New Zealand - Dunedin - Not the Wonka Factory and the Pride of the South

Saturday we were feeling ambitious. Ashley and I decided to tour the Cadbury Chocolate Factory before hitting up the farmer's market. We presented ourselves at 9am sharp for the tour, after busting a move to walk there in less than twenty minutes. I had already been warned the tour was a bit disappointing, and it was if only because there is so much more they could have done with it. You're not allowed to take any pictures inside the factory (trade secrets, etc.), but seeing as the factory itself was closed because it was the weekend, I really didn't see anything worth taking a photo of, let alone pirating.


We did learn a fair bit about the history of chocolate and how to make it. For instance, most white chocolate is not real chocolate because many companies make it with artificial flavours instead of with cocoa butter. And Cadbury chocolate tastes far better here than in Canada because they get their cream from Otago Holstein cows, as opposed to the Jersey cows used in the North American factories.

And of course, we saw the famous Chocolate Fall. While watching 1 tonne of liquid chocolate drop the length of the 750 tonne silo we were standing in was fairly impressive, I secretly wished it had been more of a chocolate waterfall like in the Wonka Factory. Plus, the fall itself is only aesthetic; it serves no functional purpose at all (except luring tourists in, I guess). Ashley almost got caught in the splash zone of chocolate too - the entire inner railing was splattered in deliciousness. We did get free treats out of the deal though.

Far far far better was the Speight's Brewery tour that Mike joined us for that evening. We were guided through the history of beer from Ancient Egypt to the foundation of the brewery in Dunedin.


Interesting trivia fact of the day: the expression skull/skol in Australia and Scandinavia derives from the Vikings' practice of honouring their fallen enemies by hollowing out their skulls and using them as beer mugs. No joke.




We also learned about beer is brewed. A lot of the information was really boring, so here are the highlight facts.


1) Malt dust is highly combustible. They use wood shovels to move it because any spark from contact between a metal shovel and the ground could ignite the dust. The malt warehouse burned down in the 1940s because some dummy used a metal shovel.







2) Hops is the only other plant in the same genus as marijuana.








We also really enjoyed the continuous showings of the Southern Man ad campaign for Speight's beer. Mike asked if it bothered us at all how the commercials were entirely geared towards men and honestly, at least they were shameless about their target demographic. In North America, they're also targeting the male audience but are sly about it. The Southern Man heavily draws on the beer's motto of Pride of the South too, which means all the scenery in said commercials is spectacular South Island vistas. And I know some of my more feminism and gender studies-inclined friends would probably be very critical of the identity construction of the Southern Man - have a peek here: http://www.speights.co.nz/Southern-Values/Southern-Man-ID-Chart.aspx

Obviously the best part of the tour was the half hour at the end dedicated to tasting six types of beer brewed by Speight's: Harvest, Summit, Gold Medal, Distinction, Old Dark, and Porter.

Did I mention it was unlimited supply? We were encouraged to at least try all of them and work our way from lightest to darkest. Seeing as we were drinking... I mean 'tasting'... alongside two Aussies and three Germans guys, there was some pressure to keep up. Mediocre fan of beer that I am, I am proud to say I did try all of them (and then some - I think I made it through eight glasses in 30 minutes). I figured I'd like the Harvest one the best, since it was the girly apricot flavoured pale lager, but I was surprised to discover that my favourite was Distinction, followed by the Gold Medal ale.