Ouch.  Much of my time in England was spent reeling from prices.  Still, I managed to squeeze a bit of fun into my penny-pinching week.  I was lucky enough to have a place to stay with college friend Katie (Kate) back from her tour in Afghanistan, of course!  My main plan for England was a trip to Cadbury World. 

  Yum!  I have to admit the Cadbury factory was a little different than I expected.  Very theme-parky, only without the exciting rides.  Some free candy, but they make you go through the whole thing to get to the good stuff (and quite frankly, Kate and I didn’t make it the whole way through.)  However, I will try and overview what we did end up doing:

 The lobby was pretty much a giant group of children and families… and us.  We had engaged in a little “quiz bowl” the night before at Kate’s evil, expensive local pub, and perhaps made the mistake of indulging too much in the expensive but deceivingly large pints of beer, so hanging out in a lobby full of cackling children and the smells of Cadbury chocolate was a bad idea.  We immediately retreated to the cafe for some hangover food and drink.

 Eventually, we made our way into the actual museum, albeit a bit queasy still.  There were things like a mock-up of Central American jungles, complete with Aztec and Mayan warriors and an overview of the first Cadbury store and the history of chocolate in England.  Much like in the rest of Europe, chocolate started life as an expensive drink available only to the upper class in special “chocolate bars” until methods were developed to create inexpensive solid bars for sale to the general public.

 These methods for creating solid chocolate are similar to the descriptions I’ve given in past entries of chocolate-making, but include a special “conching” process borrowed from the Swiss where chocolate is heated and pressure applied for long periods of time.  It reminded me a bit of my favorite college class, Thermodynamics!  But surprisingly Cadbury didn’t really get into the math of it all, instead choosing to illustrate the process in a “4-D” theatre complete with moving seats and hot air blown on the audience.  Very exciting, especially for the children.  Did I mention I felt ill for some reason?

Anyway, besides the “tour” of an unused, entirely empty section of the factory, the high point of the trip was definitely the Cadabra.  It started out like a mini children’s roller coaster, only on acid.  The gleeful laughter of the small chocolate eggs/cacao beans/aliens playing tennis, scaling mountains, and skiing was eerie, and the entire ride was just bizarre.  Pictures were not allowed, but I snuck a few totally blurry shots… nothing can replicate the highpitched giggling though! 

 After that ride, we decided it was best to head home and fully recover from the night before.  Unfortunately, this meant we ended up missing the part where you get to make your own chocolate-covered Wine Gums and Jelly Babies.  Truly disappointing! 

 Still, the tour was fun and we did buy a lot of chocolate for tasting.  Cadbury is a bit creamier than American chocolate, but not so good as continental European chocolate.  I’m sure any Brits reading this will defend Cadbury to the death, but it isn’t my favorite British candy.  That title falls to the Mint Aero Bar.

Sadly largely unavailable in the United States (but sold in Canada and specialty stores) the Mint Aero Bar consists of some mint chocolate with bubbles somehow “injected” into it and covered in milk chocolate.  It is crumbly and delicious and I’m always sure to buy several bars whenever I find them.  If you see it near you, I highly recommend trying one! 

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I tried lots of other British candy which I will upload over the next few weeks.  Kate and I also enjoyed the British pubs (although more moderately once we understood the power of the pint) and even checked out a British tearoom!  She will be making a reappearance in the Middle East, but for now, it’s just me in Paris - an amazing city that I’m only sad to have not visited earlier!  The rumors of rude waiters and snotty French are, I’m happy to say, entirely untrue.  The people are universally kind and don’t seem to mind, terribly, the fact that I don’t speak any French at all.  Definitely a city I plan on returning to in the future.