One of our most popular options, especially in the winter months, is hot chocolate. Drinking chocolate, cocoa, call it what you will. That lovely dark smooth chocolate drink. We offer two options for the type of chocolate we use so we are going to look at the choices. First thought lets take a quick look at the history of the drink.
History
Evidence suggests that the Mayan civilisation was consuming chocolate as far back as 500B.C., and may well have predated that. The drink of that time was served cold, by grounding cocoa seeds into a paste and mixing it with water, cornmeal, chilli peppers and other ingredients. It would be poured back and forwards between containers to develop a thick foam.
At that time, sugar wasn’t present in the Americas, so the drink would have been rather bitter. Vanilla and other spices were added to offset this.
Europeans didn’t come into contact with the drink until 1502, on the fourth voyage of columbus. When Cortes defeated the Aztecs he demanded their valuables. These included cocoa beans and the equipment to make drinking chocolate, bringing them back to Spain in 1528. The drink gained popularity, with cocoa even being given as part of the cowry when members of the Spanish Royal family married other European royals.
Sweet Chocolate
When sugar was eventually added it created the drink we know today. It became a luxury item with the first chocolate houses (like a modern day coffee shop) charging upto 75 pence in 1657. The equivalent of upto £65 a cup nowadays. The great Samuel Pepys wrote about consuming drinking chocolate after the coronation of Charles II in 1661. Ostensibly to settle his stomach.
This Dutch gentleman developed a cocoa powder producing machine in the Netherlands. It separated the greasy cocoa butter from the seeds, leaving a pure chocolate powder behind. This was much easier to stir into hot milk or water. It also led to the discovery of solid chocolate.
Nowadays it is widely consumed throughout the world. The Americans drinking a rather thin instant version compared to the thicker European brew. Spain and Italy are noteworthy in adding cornstarch to produce an extremely thick drink. It is a traditional accompaniment to the SPanish dessert of Churros.
So what hot chocolate’s do we use?
Cadbury’s Hot Chocolate
Easily the U.K.’s most popular drinking chocolate, and for good reason, it just tastes so good. John Cadbury opened a grocers store in Birmingham in 1824. A Quaker, he felt that tea, coffee and drinking chocolate’s were a healthy alternative to alcohol.
By 1824, he was producing 16 different varieties of hot chocolate, available as both a powder or a pressed cake.
1906 saw the creation of Bournville Cocoa, made from adding carbonate of potash to the cocoa mix, it created a slightly less bitter drink.
Today we use the classic Cadburys drinking chocolate, made with hot milk (the water version just doesn’t do it for us), and it is easily our most booked service. For weddings and other special events we add Baileys Cream, creating a delightful alcoholic concoction that is oh so smooth.
Charbonnel Et Walker
A certain Mme Virginie Eugenie Charbonnel, from the esteemed Maison Boissier chocolate house in Paris. Set up shop with Mrs Minnie Walker to open a shop in Bond Street Mayfair in 1875 with the encouragement of Edward VII. Their original shop was branded Parisian Confectioners and Bon Bon Manufacturers.
Their drinking chocolate is sold as chocolate flakes rather than powder. It doesn’t mix into milk as well as the Cadbury’s offering, so we tend to use hot water to create a thick chocolate sludge then mix this into the hot milk.
It is a fabulous chocolate, but more of an acquired taste containing a darker chocolate than others. Almost everyone has drunk and enjoyed Cadburys hot chocolate, and the different taste can throw their taste buds a little. Truth be told most of the people who book this option are doing so to add a touch of perceived luxury to their event.
So what would we recommend ?
Smoothness
Cadburys *****5
Charbonnel *****5
They are both smooth, top class options with nothing to choose between them.
Taste
Cadburys *****5
Charbonnel ****4
There isn’t anything wrong with the Charbonnel, and no doubt some will prefer it, but Cadbury’s is the classic taste that most people recognise as THE hot chocolate.
Ease Of Use
Cadburys *****5
Charbonnel ****4
Cadburys mixes into the hot milk with ease. Charbonnel flakes need to be mixed with hot water to create a paste that is mixed into the milk.
Overall
Cadburys 15/15
Charbonnel 13/15
They are both great drinking chocolate. Rich, creamy and smooth. But honestly, if we had to choose one it would be the classic Cadburys offering. It tastes easily as good as any other chocolate out there, and it is still what most people expect hot chocolate to taste like.
The star of our article today is a Gallic manufacturer. Gaston Reverchon, a young Parisian created a workshop in the suburbs of Paris to build coaches in 1929, having previously worked at Renault and also repairing luxury cars such as Rolls Royce and Bentley. At some point he ventured into the world of amusement ride manufacture by building dodgem cars. At that time a typical dodgem car was a wooden board on wheels, with a seat and a steering wheel. This led to the creation of Reverchon Industries.
Reverchon, inspired by the looks of American automobiles, designed a car with bright metallic colours on a metal frame, this was an instant success.
By the late 1930’s, Gaston realised that there was a developing market in not only building parts for rides, but in building the complete ride. 1937 saw the launch of the Telecombat, featuring small military airplanes similar to the Fabbri ride of the same name.
Gaston was joined by his sons after the war, and they diversified into producing a range of different rides. Continuing the development of their dodgem cars, pioneering the use of composites in the build of the cars to replace the heavy tin bodies that were prone to damage. They introduced the first token system for dodgems in the 1960’s, and were the first to install headrests in the early 70’s.
The Golden Years Of Reverchon Industries
By the 70’s the company was at its zenith. They were building around 50 rides every year, and upwards of 2000 dodgem cars. They had built the company up to employ 270 staff.
The late 70’s saw some exciting new developments at the company. They created their first fold up dodgem ride. Instead of their existing 2 day set up for 6 people, the new type rides could be set up by an individual if necessary.
Log Flume
They also built their first log flume ride. A ride consisting of flumes, where the riders sit in hollowed out log shaped boats and travel through the ride with the flow of water. Usually there are a number of drops on the ride which create spectacular splashes, the riders at the front tending to get rather wet. This was installed at the Bagatelle Park in Berck France.
Roller Coasters
The company created its first roller coaster in 1990. Built at the French theme park of Le Pal. Named the Siberian Tiger, it was a steel roller coaster, with a tiger’s head on the front of the train.
Reverchon installed the first version of its Spinning Mouse coaster in 1997. This became one of the companies most popular designs, and was installed at Dinosaur Beach in Wildwood New Jersey. The vast majority of coasters built by the company after this were of the spinning type.
In 2003 the design was licensed to Zamperla, a major Italian ride manufacturer to build and market Reverchon designs worldwide. this agreement lasted a little over 2 years before being dissolved, with Zamperla retaining the rights to design and market it’s own spinning coaster.
Sadly the original company encountered difficulties in the early part of the 21st Century. They were declared insolvent in 2002, but managed to recover from this. Their second insolvency however in 2008 ended with Reverchon Industries closing down.
A subsidiary company SAMC-Avia still manufactures rides and markets them under the Reverchon name.
One of the mainstays for any British funfair is the Waltzer. Indeed so popular is this particular ride that you will struggle to find any but the smallest funfairs without one.
Similar in style to the Noah’s Ark ride, i.e., a platform that rotates at high speed and undulates over a number of hills to give an up and down motion. The difference is the ark originally had various animals to sit on, then evolved to have motorbikes, probably around the time that motorbikes became popular with young people. This led in some places to them becoming more popularly known as speedways. As most early rides were these tended to be ornately decorated.
The waltzer by contrast has tub shaped cars, that are attached by either a slew ring or a pivot point to the platform. As the ride rotated, the riders all sat at one end of the car would unbalance it and it would begin to spin. The attendants on the ride would walk the platform as it rotated spinning the cars by hand to make them faster. With attractive young ladies tending to be spun the most.
Waltzer car
Early History
The very first evidence we have for the ride, is a 1920’s model built by one Dennis Jeffries of Congleton. Posterity records the very first passengers as being his nieces Phyllis and Dolly Booth, nothing like using family as Guinee pigs. A tradition which continues today, a few years back a relative building his own ghost train had put the first car together, but wasn’t sure if the gearing was correct. He put his old dad in as a crash test dummy and set it in motion. The car accelerated along the track like an exocet missile, jumped the rails at the first corner and set off into infinity and beyond. Luckily said dad fell off at this point. No amount of cajoling could convince him to try the mark two car.
Maxwell And Sons
The sadly now defunct Scottish firm of Maxwell and Sons, based in Musselburgh, became perhaps the best known manufacturer of the ride in the UK producing some 59 examples of the ride. Waltzers tended to have ten cars, though as the ark/speedway fell out of fashion a number of these were converted to waltzers so there are both nine and eleven car examples.
H.P. Jacksons
The biggest rival to Maxwells was the Congleton based firm of Jackson’s who produced 29 rides. They kept going a little longer than Maxwells producing their last ride in 1992. (Maxwells were out of business by 1983)
A number of other firms produced waltzers, but only in very small numbers.
Fairtrade Services
Waltzers were always an extremely labour intensive ride to set up and derig. A handful of examples were converted to pack on an artic load to reduce the set up time. A showmen by the name of Robert Porter, who was experienced in refurbishing and repairing waltzers. Took this a step further with a design for a new ride, made from the start to be a more compact travel load and quicker set up.
Under the brand of Fairtrade Services he has now produced 21 examples. They are on track to surpass Jackson’s as the second most prolific manufacturer.
One particularly striking example of a ‘Porter Waltzer’ as they are more commonly referred to, is the example above. Built for the Norwegian firm of Lund’s Tivoli. With Aasmund Lund at the helm, the firm commissioned this ride. With it’s stunning fireball theme, around the back of the ride are numerous led screens that provide a fire effect.
It is unusual that although the ride is one of the most popular in the UK, it is seldom seen on the continent. Raymond Codona Jnr travelled his Hell Raiser waltzer in Holland for a number of seasons. Very successfully, but you find few native examples.
Tilt-A-Whirl
Across the pond Herbert Sellner invented a similar ride called the Tilt-A-Whirl in 1926. Similar in motion to the waltzer this type only has seven cars, but otherwise works in much the same way.
The most noticeable difference, is that the waltzer has a roof and is an enclosed ride. Add in the sound and lighting systems and they are much like a portable nighclub. The tilt a whirl by contrast is an open topped ride. To be honest looks very much like an home made waltzer.
The Waltzers
The waltzer is an enduring icon of the British fairground scene. One change to its detriment is are the current health and safety laws. Waltzers were renowned for having the gangway around the edge of the ride packed with people. It truly was a social event, with many a couple meeting on the waltzers (Kevin Keegan the England football star was one, meeting his wife on Dowses waltzer at Scunthorpe). Sadly young people nowadays aren’t considered responsible enough to stand on he gangway a few feet from the spinning platform so now the ride is closed off whilst it is in motion.
We recently added Gourmet burgers to our line up of catering options. On top of the usual cheeseburger, and bacon etc, we added some options a little more quirky. Things such as nacho’s, sushi and such like. However the burgers listed here are way beyond what we consider quirky and definitely venture inot the weird burgers catagory..
1 The Cronut Burger
A fusion of sweet and savoury this one. A beef patty with cheese, between the cheeks of a sugary doughnut. A Canadian invention, between a pastry shop Le Dolci, and Epic Burger and Waffles for the Canadian National Exhibition. This one looks like it could be tasty, however it didn’t have a happy ending. One of the ingredients sourced for the burger, maple jam, was contaminated with staphylococcus aureus causing 150 people at the show to fall ill. Still looks tasty, but we’d go light on the jam.
2 The Quadruple Bypass Burger
A 9982 calorie bohemoth, even by American standards. Two pound of beef, twenty rashers of bacon, eight cheese slices, a whole tomato and half an onion, in a bum coated with lard.
It is served at the heart attack grill founded in 2005 in Tempe Arizona. Everything they do is along the same theme. With flatliner fries, double and triple bypass burgers for those who can’t face this one, and bigger burgers up to octuple bypass. They even have cigarettes and high fat shakes on the menu. The restaurant has a hospital theme, with doctors taking the order and nurses waiting the tables. Sexily dressed nurses at that. It’s as if someone set out to be as controversial as possible.
3 Yorkshire Pudding Burger
A fusion of traditional Sunday roast with the fast food convenience of a burger. This one is a giant Yorkshire pud with a burger inside. For those who don’t know the Yorkshire pudding isn’t actually a pudding. It is served most often as a constituent of a typical Sunday dinner. However it also works well as a starter with onion gravy. The supersized version here is 5000 calories.
4 Fried Frog Black Burger
No matter how crazy you can think of making something. The Japanese are guaranteed to out crazy you. They make some really weird burgers. This time it is the Orbi Yokohama museum, who offer up this culinary masterpiece. A full fried frog burger. They aren’t content with just the out there filling. They also add in a bun made from bamboo charcoal that is jet black.
5 Russia Rat Burger
Take a look at the burger above, quite innocuous isn’t it? Something you would probably enjoy at many a typical burger joint. Only it isn’t. It’s a rat burger. Well, not your usual Rattus rattus that you don’t want to see anywhere near a restaurant. But a Coypu, or ‘River Rat’. The animal breeds at a super fast rate, making it ideal as a food crop. A case of if you can’t beat them eat them. A specialty of a Russian chef at a high end eterie in Moscow.
6 Wimpy’s Braille Burger
In the days when I was a kid, before the all conquering McDonalds swept the nation. Wimpy was THE burger joint. We spent may a happy time in Wimpy’s around the country. Truth be told, I think their quarterpounders were far better than the McD equivalent.
This burger was part of an experiential marketing campaign to promote it’s new braille menu in South Africa. Reaching over 800,000 blind people across the nation with their braille embossed burgers.
7 Whole Damn Farm Burger
If you are the sort of person who can’t make their mind up over beef or chicken. Then this one is for you. Made from beed, chicken, ham, pork and bacon. About the calorie loading of four big Macs, this is perfect for the indecisive. From Manchester’s Splendid Kitchen, a sadly now defunct American style eatery.
8 Hellfire Burger
This is one hot burger. By hot, we don’t mean as in fashion, or as in very attractive. We mean hot! Measuring over 1 million on the Scoville heat scale. For comparison, some law enforcement pepper sprays can be quite effective at half that.
Topped by six different chillies, and smothered in hot sauce, you not only have to be over 18, but also need to sign a medical waiver before they will serve it to you. The whole thing is served to you on fire.
A creation of the Xtreme Smokehouse and Grill in Washington Iowa.
9 Southern Comfort Stuffed Burger
Slathered with booze spiked sauce. The Southern Comfort is stuffed with mac and cheese wrapped in bacon, then topped with Southern Heat potato chips. Its the Southern Comfort and Peach infused BBq sauce that gives it the special tang.
A product of the Nook in Atalanta.
10 Waffle Burger
Available from lots of places, this is another fusion of sweet and savoury. Fluffy Belgian waffle goodness, surrounding a beef patty, along with egg and bacon. The perfect breakfast to start the day.
11 Wrapped Pizza Burger
A bacon cheeseburger wrapped in a pepperoni pizza. 1360 calories of succulent burger heaven. This frankenburger was a product of Boston’s Restaurant and Sports Bar. Available at more than 40 US restaurants and it’s Canadian franchise.
Although not the healthiest of burgers it still comes nowhere near the big guys records like the Heart Attack Grill, they are some seriously weird burgers.
12 Arby’s Meat Mountain
Originally created as a poster to advertise the fact that the restaurant sold more than beef. It was soon being requested by it’s customers and ended up being a firm favourite on the menu. Consisting of two chicken burgers, three strips of bacon, a slice of swiss and cheddar cheeses, roast turkey, ham, corned beef, roast beef, brisket and Angus steak.
13 Super Duper Bacon Burger
What can be said about this monstrosity. It’s bacon, served with bacon, topped by bacon, with a bacon garnish. I suppose if you like bacon then this is heaven, if you don’t then you’ve ordered the wrong meal. Michigan’s Tony’s I-75 Restaurant is definitely a destination for pork lovers.
14 Krispy Kreme Triple Cheeseburger
If you are going to mix burgers with a dessert you might as well make it with one of your favourites. Two Krispy Kreme doughnuts, three beef patties and three slices of cheese. Nuff said.
15 The Grilled Cheese Burger
Take a grilled cheese sandwich. well, take two of them in fact. Place your burger between them and you have a whole new class of frankenburger.
Coming from an American chain (where else), Friendly’s on the East coast.
16 Deep Fried Double Twinky Burger
Whilst you can rely on the Japanese to come up with the craziest concoctions. You can rely on the Americans to come up with stuff designed to clog your arteries. Take a pork belly patty, with cheese and bacon and sandwich it between two deep fried twinkies and you have another masterpiece from Philadelphia’s PYT. Which is almost as weird as
17 Spaghetti Burger
This, their spaghetti burger. Slathered in marinara sauce, with a mozzarella stuffed meatball patty, red sauce, parmesan flakes and spaghetti in a garlic butter bun. This looks like a weird burger
18 Beer Batter Burger
From Denny’s Beer Barrel Pub in Pennsylvania. A battered burger with all the trimmings. Oh and the batter is made with beer for extra taste. Also available from them as a 25lb challenge burger for two.
19 Alphabet Burger
This sandwich contains 26 toppings, each one starting with a different letter of the alphabet.
Avocado
Bacon
Cheese
Doritos
Egg
Fish sticks
Garlic bread
Ham
Italian sausage patty
Jalapeño peppers
Krispy Kreme doughnut
Lettuce
Macaroni and cheese
Noodles
Onion rings
Pepperoni
Queso blanco dip
Ramen noodles
Spinach
Turkey burger
Usingers bratwurst
Veal Parmesan
Waffle
Xylocarp (coconut)
Yams
Zucchini
I don’t know what to say. I am stunned, I know how the prophets felt when they saw the burning bush, or the first pot noodle was invented. The W should stand for weird burgers.
20 Hot Fudge Sundae Burger
I don’t know if it is a symptom of the modern world, this rush to get your meal out of the way as soon as possible. But this is another stomach churning attempt to fuse mains with dessert. Take a perfectly good beef burger and add vanilla ice cream and hot fudge sauce. Take a bow McGuires Irish Pub of Pensacola.
21 White Trash Burger
Named after the outlets signature dips called white trash. This includes cheese, green chillies, jalapenos, diced tomatoes, diced onions and tortilla chips, with a stack of beer battered onion rings. If you want one then you need to head over to the Bukowski Tavern in boston.
22 Bacon Wrapped Macaroni and Cheese Bun Burger
I’m not sure if this is a burger, or an abstract artwork. Mac and cheese wrapped in strips of bacon and used as the bun for a cheeseburger. Not as outlandish or vomit inducing as some on the this list, I could probably eat this.
23 Slaters Merica Burger
Oh Kay, a third of a pound of ground bacon made into a patty, bacon american cheese, egg, thick cut bacon and bacon island dressing on a bacon pretzel bun. Basically you need to like bacon to eat this one. It was reportedly too salty to finish which is saying something when many a burger on this list has a couple of grams or more of salt without any reports of them being salty.
24 The Mario Burger
A little bit of green dye, some circles of cheese and you have a gamers treat.
25 The Fat Sandwich Burger
This one looks like a complete meal in a bun. I am surprised that they haven’t stuck a doughnut or a dollop of ice cream in to round it off. From the Fat Sandwich Company in Illinois
Candy Floss Crazy Gourmet Burgers
1 Person 2 Burgers 2
Not really part of the list, our burgers are relatively sane. If you want something on the list I am sure our catering team can put it together for you, but if what you want is a range of delicious non heart attack inducing gourmet burgers for your wedding, party or event. Then check out our burger service. Oh and the picture above is actually two burgers, he was a greedy sod.
About this time last year we posted an article on Easter. TBH, it was programmed in weeks in front, only the day before it auto posted, I had to write a forward about how Easter wasn’t actually happening for the funfair industry, as in line with many business’s Covid had effectively wiped us out.
Now I remember discussing the upcoming year, and how we would probably all be back out for June, only we weren’t. What none of us expected was to actually still be in the same position as we were last year, ie. no funfairs.
A Worrying Trend
What is especially worrying is what actually happened through most of last season. Eventually the government gave the go ahead for funfair to resume. They were outdoors, as they were usually held in large open spaces social distancing wasn’t a problem, and everyone spent money having the annual safety inspections and insurance applied etc.
Then reality hit. Although the government had specifically allowed travelling funfairs to operate, the local authorities decided otherwise. A number of events were actually set up and ready to go, when the relevant local authority closed them down. To add insult to injury, many of the same councils allowed their local theme parks to operate. No disrespect to them, but theme parks tend to have attractions concreted in place, they couldn’t spread them about for social distancing, so what was the reason behind it all.
SAG
Or ‘Safety Advisory Group‘, is the new local authority buzzword. Yet another layer of ‘Health and Safety’ set up to make peoples lives a misery, sorry, improve safety.
Councils are now empowering such groups to make a decision on whether or not a funfair can go ahead. Not based on any particular check box of rules or requirements. But rather on whether the individual SAG group are satisfied with the proposal.
Now, going on past experience, it wouldn’t be so bad if they actually helped. But what we have found is quite often when dealing with H&S the conversation goes a bit like this.
H&S “We are not happy with that, we won’t let you operate”,
“OK, what would you like us to do to comply with what you want?”
H&S “Oh, we can’t tell you that, you do what you think and we will tell you if we are happy!”
So they won’t tell you what they want, just that they don’t want what you are offering.
Last year resulted in an occasional funfair going ahead, but the vast majority closed, with no government grants etc, as the fairgrounds don’t pay business rates, being transient events. It looks much like this will be a repeat, it isn’t Easter again.
