chocolate

Yesterday I paid a rather disappointing visit to Cadbury World in Bournville (Birmingham).

After a brief stop off in Birmingham to admire the new-ish Bullring, I arrived at Bournville station (which was decked out in a revolting shade of bright purple rather than the deep Dairy Milk purple). Then the smell hits you. Oh my God; the smell of molten chocolate. Amazing.

Back to the disappointing visit.
It's half term, you can't just stroll in off the street expecting to get into this place. No, you have to book online days in advance. The place was still heaving.

The 'main exhibition' includes a series of non-optional audio-visual presentations (one of which came with a health warning - and a gasp-inducing spelling mistake), a weird 'ride' which had very little to do with chocolate and the promised 'route through the factory' consisted of watching some boxed-up chocolate whizz down a spiral chute. I was expecting to be able to see the workings of the real factory. Having worked in one (did I ever tell you about the time I worked in a sandwich factory?) I know that factories are very interesting places.

Then there was 'advertising avenue' (a selection of old adverts) and some virtual reality games that The Other Kirsty's six-year-old son had difficulty operating.

The usual 'exit via gift shop' strategy applied here (twice!). I studied in the West Midlands and seem to remember friends coming back from this place loaded with cheap chocolate. Today things weren't that much cheaper than the supermarket.

The second gift shop came after 'Essence' (two further non-optional audio visual presentations followed by a cup of molten chocolate).

Sigh.
Sorry about the rant. I was simply expecting a more realistic experience rather than theme-park edutainment.

On the bright side, the company was good (apparently it's been over 4 years since I last saw The Other Kirsty), and having a few 'free' chocolate bars thrust at me (well, free in as much as admission was nigh on £15) and eating fresh molten chocolate was not entirely disappointing either.
And I enjoyed the train journey.

Comments

[Teresa]

OMG! This sounds EXACTLY like the Hershey's chocolate factory tour in Hershey Pennsylvania. Not a real factory, just a audio-video presentation of cocoa bean workers (basically slaves) picking beans and some sort of brown goo that was definitely NOT CHOCOLATE flowing by you on a amusement park ride. And when the ride is finished, you are dumped off at the gift shop with, just as you said, tons of chocolate at supermarket prices. They did hand out free KitKat bars, at the end though. So same tour, different location.