Fun Food Fact-ory

 As can be evidenced through the trend of open kitchens in restaurants, watching your food or drink being made is interesting and sometimes fun.  This would also account for the popularity of tours set up in food factories.  I suspect that I have participated in more of these tours than the average person and can include in my list at least one factory outside of the United States.  I have been to pretzel and potato chip factories in Pennsylvania, a few cider mills, many wineries, a couple breweries, a factory where they made Jelly Bellys, the Hershey Experience and my favorite, by far, the Cadbury factory in England. 

I made a discovery at the Cadbury factory.  As a child, I clearly remember being introduced to a new confection at Easter (probably in the early 80’s) called the Cadbury Crème Egg.  A chocolate egg filled with cream that mimicked a real egg, it was one of those oddities that grabbed your attention at the corner store.  As an adult I find it a little repulsive to eat something that looks like an egg when you crack it open but as a child I was intrigued.  When I visited the Cadbury factory, I learned that this creation had actually been around since 1971 and my inner child felt cheated out of years of sickly sweet pleasure.

Further, not only did the Cadbury company keep this treasure from me as a child but they were also secreting away at that very time (mid-90’s) another candy bar that I found to be a fast favorite.  That treasure was called the Boost bar and consisted of cookie bits (aka biscuit bits), caramel and chocolate covering.  Although the flavor profile would be very close to a Twix bar, something about the cookie bits, which were little round balls of crispy cookie, set them apart from similar bars I could access in America.  It has been so long since my last Boost bar, I will admit that my memory has probably been enhanced by something cliché like “absence makes the heart grow fonder” but I would love the chance to test that theory.

Not a product of long-term memory enhancement is another phenomenon regarding Cadbury chocolate.  I am sure that most people have had a Cadbury product since they are now widely available but you might be surprised to find that they are even better when experienced in their native country.  There is something lost in translation.  Not a language translation, since they too speak English, but in recipe translation.  Cadbury products sold here are made here through contracted companies and unfortunately all ingredients are not same.  I think it is in the dairy that we are let down, American cows just don’t measure up.  Just as Irish butter is thought to be superior and cream liquors from the British Isles delicious, so the case for milk chocolate.  Perhaps an English accent is not just a term we should be using for speech but also for the smooth creamy tone of a chocolate bar.