Chocolate Heaven

Well, there's no prizes for guessing where Nigel is today with his beloved niece and nephew............

....... the closest thing to chocolate heaven they will ever wish to find, with Nigel  swearing that he was sure the air even had a discrete whiff of cocoa about it! 

And who was there to greet them upon entering the illustrious portals  .............?

Only, Mr Cadbury's Parrot!  Nigel said they almost burst with excitement, even though their adventure hadn't even begun, after all, it's not every day you get to meet a huge celebrity parrot in person and get to pose with him!

As they showed their tickets and moved forward, the first thing they were greeted by was two very lovely gentleman who proceeded to present them with huge pile of chocolate bars ......... can you imagine?  Nigel thinks there were twelve, it could have been more, but it would have looked incredibly rude to stand there and count them after such generosity.

They moved through several rooms full of visual information, life size models and a myriad of buttons to press, each one increasingly more and more exciting, they were even shaken like roasting cocoa beans at one point, amid much laughter!

 They then moved upstairs ..........

...... where they were treated to a pot of warm and very delicious melted chocolate into which they could add another two ingredients, Nigel choose fudge pieces and chocolate buttons, it was, he said ...... " Absolutely glorious, too glorious for words!"

And, while they were enjoying this chocolatey pleasure, they were held in thrall by a very talented lady decorating high heeled chocolate shoes and teapots with melted white chocolate ...........

....... and a gentleman remove life size chocolate footballs from their moulds as they passed him on a conveyor belt!

Then, as if that wasn't enough, as they left this area they were given yet another four bars of chocolate for their bag ........... 

........with the stairs then leading down to the shop where Nigel found himself inextricably drawn to the factory area, to find boxes of 60 Freddo Frogs, a popular staple in his school run tuck bag for silly money .........

...... but somehow he resisted, worrying that having so many chocolate frogs all of a sudden might take the shine off them being so much of a treat ....... ???

I think, to be honest, he was a little overwhelmed by it all, however, he did manage to secure a couple of bags of Mishapes as requested by Darrell, while Iris opted for the biggest bar of chocolate she's ever seen (850g) and Bertie, three "fingers of fudge" (Grandy-Andy's always chocolate of choice) plus a Cadbury rubber shaped like a book. 

There was a then time to catch their breath, with Uncle Nigel saying that yes, they could have a cheeky go in the Crunchie jeep, followed by at least a good half hour in the mirrored room, where he almost had to drag them away from their very expressive "interpretive dance" ..........

...... as there was the Have A Go Zone up next ............

....... where they could practise, perfect and hone their own piping skills ..........

....... with strict instructions not, tempting though it was, to taste any of the melted chocolate ...........

......as it was constantly being regurgitated after it had been scraped from the tables .......

....... to be melted again.

It was quite the day out ...........

.... with the little ones declaring it had been even better than even their wildest of dreams .....

....... and I sense that a return visit is already in the "pleading" stage, as they proclaimed it the best "after Christmas present" ever! 

https://www.cadburyworld.co.uk/explore/attractions/