Summer Brief Research

Rollercoasters

Roughly 290 million people ride roller coasters each year. On a roller coaster, you experience the thrill of cognitive dissonance, in which one part of consciousness understands that you're in no real danger and the other part is experiencing genuine fear. This leads to a powerful adrenaline rush that keeps riders coming back for more. A roller coaster designer combines the principles of human psychology and simple physics to create a hair-raising experience.

G-Forces 

G-forces are the forces that your body feels as the roller coaster accelerates and decelerates around the track. The loops in a roller coaster, known as clothoid loops, are responsible for most of the g-forces. As the coaster accelerates around a loop, your direction of motion is constantly changing. The force of gravity always pushes down toward the ground, while the force of the seat against you always pushes toward the track. At the bottom of the loop, both forces push you down, making you feel heavier. At the top of the loop, the forces compete with each other, making you feel lighter.

  

Potential and Kinetic Energy

Roller coasters are driven by gravity. As the coaster climbs the first rise, it stores potential energy. The amount of potential energy is affected by the height of that incline. As the coaster crests the rise, gravity takes over, converting the potential energy to kinetic energy, or the energy of motion. The kinetic energy drives the ride, but there must be sufficient potential energy for it to complete its run.

 

Psychology

While physics are responsible for the actual movement of a roller coaster, psychology is what makes it worth riding again and again. Yet emotions are highly personalized and no two people experience feelings in exactly the same way. Roller coaster designers have gone high-tech in their quest to find the right balance between excitement and terror. Measuring skin conductivity, heart rate and even tiny changes in the facial muscles helps them understand what riders are thinking and feeling.

Wooden vs. Steel Coasters

Wooden roller coasters rarely go upside down, while almost every steel coaster does. This difference has to do with the tracks. Wooden roller coaster tracks are not as flexible as steel tracks. Wooden coasters depend on the centripetal force generated when the coaster goes around curves and the acceleration generated when the coaster goes down a hill. Tubular steel coaster tracks are flexible and able to withstand the forces generated when the coaster goes upside down. Steel coasters also provide a smoother, less bumpy ride.

Facts

In 2010, 102 roller coaster enthusiasts set a new world record at Adventure Island in Essex, for the most amount of people riding a roller coaster nude.

In 1959, the first ever tubular steel roller coaster was created. The Matterhorn bobsleigh roller coaster was built for Disneyland, in Anaheim, California.

  

Big One is the UK’s tallest coaster, located at Blackpool Pleasure Beach.

The world's oldest operating roller coaster is 110 years old (Leap the Dips at Lakemont Park in Pennsylvania).
The worlds first steel roller coaster was the Matterhorn Bobsleds at Disneyland.
The wolrd's fastest roller coaster (Formula Rossa in Abu Dhabi) goes 149 mph.

The Smiler is the latest new ride at Alton Towers. The new ride, which opened in May 2013, is the world's first 14 loop rollercoaster and has been given an official Guinness World Record for the most loops in a coaster!

 

Alton Towers

Over the holidays I have visited Alton Towers and it re-established my love for rollercoasters. As I have been to Florida 5 times and been on all the rollercoasters every year but haven't been for around 4 years since. My best ride at Alton Towers was the new ride Smiler. It is constant from the start to end. And the interaction of the ride with yourself made it my best by far.

Smiler

Today, Alton Towers Resort has admitted responsibility for the mysterious branding of sheep which has swept across the UK. It was all part of an elaborate stunt to reveal the name of its new rollercoaster for 2013, The Smiler. The stunt, which has puzzled the nation for the past week, saw hundreds of sheep across the county emblazoned with a strange symbol. The symbol has been identified as the logo for The Smiler, which will open to the public later this year.

It’s official – The Smiler is the world’s first 14 looping rollercoaster. The official Guinness World Record for the most loops in a coaster has officially been broken by the UK’s number 1 theme park, smashing the previous record of 11 and also has more track per square metre than any other ride in the world. 
 
The Smiler, which is Alton Towers Resort's biggest ever investment at £18m, took over eight months to build and the secret world first element has been kept under wraps since construction began back in September. Not for the faint hearted, the marmalising rollercoaster also features a series of twisted psychological effects including optical illusions, blinding lights and jabbing needles designed to mess with your mind.

To mark the announcement, The Smiler’s heart-stopping 14 loops were revealed today with a spectacular display of lights, which brought the coaster to 'life'. The sheer size of The Smiler, which has the equivalent of ten football pitches of ride-track, dominates the X-Sector area of the Resort.


Types of Inversions in smiler:

• Heartline Roll
• Inverted Drop / Barrel Roll
• Pretzel Loop (2 inversions)
• Batwing (2 inversions)
• Corkscrew
• Inverted Drop / Barrel Roll
• Sea Serpent Roll (2 inversions)
• Cobra Roll (2 inversions)
• Barrel Roll
• Corkscrew / Barrel Roll

The Smiler's 5 Mind Manipulations: 

The Inoculator 

    A jab of happiness as you pass by stage one of the Marmalisation process. 

The Tickler    Aims to tickle you until you can't resist smiling 
The Flasher  
    The giant flashing device, blinding you as you hurtle underneath the leg.
The Giggler

    Infectious, intoxicating laughing gas

The Hypnotiser       Has the power to disorientate, mesmerise and disrupt your self-awareness.


Marketing For Alton Towers:

Marketing for The Smiler started around the same time as construction when, on 11 April 2012, when a minisite was launched allowing visitors to register for updates on the ride's progress. A competition to be the first to ride the rollercoaster, at this time codnamed "SW7", started in July. To enter guests were invited to scan a QR Code with their smartphone, which subsequently redirected to Alton Towers Official The Smiler Minisite where guests entered their details.
In September 2012, the park began the second stage of advertisement through the overnight spray painting of a stencil logo (which resemble a smiling face) all over the park. This was followed in October with new boards around the park, new 'subliminal' advertising on different sections of the main Alton Towers website, and a countdown timer on the Alton Towers mini-site. The countdown timer initially gave a scheduled opening date of 16 March 2013, but was removed however on 4 January 2013, as the ride hit delays.
More overt advertising started in January 2013, when the "Smile" logo was used in various forms across the country. Including billboards in London; ticket barriers at Leeds railway station; projected onto various buildings including Big Ben; and sprayed onto flocks of sheep in areas including Leicestershire, Devon and Perthshire.
The name of the roller coaster, The Smiler, was revealed on 21 January 2013, the Metro newspaper, and the opening date was set as May (previously it was 16 March).
In February 2013 a free game app was released containing a full 3D recreation of the actual ride, and a preview of the rides merchandise was published online.
Track designer, John Wardley, confirmed in a radio interview, on 19 April 2013, that The Smiler would feature more inversions than any other rollercoaster in the world. Despite construction proving this fact long beforehand, this was the first official confirmation that The Smiler will hold the inversion record when it opens. In an earlier interview Wardley had said that The Smiler would have "...5 mind manipulating elements that play around with you on the ride, so it’s more than just a physical rollercoaster."
From early April and throughout May, Alton Towers published videos online giving snippets of the ride's fictional backstory.This was followed by footage of Daybreak's Laura Tobin riding The Smiler and an advertising campaign on boxes of Krave cereal.
The first national television advertisement premiered on 20 May 2013.

 

History

1920 The park was taken over by some local businessmen and the main shareholder was William Bagshaw who was an estate agent from Uttoxeter. After he died it was taken over by his two sons, Denis and Anthony.

1924 House and Gardens form Alton Towers Ltd. The gardens are restored and attract crowds throughout the roaring twenties and thirties.


1939 World War II starts and the house is requisitioned as an officer cadet training camp. The house and grounds remain under the control of the war office until 1951.

1952 The gardens reopen. The house is by now very dilapidated, but a tea rooms operates in the once grand Banqueting Hall and travelling fun fair rides are to be found in the grounds.

1973 John Broome entered the scene when he married the daughter of Denis and became involved with the family business. A short while later he was able to buy a majority stake in Alton Towers. Marrying the owner's daughter surely must have helped! But he was already a wealthy man through his dealings in the property market.

The 1970’s were a progressive stage in the development of Alton Towers with many of the rides and areas that we see today built and/or installed.  

1980 This is THE year when the Corkscrew rollercoaster was opened!!

1980’s Massive development of the site saw the introduction of the Pirate Ship, Log Flume, Black Hole, Enterprise, Congo River Rapids, Vintage Car Ride, Tea Cups, Skyride and Monorail. Many of these rides still exist on the site today in some guise or another!

1990 Alton Towers acquired by the Tussauds Group.

1990’s More massive investment and development throughout the 1990’s, with rides such as the Runaway Mine Train, Haunted House, Energizer, and Ripsaw. Major rides such as Nemesis (1994) and Oblivion (1998) were also installed during this time period, and the first Alton Towers Hotel opened in March 1996.

Maps over history:

1986

1990 

1993

1994

2001

2003

2005

2008

2010

2011

These maps have developed so much over time. You can see how the park has formed due to the spare land around the map compared to how packed out it is now. The colours have become brighter and has now got different areas of the park due to the different areas for different areas etc... I do like the year 2005 the best due to its simplicity and cleanness although this may not be very clear as it doesn't have each name of every ride.

Alton Towers Website:

These are screenshots from the website, they are mainly focused on the special offers of the park and also the special events, for example now is the scarefest. They have a very good bar at the top which navigates you around the site very easily, although I do think the design is still very basic and the information is quite vague.













Alton Towers Merchandise:

On my visit to Alton towers I bought a mug and keyring which is shown above, there are shops after every ride and you can buy merchandise for your favourite ride or just Alton towers itself.





Graphic Design & Rollercoasters:

These are all brightly coloured and very loop de loopy. I think it doesn't show the motion or the sound of the rollercoaster within it. I think that rollercoaster design needs some interaction as you have to interact with the ride to experience the feeling.
I am going to look an try and find more graphic design that involves rollercoaster which has a better concept within the design rather than just using a rollercoaster involved within it.

Dancing 

My interest in dancing has developed over the 18 years I have been dancing. I started when I was 3 years old and I have taken that interest into teaching younger children as I am currently taking my qualifications for the older end.
There are many different types of dancing that have derived from different cultures, I have taken part in irish, scottish, and ballet tap and modern.

Different Types:
African
Acro
Afro-carribean
Ballroom
Ballet
Belly
Break
Bhangra
Contemporary
Clogg
Can-can
Disco
Flamenco
Folk
Hip-Hop
Improvisation
Jazz
Jive
Modern
Scottish
Street 
Swing
Tap
Zumba
Waltz

Ballet serves as a backbone for many other styles of dance, as many other dance genres are based on ballet. Ballet is based on techniques that have been developed over centuries. Ballet uses music and dance to tell stories. Ballet dancers have the ability to transport an audience to another world.

Jazz is a fun dance style that relies heavily on originality and improvisation. Many jazz dancers mix different styles into their dancing, incorporating their own expression. Jazz dancing often uses bold, dramatic body movements, including body isolations and contractions.

Tap dancing is an exciting form of dance in which dancers wear special shoes equipped with metal taps. Tap dancers use their feet like drums to create rhythmic patterns and timely beats.

Modern dance is a dance style that rejects many of the strict rules of classical ballet, focusing instead on the expression of inner feelings. Modern dance was created as a rebellion against classical ballet, emphasizing creativity in choreography and performance.


My favourite subject is Ballet therefore this is what I am going to look furthest into:

History 

Ballet originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century. Noblemen and women were treated to lavish events, especially wedding celebrations, where dancing and music created an elaborate spectacle. Dancing masters taught the steps to the nobility, and the court participated in the performances. In the 16th century, Catherine de Medici, an Italian noblewoman, wife of King Henry II of France and a great patron of the arts, began to fund ballet in the French court. 

By 1661, a dance academy had opened in Paris, and in 1681 ballet moved from the courts to the stage. The French opera Le Triomphe de l’Amour incorporated ballet elements in its performance, creating a long-standing opera-ballet tradition in France. By the mid-1700s French ballet master Jean Georges Noverre rebelled against the artifice of opera-ballet, believing that ballet could stand on its own as an art form. His notions — that ballet should contain expressive, dramatic movement, and that movement should reveal the relationships between characters.

Early classical ballets such as Giselle and La Sylphide were created during the Romantic Movement in the first half of the 19th century. This movement influenced art, music and ballet. It was concerned with the supernatural world of spirits and magic and often showed women as passive and fragile. These themes are reflected in the ballets of the time and are called romantic ballets. This is also the period of time when dancing on the tips of the toes, known as pointe work, became the norm for the ballerina.
The popularity of ballet soared in Russia, and, during the latter half of the 19th century, Russian choreographers and composers took it to new heights. Marius Petipa’s The Nutcracker, The Sleeping Beauty and Swan Lake, by Petipa and Lev Ivanov, represent classical ballet in its grandest form.
Today, ballet is multi-faceted. Classical forms, traditional stories and contemporary choreographic innovations intertwine to produce the character of modern ballet.

Benefits Of Dance:

Being in general an aerobic exercise, dance brings well known benefits, such as reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease, weight control and other ones commonly associated with physical fitness. In addition, a considerable effect of dancing on psychology.

Dance pads have proven useful in tackling obesity in young people and are welcomed in many schools for that reason

An Italian study in 2006 has shown that dance is a very good exercise for heart patients compared to other aerobic exercises like cycling. This may be partly because the patients enjoyed it much more


Risks Of Dance:

Here are various health risks of professional dance, as it can be very demanding. As well as sports injuries, repetitive strain injury, and chronic workplace stress, dancers have a higher than average risk of body image problems and eating disorders. Dancers risk injury within the course of their career, many retiring from active performance in their mid to late 30s. Since dance is a performance art with emphasis on aesthetics, dancers are also at a higher risk of body image problems and eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa or bulimia.


Injuries:

Many dance movements, and particularly ballet techniques, such as the turnout of the hips and rising on the toes (en pointe), test the limits of the range of movement of the human body. Dance movements can place stress on the body when not performed correctly; even if perfect form is used, over-repetition can cause repetitive strain injury. Eighty percent of professional dancers will be injured in some way during their careers; 50 percent of dancers from large ballet companies and 40 percent from small companies will miss performances due to injury. The practice of "plieing" (bending one's knees deeply) after landing each jump may seem innocuous, but failing to do so may result in shin splints or knee injuries. Overwork and poor occupational health and safety conditions, a (non-sprung) hard floor, a cold studio or theater, or dancing without sufficient warm up also increase risk of injury.
To minimize injury, dance training emphasizes strength building and forming appropriate habits. Also damage may result from having a student perform movements for which they are not prepared, care must be taken that the student is not "pushed" inappropriately. A dancer put en pointe at an age where his or her bones have not completely ossified may develop permanent damage; even past the point of ossification, ankle injuries can result if a dancer goes en pointe without sufficient strength.

Many ballet theaters have a small blue light mounted high on the back wall behind the audience. Its purpose is to give dancers something to "spot," or focus on as they perform pirouettes and other difficult turning movements.

Ballets five basic foot positions were devised in the 18th century by Pierre Beauchamps, ballet master to King Louis XIV of France. Beauchamps created the positions so that a dancer's weight would be evenly distributed over her feet for any body position.

These are all graphic design either advertising dance or an event for dance. They all show the motion and enhance this due to the movement involved within dance. I like how they have created different patterns also to show how you create patterns in dance and different positions within dance.



Cadbury's 

Firstly, I decided to look at the history of cadbury's and how the development over time has helped the successfulness of the company. I retrieved this actual information on the cadbury's website! This is the link it was very clear and to the point. http://www.cadbury.co.uk/the-story#bournville-the-factory-in-a-garden-is-born.


This timeline adds everything in from the advertising and when everything was invented and how it has developed from moving from bull street to bournville, then when cadburys world opened. I think I am now going to focus into the advert of the gorilla this gained alot of media as this was very off the page at first and it made a big appearance and was in the press for quite a long time.

This is the ad link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GPP10Pk7XA

The tone of voice of this advert is definately humourous and wants to make the audience laugh. Although there is no call to action. The reason why I think I like it so much is that there was no need of branding and the colour purple behind the gorilla and the 'glass and half full' is enough for the audience to know what brand it is. They released it at the heightest point possible of the big brother final and also the rugby cup final. 

The advert obviously worked because I remembered it which it very hard and also was very different from the rest of the cadburys adverts so was a risky step to take but was just simplistic and effective. And it was watched 6 million times on youtube in just the first 2 weeks of been on the TV.


Below are all the different cadbury's products you have been able to buy over the years, the latest edition is crispello although I tried this as primary research and they wasn't very nice as I thought it was going to be better than what it was:

Bars

• Boost
• Boost Duo
• Bournville
• Bournville Old Jamaica
• Brunch Chocolate Chip
• Brunch Hazelnut
• Brunch Raisin
• Chomp
• Creme Egg Twisted
• Crispello Double Choc
• Crispello Vanilla Velvet
• Crunchie
• Curly Wurly
• Dairy Milk
• Dairy Milk Bar & a Half
• Dairy Milk Bubbly
• Dairy Milk Bubbly Mini
• Dairy Milk Bubbly Mint
• Dairy Milk Bubbly White
• Dairy Milk Caramel
• Dairy Milk Caramel Freddo
• Dairy Milk Chocos
• Dairy Milk Freddo
• Dairy Milk Fruit & Nut
• Dairy Milk Golden Biscuit Crunch
• Dairy Milk Marvellous Creations Cola Pretzel Honeycomb
• Dairy Milk Marvellous Creations Cookie Nut Crunch
• Dairy Milk Marvellous Creations Jelly Popping Candy Shells
• Dairy Milk Nutty Caramel
• Dairy Milk Toffee Popcorn
• Dairy Milk Turkish
• Dairy Milk Whole Nut
• Dairy Milk with Crunchie Bits
• Dairy Milk with Daim
• Dairy Milk with Oreo
• Double Decker
• Double Decker Duo
• Dream
• Flake
• Flake Dipped
• Fudge
• Picnic
• Snack Sandwich
• Snack Shortcake
• Snack Wafer
• Starbar
• Time Out
• Twirl
• Wispa
• Wispa Gold

Bags and Boxes

• Bitsa Wispa
• Choc’ Full of Clusters
• Choc’ Full of Peanuts
• Choc’ Full of Popcorn
• Choc’ Full of Pretzels
• Choc’ Full of Raisins
• Crispello Double Choc
• Crunchie Rocks
• Crunchie Treat Size
• Crunchums
• Dairy Milk Buttons
• Dairy Milk Buttons Treat Size
• Dairy Milk Caramel Nibbles
• Dairy Milk Caramel Nibbles Big Share
• Dairy Milk Chunks
• Dairy Milk Freddo Faces
• Dairy Milk Giant Buttons
• Dairy Milk Giant Buttons Big Share
• Dairy Milk Pebbles
• Dairy Milk Tasters
• Dairy Milk Treat Size
• Dairy Milk White Chocolate Buttons
• Éclairs Classic
• Éclairs Hazelnut Twist
• Éclairs Orange Twist
• Favourites
• Goody Bag
• Heroes
• Maxi Mix
• Milk Tray
• Mis-Shapes
• Roses
• Thank You Pralines
• Time Out Treat Size
• Travel Mix
• Twirl Bites
• Twirl Treat Size
• Variety
• With Love Pralines

Beverages

• Bournville Cocoa
• Drinking Chocolate
• Highlights Bournville
• Highlights Caramel
• Highlights Fudge
• Highlights Hazelnut
• Highlights Milk Chocolate
• Hot Chocolate Instant
• Tassimo Hot Chocolate
• Top Choc Vending
• Wispa Hot Chocolate

Easter

• Assorted Minis
• Chocolate Bunny
• Creme Egg
• Creme Egg Minis
• Creme Egg Splats
• Dairy Milk Buttons Chick
• Dairy Milk Caramel Bunnies
• Dairy Milk Caramel Egg
• Eggheads
• Egg 'n' Spoon Chocolate Mousse
• Egg 'n' Spoon Milky Mousse
• Mini Eggs
• Mini Rolls Lemon
• Orange Creme Cake Bars

Halloween

• Blackcurrant Bite Mini Rolls
• Crunchy Spiders
• Deadheads
• Screme Egg
• Screme Egg Minis
• Spooky Cake Bars Cinder Toffee
• Spooky Cake Bars Slimy Strawberry
• Spooky Shapes
• Trick or Treatsize
• Vampire Mallows

Christmas

• Advent Calendar
• Caramel Bell Tree Decorations
• Chocolate Coins
• Chocolate Santa
• Chocolate Snowman
• Dairy Milk Chunks Carton
• Dairy Milk Freddo Popping Candy
• Dairy Milk Mousse Snowman
• Dairy Milk Snowy Delight
• Dairy Milk Winter Wonderland
• Endless Wispa
• Festive Friends
• Festive Selection
• Heroes Carton
• Little Wishes
• Magical Advent Calendar
• Magical Elves
• Mallows with Caramel
• Mini Yule Logs
• Mint Mini Rolls
• Occasions
• Parcel Tree Decorations
• Roses Carton
• Selection Box
• Snowbites
• Wishes
• Wishes Advent Calendar
• Wishes Gift Pack

Desserts

• Boost Cake Bars
• Caramel Cake Bars
• Caramel Mousse
• Chocolate Chaos Pot
• Crunchie Celebration Cake
• Dairy Milk Buttons Celebration Cake
• Dairy Milk Buttons Twin Pot
• Dairy Milk Chunks Twin Pot
• Flake Celebration Cake
• Flake Twin Pot
• Fudge Cake Bars
• Fudge Twin Pot
• Hot Chocolate Pudding
• Light Trifle
• Milk Chocolate Cake Bars
• Milk Chocolate with Vanilla Creme Mini Rolls
• Mint Cake Bars
• Mint Choc Flavour Mini Rolls
• Mint Mousse
• Mousse
• Pots of Joy Dairy Milk
• Pots of Joy Dairy Milk Caramel
• Pots of Joy White Chocolate Buttons
• Raspberry Ripple Flavour Mini Rolls
• Strawberry Mini Rolls
• Swiss Gateau Chocolate
• Toffee Ripple Flavour Mini Rolls
• Trifle

Ice Creams

• Bournville Deeply Dark Stick
• Crunchie Blast Stick
• Crunchie Cup
• Crunchie Ice Cream Bar
• Crunchie Tub
• Dairy Milk Buttons Cone
• Dairy Milk Caramel Cone
• Dairy Milk Caramel Cup
• Dairy Milk Caramel Tub
• Dairy Milk Stick
• Double Decker Ice Cream Bar
• Dream Stick
• Flake 99 Cone
• Flake Tub
• Nuts about Caramel Stick
• Wispa Cup
• Wispa Ice Cream Bar

Biscuits

• Bournville Biscuits
• Bournville Fingers
• Caramel Biscuits
• Chocolate Chunk Cookies
• Cookies Choc Chip
• Crunchie Biscuits
• Dairy Milk Biscuits
• Digestives
• Dream Fingers
• Fabulous Fingers
• Fingers
• Fingers Double Chocolate
• Fingers Toffee Crunch
• Honeycomb Fabulous Fingers
• Jumbo Animals
• Mini Animals
• Mini Animals Dinosaurs
• Mini Fingers
• Mini Fingers Mint
• Mini Fingers Toffee Crunch
• Oat & Choc Chip
• Praline Fabulous Fingers
• Rich Tea
• Shortcake
• Signature
• Turkish Biscuits

 Manafacturing at cadbury's


There are two stages in manufacturing food products:

• Primary processing – converting raw materials into "food commodities" or ingredients (at Cadbury, growing, harvesting and processing cocoa beans to make cocoa mass).
• Secondary processing – processing ingredients to make food products (at Cadbury, processing cocoa mass to make chocolate products).

Cadbury makes two types of chocolate:

Milk chocolate – Cadbury Dairy Milk, launched in 1905

Dark chocolate – Bournville, launched in 1908

Primary processing is the same for milk and dark chocolate, but secondary processing is a bit different. The recipes have been developed over the years. Chocolate-makers (Chocolatiers) use their skills to create well-balanced recipes that consumers like.

Aerial photo of Bournville

 

 

Bournville, the home of Cadbury, is the largest of several processing and production sites across the UK – almost 3,000 people work at the 60-acre site.
Each week Bournville alone produces more than 1,800 tonnes of chocolate or 1.6 million bars of different sizes. Every day of the week it produces 50 million chocolates such as Cadbury Dairy Milk and over one million Cadbury Creme Eggs.



Stage One:
Cocoa and chocolate both come from cocoa beans which grow in pods on cocoa trees (Theobroma cacao).
West Africa is a major producer of cocoa beans, especially Ghana and the Ivory Coast (Côte d’Ivoire). Malaysia, Indonesia, the Republic of Cameroon, Nigeria, Brazil and Ecuador have also become significant producers.
Each cocoa pod contains 30–40 beans covered by a sweet, white pulp. The pods are harvested (removed from the trees) by hand. Farmers cut the pods from the cocoa trees with knives attached to poles. The pods are then split open using wooden mallets and the beans removed and fermented or cured, which helps to develop the beans’ chocolate flavour.
After drying, the fermented beans are weighed and packed into sacks for sale and then transported by ship to Liverpool. Strict quality control tests take place when the cocoa beans are bought from the farmers and during transportation to ensure high standards.

Fermenting or curing cocoa beans develops their flavour

Stage Two:
Chocolate is not just ground-up cocoa beans. Raw cocoa beans taste very bitter, and must be processed before they can be used to make chocolate products.
Cocoa beans arriving by ship in Liverpool are transported to Cadbury’s purpose-built cocoa bean processing factory at Chirk, North Wales. Chirk operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week to process 50,000 tonnes of cocoa beans each year.
 
When the beans arrive at the factory, they are emptied out onto a moving belt, sorted and cleaned to remove dust and stones.
The beans move through a continuous roaster (a revolving drum with hot air passing through it). During roasting, the shells of the cocoa beans become brittle. The cocoa beans darken in colour and acquire their distinctive chocolate flavour and aroma.
The beans are broken down (kibbled) into smaller pieces (nibs). The broken shells are blown away (winnowing). The nibs are then ground down into a thick, chocolate-coloured liquid called cocoa mass or liquor, which is rich in cocoa butter. This is one of the main ingredients of all chocolate products.

Countlines 

At Cadbury, individually-wrapped, chocolate-covered bars, such as the Cadbury Crunchie, Boost, Time Out or Double Decker, are called countlines because they are sold by numbers rather than by weight. Countlines tend to be eaten as a treat. These products are made by the enrobing method, where the centres pass on a continuous belt beneath a curtain of liquid chocolate. 

 

Moulded bars

Moulded bars are made by pouring liquid chocolate into bar-shaped moulds, for example the Cadbury Dairy Milk range. They may have added ingredients, such as nuts, raisins or biscuit pieces, and they come in different sizes.
Products like the Cadbury Caramel are made by setting a layer of chocolate in moulds, adding the filling and sealing the base of the bar with a layer of chocolate. 

Assortments

Assortments are boxes of chocolates with a variety of different centres, such as Cadbury Milk Tray, Heroes or Roses, which are bought as gifts or for sharing. These are either made by enrobing or shelling. During shelling, liquid chocolate is deposited into a mould to form a shell. The centre is then put inside the shell, which is sealed.
Cream-centred bars are made by the same process, as are the seasonal novelties such as Easter Eggs and Creme Eggs.

Panning

Panning is another process used to coat centres. It is used in making sugar-coated Cadbury Mini Eggs. It involves using large, continuously-revolving drums to coat the centres.

 

Selflines

Selflines are identical chocolate sweets, packed in boxes or bags and include Cadbury Buttons and Mini Eggs.

Seasonal ranges

Seasonal ranges include Christmas and Easter selection packs, novelties and Easter Eggs. The Creme Egg plant produces more than 400 million eggs a year, at the rate of 70,000 per hour.

Why package?

Packaging of chocolate products must:

• protect the product from physical damage or deterioration (e.g. due to high or low humidity, foreign odours, the effects of temperature changes or changes to the product itself which can be caused by oxidation or moisture gain or loss)
• contain the product to avoid loss through breakage or theft
• display the product – good graphic design and shape is important
• sell the product by attracting customers to buy it, and by being attractive and easy enough to use so they will buy it again
• be economical so that consumers feel that their purchase represents good value for money

Packaging can communicate the company’s corporate identity to the customer, helping to position it in the customer’s mind, and set it apart from the competition.

Cadbury Script logo and glass and a half logo

Each one of a company’s brands has its own unique style.

The next four screens take you through the various stages of the packaging development process. 

At any point, Cadbury will be working on 70–80 packaging developments for new products, new presentations of existing products or product relaunches. Several departments work closely on this – e.g. Marketing, Design, Packaging Development, Product Engineering and Quality Control – all will have different view points.

• Firstly, the whole team assesses the product’s packaging needs
• Ideas are also thoroughly tested to make sure that they can be made using Cadbury’s machinery and that they will stand up to handling and distribution
• Designs are fine-tuned until the packaging meets all the requirements
• The material specifications are agreed with the chosen suppliers
• The factory quality control department ensures that quality levels can be met.

It is important that the design and development teams keep up to date with all the latest developments in technology. Developments in technology can make it possible to create innovative products or packaging. New materials and finishes present new design opportunities and possibilities.
Fairly recent innovations include new plastics, metalised films, ultraviolet and infra-red dried printing inks.
Computer Aided Design (CAD) tools are used to produce designs. CAD software can be used to create accurate 3D designs which can be viewed from any angle. It can be used to create an image of how a product might look on the shop shelf to see how well it will stand out. 

A number of things have to be considered when choosing packaging materials:

• chocolate is very sensitive to taint (it picks up other flavours and odours easily)
• the packaging comes into direct contact with the product and so must be safe
• many chocolate products can pick up moisture and become sticky
• others lose moisture, dry out and become tough
• wherever possible the materials must be recyclable

A range of different materials are used:

• Paper is used for labels, wrappers, liners and in laminates. Paper may be finished with grease resistant, wax, plastic film or emulsion treatments
• Board is used to make boxes as it is stiff and can be coated, laminated, treated and printed to change and improve the way it looks
• Traditional plastics
• Bioplastics (cornstarch)

When packaging is being designed, production techniques must be taken into consideration. Modern high-speed packaging lines can work to very specific requirements.