I am still in mourning for ... (My Chocolate Addiction)

Member Name: raehippychick

Product:	My Chocolate Addiction
Date:	06/03/02 (159 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: delicious, antidepressive, yummy

Disadvantages: can make people fat :(, nope - that's it!

… for the Rowntree factory in Norwich. It closed down a few years ago and no longer do we have the almost constant wonderful, divine smell of chocolate wafting over our fine city!

I have been lucky enough to enjoy two trips around this shrine to chocoholism. Ah, the ecstasy as we all hung about waiting outside, sniffing the cocoa rich air like a straggly bunch of Bisto kids. Inside we quickly donned overalls and the obligatory ridiculous hats … the boys fared better than us poor girls as they got to wear peaked baseball style caps. We had to tuck all our hair up in to ghastly mobcaps and endure plenty of ridicule.

Then … at last … the moment we were let loose on to the factory floor. I was in heaven … every where I looked – chocolate of all kinds, more and more of it … with every breath the sweet smell filled my lungs. But the best was yet to come … we were allowed to taste everything, yes, everything they had there!!

I tried at least one of every item on offer and in most cases more than one … I distinctly remember wolfing down the equivalent of six raisin and biscuit Yorkie bars. Before we were three quarters of the way round almost everybody else had given up. not me, I was on a roll. I did notice towards the end, that with every morsel I crammed in to my blissfully smiling mouth the others were going a more distinct shade of green, no it didn’t stop me, I’m afraid.

The closest I came to ruining my unbeaten record came when we were offered the privilege of trying the, then, new Star Bars, to my shame I only managed one. But, it was near the end of the trip and to be perfectly honest I wasn’t impressed by it.

As we left we were all presented with a bag of mis-shapes and goodies, making most people feel even more ill. I have to confess I wondered if I would ever eat any more chocolate ever again, or at least not for quite a long while. By the time I
had walked home, I had polished the lot off.

I did hear that shortly after the second of these magnificent trips, that, due to EC regulations people were no longer allowed to eat on the factory floor, so I never tried to get another visit there. But, oh, it was a sad day when the factory finally closed its doors for the last time. My son’s primary school was very close to the factory; so taking him to school each morning was a positive delight for the first couple of years!

Other incidents in my long and happy vocation as a chocoholic include …

Eating six Cadbury’s Creme Eggs one after the other just because someone wondered if I could eat more than two. I felt fine … my friends felt sick. Funnily enough, that was the last time anyone made me a challenge like that.

I have been know to wolf down a whole box of Milk Tray, Terry’s All Gold, etc in one sitting … except for the marzipan and coconut ones. It is so easy to do … pop me on my bed with a good book and I just dip until that dreadful moment when there is only that dreadful sound of fingers scrabbling in empty plastic.

There are few forms of chocolate I don’t like, the main one being hot chocolate, which I have never got the hang of. I don’t like any chocolate with marzipan or coconut and I am not too keen on hard toffee centres ever since I lost a filling because of one. I also don’t like Hershey’s chocolate bars; but Hershey’s Reece’s Piece’s, wafers and cups (peanut butter filled goodies) are a recent addition to my long list of adored chocolates.

The full list of chocolates I have known and loved would be far too long to put in, but includes …

Cadbury’s Dairy Milk (including the fruit and nut and whole nut bars) – this is great comfort chocolate and I tend to buy the large family bar to keep in drawer at work.

All Easter eggs, includi
ng all the lovely types of mini eggs. (Sigh … I love Easter – but just after is best, when all the eggs are reduced) But the best of course, are good old Creme Eggs.

Almost all Belgian chocolates and truffles, great for nibbling and indulging in, they go particularly well with a good book as I can just dip into the box without looking up from the page.

Most bars like Aero, Snickers (hate that name!), Mars Bars, Twix, Flakes, Ripples, Crunchies …

Lindt, Milka, Galaxy, Godiva handmade chocolates, white chocolate, dark chocolate, milk chocolate, flavoured chocolate, filled chocolate …


Having mentioned comfort chocolate I would just like to mention in passing that I categorise my chocolate – best (posh ones), favourite (varies from day to day), snacking (bars like Twix), comfort (Cadbury’s Dairy Milk) and of course emergency (anything else in the house).

I have, like most chocoholics got my confessions …

When I buy Quality Street or Roses I take out all the nice purple ones (hazelnut in soft caramel) and hide them before I have to share the rest of the tub. This happens every birthday, when I bring a large tin into work instead of cakes. In my defence though, when I notice someone searching around for a while I do ask if they are looking for purple ones, and if they are, I will share from my stash with them.

If I get my hands on a box of deliciously posh chocolates, I ‘kindly’ offer my son the last few, and he thinks I am being really nice and generous. I think now he is almost fifteen he has worked out that he gets the same selection every time. Yes, my least favourites.

And, yes, I must confess I have on occasion snitched a bar or two of chocolate from my son’s packed lunch store, usually in the middle of the night when I wake up with the serious choco-munchies. I have now solved this problem by mainly buying Bounty Bars, these bein
g about the only chocolate I don’t like due to my aforementioned loathing coconut.

I think he understands though, as the first time he saw the Terry’s Chocolate Orange advert with Dawn’s “… it’s not Terry’s … it’s mine …” he roared with laughter and said that it was just like me. He is also convinced the Ferrero Rocher advert was based on me. He truly isn’t a deprived child as I do buy extra chocolates to replace all those I ‘borrow’ from him. Honest!

But on the plus side - where the wonderful chocolate smells emanated from is now rapidly becoming a lovely new shopping centre… complete with a House of Frazer…. That's right looks like I'm replacing one addiction with another!

Summary: