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Cadbury World

Cadbury World

It didn’t close its gates when rival companies started stealing its secret recipes. It doesn’t have an eccentric owner who delights in singing, surprises, and wearing outlandish clothing. And it doesn’t have little colorful men from a fictional land running its many high-tech gadgets and gizmos. Birmingham’s Cadbury World – the capital of the chocolatier’s international brand – is not the Willy Wonka factory one might hope it to be. But it does offer light-hearted fun to the youngest child and the oldest child-at-heart, and what’s best – it will make you fall in love with chocolate like never before.

The map that you receive at the start of the tour aptly resembles the game board from Candy Land, and just as you travel through Molasses Swamp and the Gumdrop Mountains in that game, so do you travel through many different locales along the tour. The tour starts on a very high note –  free chocolate buttons and a CurlyWurly.

The next few parts are intended to get the boring parts out of the way. In the “Aztec Jungle,” you walk along a cement path through a forest of fake plants and wildlife, choosing to read the history of chocolate and the cocoa bean through the centuries… or not.

On the “Journey to Europe,” an interesting 3-D technique (almost like a hologram) is used to tell the story of how cocoa beans made their way to become the drink of choice in English high society. Next is “Bull Street,” a series of two films showing the history Cadbury, from John Cadbury’s first shop in 1824 to today’s enormous factories.

Still with me? Good. This is where things start to get more exciting. The next few areas of the tour offer a chance to see some of the real internal workings of the factory. It’s also another place where you get free chocolate. In the area of the map creatively titled “Making Chocolate,” you get to see how Cadbury chocolate is made. No pictures allowed, though; they wouldn’t want you selling the secrets to Slugworth.

The following “Manufacturing” section offers interactive videos showing how different Cadbury treats are made with the chocolate from the previous section. In the “Packaging” section (when it’s running), you can see some of those different treats packaged.

The Cadbury Experience Map

The next area, called “Cadabra,” is the closest to Wonka status that Cadbury gets. It’s a theme park ride a la “It’s a Small World” where you ride in a small 4-person car along a track, watching animatronic cocoa bean characters in various locales. The “Demonstration Area” that comes after is a cool place to see the chocolate up close. Write your name in chocolate with the available squeeze tubes and watch one the workers create chocolate shells. It’s tons of melted chocolate just inches away – what’s not to like?

For everyone who enjoys a nice laugh, the “Advertising and Media” area shows Cadbury commercials from the 1950’s onwards. Some I still don’t understand, but the rest were very entertaining. The final area is an interactive arcade-like place called “Purple Planet,” with different ways to interact with virtual Cadbury candy. If you’re too much of a cynic to enjoy the games, strike a pose in front of the camera and watch yourself turned into a chocolate mold.

The tour ends where every tour of a major consumer corporation ends – the shop. It’s the largest Cadbury shop in the world, where you can find Cadbury treats unavailable anywhere else as well as common favorites for much cheaper. The fun isn’t over, however, for outside the building is Essence, where you can create a free Cadbury treat covered in warm liquid milk chocolate.

It may not be as wacky as Wonka, but Cadbury World has the same uncanny ability to induce a childlike sense of wonder and awe at both the work and the fun that goes into making some of the most delicious chocolate ever.