it was time to have a taste of the creaming process. The kids were allowed to try their hand at making interesting shapes out of the semi-solid mixture. And to round off the experience, all of us were given chocolate slabs topped with chocolate syrup.

So next time, you happen to be in and around Birmingham, maybe you could stop for a `sweet' break at the Cadbury's factory.

PARVATI V. MENON

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