£2m confectionery visitor attraction planned for York

The company that created the Jorvik Viking Centre is behind a new scheme to develop a £2m chocolate-themed visitor attraction in York.

The Sweet History of York would tell the story of the confectionery industry in the city.

The visitor attraction company Continuum say it has begun discussions over a vacant property in Kings Square.

If planning permission is given it is hoped the attraction would open in the spring of 2012.

York's association with the production of confectionery dates back more than two centuries.

The city was home to two of the biggest British names in chocolate, Rowntree Mackintosh and Terry's.

Swiss confectionary firm, Nestle, who acquired Rowntrees in the 1980s, still have a major manufacturing facility in the city.

Continuum developed and ran the Jorvik Viking Centre for 18 years and they currently operate a number of attractions including Portsmouth's Spinnaker Tower and Oxford Castle - Unlocked.

The company is seeking planning consent to convert a shop on Kings Square into the chocolate-themed attraction with retail space and a cafe, spread over three floors, totalling 6,400 sq ft (594 sq m).

Juliana Delaney, chief executive of Continuum, said it was still early days and there was a long way to go.

She said: "Reports produced by the council call for additions to the tourism offer in the city and we hope to add value to the fantastic visitor experience the city already offers and give visitors a reason to come back."

Ms Delaney added that the development could create more than 30 new jobs.


Article posted by Spencer Samaroo, Managing Director, Moo-Lolly-Bar
The best online chocolate, lolly and confectionery store on the web!

If you like what you have read check out our updates on Facebook and Twitter.

Source and Photo: BBC News

Getting Divinely high at Glastonbury

Wimbledon wouldn’t be Wimbledon without strawberries and cream – and Glastonbury wouldn’t be the nation’s favourite mud bath without chunks of a darkish brown mind-altering substance. It’s available in small packages, is easy to carry around, you can break it off in small chunks to enjoy bit by bit, it’s best in small doses and sharing’s always appreciated. Yes, it’s that self-indulgent festival staple - chocolate - and, this year, Glastonbury’s official supplier is the 100 per cent Fairtrade chocolate-maker Divine.

Console yourself as you swoosh through puddles, or reward yourself after putting up your tent (and especially after finding it again), by indulging in a 45g bar. Its limited edition wrapper can only have been inspired by the type of hope you achieve when in the grip of an out of body experience. I don’t mean the strange hieroglyphics depicted around the corners; they are on every packet. It’s the psychedelically-inspired and rather optimistic and large orange-red sun between two tiny and perfectly formed cumulus clouds floating in a vivid blue sky with the instruction “Shine with Divine” that take you to a place of pure phantasmagoria. It’s June; this is England; it’s Glastonbury and Wimbledon: it rains.

There is, however, some fantasy-fulfilment in store for one lucky nibbler. Inside a 100g packet down at Worthy Farm is a special Golden Ticket giving the winner and a friend an exclusive stage-side view for a performance on the Pyramid Stage on Sunday, 26th June. What better excuse to increase your odds by buying the whole range (milk chocolate, milk chocolate with orange, dark chocolate with orange and ginger, 70 per cent dark chocolate, and white chocolate with strawberry)?


Article posted by Spencer Samaroo, Managing Director, Moo-Lolly-Bar
The best online chocolate, lolly and confectionery store on the web!

If you like what you have read check out our updates on Facebook and Twitter.

Source and Photo: Foodepedia

Chocolate Rules Down Under

Australians love their chocolate, Americans crave pizza and the British desire a steak.

These findings were among the results of an Oxfam survey gaining publicity today, in which more than 16,000 people around the world were asked what their favourite food is.

According to the survey, the world's top three favourite foods are pasta, meat and rice.

In Australia, chocolate ranked number one, followed by pasta, steak, seafood and pizza.

Pizza was overwhelmingly the top food in the United States, with almost twice as many people choosing it ahead of the second-ranked steak. Chicken, Mexican and pasta rounded out the top five.

In the United Kingdom, pasta, chicken, curry and pizza ranked behind steak as the top food choices.

More seriously, Oxfam found that high food prices have altered the food that many people around the world eat.

More than half of the respondents in poorer countries said they are no longer eating foods they ate two years ago, with 39 per cent blaming that change on rising prices.

In the US, most attributed their change in eating habits to health reasons rather than cost.

Article posted by Spencer Samaroo, Managing Director, Moo-Lolly-Bar
The best online chocolate, lolly and confectionery store on the web!

If you like what you have read check out our updates on Facebook and Twitter.

Source: Herald Sun