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Creme de la creme

7th April 20257th April 2025 funtime65

And we’re bigging up one of the best tourist attractions anywhere for their record-breaking choc… just one of the reasons why Cadbury World is la creme de la creme.

Cadbury, in the village of Bourneville (yes, it does exist) Birmingham, have just brought out a 3ft Creme Egg, the size of a penguin.

No, not the chocolate ones but the Emperors.

Cadbury World’s eggstraordinary achievement is timely with Easter just around the corner.

And there are probably few better places to spend it than this land of pure imagination.

With its 14 chocolately zones.

We’ll Parrot that

Pecking order: Looking for the Mini-Eggs

Kids and big kids can get into the holiday spirit and help Mr Cadbury’s Parrot and his co-presenter search for the Missing Mini-eggs.

In the stage show from Saturday 5 to Sunday 27 April.

And meet with the aforementioned Parrot and Freddo and the Caramel Bunny.

And take Afternoon Tea in a private area of the Cadbury World Cafe conservatory.

Chocolate tea

Chocs away: Everyone happy at Cadbury World

Now this is when it really pays off to be a kid.

With chocolate, naturally, to the fore in the Child Afternoon tea.

With a selection of finger sandwiches with ham, cheese and jam fillings all served along with crisps.

But and here’s what we’ve been waiting for, a variety of Cadbury-inspired cakes including rocky road, chocolate brownie, mini-donut with chocolate dipping sauce and fruit skewer.

All accompanied by a choice of hot chocolate or fruit juice.

And adults too

Not that the adults get left out with their own Afternoon Tea.

Where you can indulge in scones, rocky road and chocolate brownies, decorated with freeze dried raspberries and dusted with chocolate.

Sandwich fillings include salmon and cream cheese, ham and cheese and egg mayonnaise with watercress.

Accompanied by a roast vegetable tartlet and sausage roll.

And a choice of hot chocolate, coffee or a selection of teas.

On it like a bonnet

You’re a character: At your Afternoon Tea

Kids will be encouraged too to get out your best headwear… and we’d be on it like a bonnet for the Easter bonnet parade.

And over the bank holiday weekend you can egg-splore all of Cadbury World’s chocolatey zones with an egg-cellent Easter Egg trail.

No wonder then that everybody from Roald Dahl to our own wee brown-eyed Daughterie have passed through their doors over the year.

It’s why Cadbury World is la creme de la creme.

The Character Afternoon Tea + Entry to Cadbury World comes in at a mouth-quenching £39.95 for adults (over 16s) and £34.95 for kids (2-15).

And if you’re anything like Daddy’s Little Girl you’ll never want to leave.

Like Cadbury itself, Bourneville and Birmingham are at the heart of everything.

In the middle of England and accessible by all transport routes.

Countries, Food & Wine, UK

Absolutely Quakers for the history of Easter Eggs

30th March 202430th March 2024 funtime65

Yes we know they’re past their shell-life but indulge our wordplay this weekend as we go absolutely Quakers for the history of Easter Eggs.

Because while the Christian movement might have failed to persuade most of us to join them they have converted the world to Easter Eggs.

Although there were already devotees aplenty in Aztec civilisations to the spiritual qualities of the bean.

Not that anyone cracking their Easter Eggs today will give a second thought either to Fry’s or even know who Joseph Fry was.

My Dear Old Mum certainly did, and it was a bit of a tradition in our household that I would gift her a bar of Fry’s Chocolate Cream a penance.

For something I’d done wrong which I recollect would be most weeks.

Thank Fryday

Now the gooey white-filled Fry’s Chocolate Cream is the oldest brand of chocolate in the world, dating back to 1847 which, of course, I don’t have to tell you.

Or that hollow chocolate Easter Eggs, rather than the previous Medieval custom of filling actual hollow eggs with chocolate, were first sold out of Fry’s from 1873.

Apothecary Joseph Fry had set the family on the way back in 1728 selling to Bristolians as a cocoa health kick from 1728.

Alas Fry’s Somerdale Factory in Bristol closed in 2011 and the company long since joined up with fellow Quakers Cadbury in Birmingham.

That Fry, Cadbury and another not-so-ordinary Joe, Joseph Rowntree, of York ventured into chocolate was no mistake.

With their Quaker faith central to the venture and the mission to steer the public away from alcohol.

Choc it up to Cadbury

And of course the Cadburys built a new brave world in Bourneville where the workers’ rights, health and leisure, in and out of the factory were valued.

All of which you can enjoy with samples of the famous chocolate to leave with at the end of the tour.

And channel your inner Willy Wonka at the factory where one-time worker Roald Dahl was inspired to build a land of pure imagination.

Roots of Rowntree

Joseph Rowntree for his part was putting his chocolate footprint on York and bettering his fellow Tykes’ life.

All of which you can learn at York’s Chocolate Story.

The Rowntrees founded the village of New Earswick for low income families in 1902.

And education was provided for both children and adults.

Of course the Rowntrees continue to change the world, with their the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

Where ‘they work to speed up and support the transition to a future free from poverty’

Worth remembering as we scoff ourselves silly this weekend.

And go absolutely Quakers for the history of Easter Eggs.

Food & Wine, UK

Chocs away with 200 years of Cadbury

23rd February 2024 funtime65

And there I’m saying it, it’s the best sweet attraction bar none so chocs away with 200 years of Cadbury.

You probably think little of what’s gone into your favourite Dairy Milk, Flake, Crunchie, Fudge or of course Bourneville when you munch ’em.

But, of course, as well as magical chocolate there is 200 hundred years of love with a story which would give Wonka a run for its money.

Which was how it was with Roald Dahl inspired by the great Birmingham chocolate maker to work as a chocolate taster as a young boy.

Where Dahl tasted many have gone before and since with my own brown-eyed chocoholic daughter going back for repeats.

After Cadbury had given her her four bars of chocolate at the end of our tour.

The real Dahl

Now, for those who have never been to Cadbury in Bourneville (yes, it is the name of the village) then why not?

Because it is without doubt a tale worthy of a big-screen movie… a land of sweet imagination.

For Willie Wonka here read George Cadbury and for the oompah-loompahs substitute the honest men, women and children of Birmingham.

Who all availed of George’s socially-conscious Quaker ideology.

Because the Cadburys got into the cocoa and chocolate field because of their opposition to alchohol… and here we differ.

An interesting Boering story

Eat up: And you’ll get a chocolate dessert

And here a tale from the history of Cadbury when they stood up to Queen Victoria.

Vic had wanted Cadbury to send a morale-boosting New Year’s tin of chocolates to each soldier fighting in the Boer War in South Africa in 1900.

Only as Quakers they were confirmed pacifists.

The companies did not want to put their logos onto the chocolate tins but the Queen wanted to show that she was purchasing quality chocolate for her soldiers.

So they stamped their names on the chocolate bars.

Best bar none

Now back to Bourneville and the forward-thinking Cadburys wanted to ensure that his employees’ lives in and out of work were as comfortable as they could possibly be.

Which meant that he built them cottages.

And a playground for children, country outings and summer camps.

While the men played football, hockey and cricket while tennis and squash courts were also added.

Along with a bowling green and swimming pools with heated changing rooms.

And Cadbury too were all for holidays with Saturday half-days for its workers.

So chocs away with 200 years of Cadbury.

Here’s to the next 200 of the best chocolate bar none.

Caribbean, Countries, Culture, UK

Zephaniah, it’s a wrap

7th December 20237th December 2023 funtime65

It’s a day we’ve been dredding without even knowing it was upon us… for the world’s greatest living poet Benjamin Zephaniah it’s a wrap.

Now you might recognise him as the preacher from Peaky Blinders but Brummy Benjamin had been a street poet for decades by then.

A man of the world and a child of the Windrush Generation of West Indians who bailed out Britain after the war.

The son a Bajan postman and Jamaican nurse, resettled in England, he was of his world.

And he spoke to the world with wit, wisdom, energy, compassion and warning.

Preacher man: Benjamin in Peaky Blinders

Of course, like every prophet in his own land, he was largely ignored by those who could effect change.

And staggeringly he was offered an OBE by the palace who clearly hadn’t read his republican rhetoric.

For a starting point for Benjamin you’ll want to start in his beloved Birmingham and a Peaky Blinders tour.

Or even a visit to his favourite football team and former European champions Aston Villa’s ground Villa Park.

A citizen of the world

Benjamin, though, had a thirst for the planet, a vegan, he expounded its survival in his writings.

A passionate advocate of women he championed women’s rights throughout his life.

And in a reminder of the close links forged through a joint oppression in Britain from the indigenous population.

Who would put up signs in workplace doors and hospitality’ ‘No blacks, no dogs, no Irish.’

Benjamin spoke up in the theatre of conflict that is the North of Ireland.

And, of course. he like me is a poet and his words inspired my rap ‘A wake-up for the people’ at the Edinburgh Fringe.

And the paean I wrote for him and sent to Benjamin Zephaniah.

A child of the Windrush

Now his greatest legacy as he leaves us after 65 years around the sun will be for all of us, fellow travellers through this world, his words, his message.

Which he is oft-quoted on in the phrase he coined ‘the last ones of the ship.’

When he argued that the most recent immigrants turn on any future incomers to the country.

As a son of the Windrush Generation you can do worse than remember Benjamin in both the island of his people, Jamaica.

Famous five: Forth Stanza at Edinburgh Fringe

Or his native, multicultural Birmingham and adopted island of Britain.

Benjamin Zephaniah, it’s a wrap. But your words and your poetry will always live on.

America, Caribbean, Countries, Europe, Food & Wine

Chocs away on Easter Sunday

17th April 202217th April 2022 funtime65

And for many it’s what today is all about… Chocs away on Easter Sunday.

And thoughts away of dem sweet places where I’ve savoured the treat of the Gods.

We have the Central and South Americans to thank for extracting the cacao which makes our chocolate.

And when we want to know more on anything our go-to people are the Smithsonians in Washington DC.

And Hayes Lavis, cultural arts curator for the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian has the skinny on chocs.

He tells us that ancient Olmec pots and vessels from around 1500 B.C. were discovered with traces of theobromine.

And for those who know their chocs they’ll recognise that as a stimulant compound found in chocolate and tea.

So now we’ve done the science let’s sample the choccie tastes of the world.

ChocolaTobago

And the way to a man’s heart is the love of a daughterie.

So when you come across a chocolate called Laura in the West Indies then you get that special rush.

This Tobago taste of heaven is a French-Caribbean collaboration and named for the manufacturer’s matriarch Laura.

Sold in high-end shops like Harrod’s it’s still best sampled where it’s made, Tobago Cocoa Estate.

Swiss sweet

We all know about Swiss sweets… Toblerone and it’s mountain triangular shapes.

And Lindt which is everywhere of which I was reminded from the minute you arrive in Geneva.

You’d have to tell me if SWISS airline still gives out comp choc to it’s passengers…

I like mine, my Lindt, though like the Asians who love to take selfies at the top of Europe.

To show off to family back home, at the top of the Jungfraujoch.

In Bruges

Was I the only one who wondered why a restless Colin Farrell didn’t cure his boredom through chocolate and beer?

Mind you, it would have been a very different movie.

Yes, go up to the cathedral and also check out St Anthony’s tongue.

But the best taste of all in Bruges is their oh-so-tasty chocolate.

Cadbury’s and Brum

Now you might not immediately link Bruges in Belgium and Birmingham in England.

But they’re both canal cities, major historical trade hubs.

And they are both hooked on chocolate.

It is no exaggeration to say that Brummie Joseph Cadbury was a chocolate evangelist.

As a Quaker and teetotaller he saw chocolate as a healthy alternative.

Joseph was a general good egg all round (or Cadbury’s Creme Egg) if you will

He set up a village in Bourneville for his workers and provided for all their social, health, education and sporting needs.

And a great pacifist, he even took on Queen Victoria over the Boer War.

All of which you can discover in the excellent Cadbury’s museum.

And finally, a Big Chocolate Apple

I’ve always been a great advocate of only having friends in cool places or jobs, or preferably both.

And in return they get the pleasure of hosting me.

Kate is one such, a New Yoiker and food and drinks editor who took La Famiglia Murty around Manhattan.

Chinatown, her own office kitchen on Production Day, and Jacques Torres Chocolate factory.

Now Willie Wonka’s got nothing in Kate or Jacques.

I mean bacon-flavoured chocolate… you read it here first.

Enjoy! Chocs away on Easter.

Countries, Culture, Music, UK

Britannia? Yacht to try these UK sites instead

31st August 202030th August 2020 funtime65

You know when you live somewhere but never visit that famous site, like me and the Royal Yacht Britannia in Edinburgh.

It can’t be because I take a stand against lavish palaces or ostentatious wealth… I love Rome and the Vatican.

So, I’ll need to get myself along and see how the other half live.

Heck, who am I kidding? It’s how I like to live when our killjoy leaders aren’t closing down all the borders.

But for now, and in the spirit of the Which survey of the best of the top 50 most-visited attraction I give you…

My entirely scientific and undeniably definitive five UK attractions.

Cottage industry

Alloway, Ayrshire: Well, if it was good enough for Wordsworth and Shelley and Muhammad Ali to visit!

Robert Burns’ home village in Ayrshire, the centre point of which is the cottage in which he was born in the 18th century, is a truly spiritual place.

Check out the statues of Tam O Shanter, Souter Johnny, Burns’ father’s grave, the statue of a mouse and Brig o’ Doon.

Robin reliant

The Robin Hood Experience, Nottingham: It takes an outlaw to know an outlaw.

You’ll immerse yourself in Sherwood Forest in an un prepossessing building near Nottingham Castle and get a chance too to twang your arrow.

While actors dressed in costumes of those heroes of legend interact with you.

Chocs away

Cadbury World, Birmingham: And you thought Willie Wonka was an invention, you Willie Wonka.

You can take a cart through the history of cocoa in this chocolate heaven in Bournville (yes, really), Birmingham.

On your tour, you’ll see how chocolate is made and best of all are sent away with a handful of bars.

Daddy’s Little Girl took two handfuls.

Churchillian speech

The Churchill War Rooms, London: And deep within the vaults in Whitehall in the heart of London, Winston and his pals waged the Second World War.

You can see his bedroom, the map room, the decoders.

And when we found all the other sites were closing up for the day they let us in. Well, we were on the right side!

Get back!

The Beatles Story, Liverpool: If The Beatles had been American then they’d have turned their home city into a visitors’ attraction.

Which may seem like a step too far although it does work in Graceland because it is outside of Memphis.

Yes, it’s great to have the museum down by Albert Dock in Liverpool, the bus tour, Penny Lane and the Eleanor Rigby statue.

But the idea that the Cavern Club should be in danger of closure because of financial troubles is a local and national disgrace.

Over to you Paul McCartney… don’t let it be!