Friday 27 November 2009

Catherine and the Chocolate Factory


Today I took the time to tour the Cadbury Chocolate Factory in Dunedin, NZ – it’s gotta be the most popular tourist event in the city, and probably the country. The first 10 minutes of the tour are self-guided and I did find most of the display pretty interesting, although the space allowed for the number of people involved is rather crowded. It’s a pretty kid-friendly tour. The thing everyone loved the most in this section of the tour was the vat of liquid chocolate being mixed.

Everyone becomes readily humbled as the tour begins – wearing a hair covering (and a beard and moustache covering if you qualify) is required so everyone looks pretty ridiculous. No jewelry, photos, or even watches are allowed during the tour, as well as all of the other usual banned technologies. We toured around the factory and watched chocolate “buttons” coming out of a machine, as well as chocolate chips. Most of the ingredients are all in big vats and there really isn’t much to see. The whole world of Easter eggs is emphasized – this is what Dunedin produces between July and January for the Australasian market. I don’t remember enjoying a Cabury crème egg as a child. Some children on the tour received pretty large hollow chocolate eggs. Free chocolate bars were given away throughout. The neatest part was watching a bucket that held one tonne of liquid chocolate being dumped into a funnel – it splatters quite a bit! I did pick up several chocolate treats for my buddies back in Kaslo. I just taste tested them and I think they are pretty gross – too much of that Cabury crème egg idea! Maybe it’s just the reaction after having Thai green curry for supper.

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