On Friday morning, at the end of a very long week, there was a disaster at the chocolate factory. Mr Smelt, the chocolate taster, threw down his gloves, his hat, his glasses and even his special tasting fork.
“That’s it!” he shouted, “I have had enough! I cannot taste any more chocolate! I have eaten so much chocolate that it is coming out of my ears! It is coming out of my fingers and toes! I cannot stand even the smell of chocolate!”
He ran out of the factory all the way home, only to find that his wife was baking him a chocolate cake for his birthday. He screamed and ran out of his house and was never seen again.
“Now what do we do?” said Mr Gold to Mr Crinkle, the owners of the Superior Chocolate Factory, “Smelt was the best chocolate taster in the world.”
“We will have to advertise,” Mr Crinkle said to Mr Gold, “For the second-best chocolate taster in the world to join our factory immediately.”
So they phoned the newspaper to place an advertisement for the very next day and in the meantime, chocolates just kept rolling off the production line.
There was the outsides-chocolate-man who checked that the shape of the chocolate was just right. There were heart shapes and diamond shapes and squares and circles and rectangles, all correct.
Then there was the insides-chocolate-man who poured all the insides into the chocolate shapes, like caramel and coffee and almond and strawberry and lime (which no one liked but they always put in just for a surprise) and these flavours were all correct.
Then there was the topping-chocolate-man, who made sure that the chocolates were all closed up with a pretty little stamp on the top.
Then was the disaster, because Mr Smelt was supposed to be next in line and he was supposed to check that the shapes and the flavours and the toppings were the same as the picture on the outside of the box.
But of course he wasn’t there, so the chocolates went on down the line to the wrappings man, who made sure that the chocolates were all in pretty coloured wrappings. Then they all dropped into boxes, were wrapped and stamped with the company name, Superior Chocolates! And sent off to the shops.
What a disaster it was! Mr Smelt did not know what confusion he had created. Everyone who bought a box of Superior Chocolates had the funniest looks on their faces. They would bite into a chocolate, expecting it to be a Caramel Cup and it would be a Lime Surprise. Ooooh!
Then they would look forward to their favourite – Almond Delight – and it would be a Jolly Jelly. Eeeugh!
“This is not on,” the people said to the owners of the sweet shops.
“This is not on,” the owners of the sweet shops said to the deliverymen.
“This is not on,” the deliverymen said to the salesmen.
“This is really not on,” the salesmen said to Mr Gold and Mr Crinkle of Superior Chocolates factory.
“We’re fixing it,” Mr Gold said, “Really fast!”
The next day, Mr Gold and Mr Crinkle interviewed all the people who came in answer to their advertisement.
There was a very, big fat man with no hair who said, “I have eaten more chocolates than you have had hot breakfasts.”
When he walked out of their office, Mr Crinkle said, “No, no.”
“No, no,” agreed Mr Gold.
There was a very thin, hairy man who said, “Tasting chocolate is like eating smelly cheese – you should never have too much.”
When he walked out of their office, Mr Crinkle said, “Oh dear.”
“Oh, dear,” agreed Mr Gold.
There was a young lady with a handbag, who said, “I always take home lots of chocolates for my ten children.
When she walked out of their office, Mr Crinkle shook his head.
Mr Gold also shook his head.
There was an old lady who said, “Before I taste chocolates, someone must help me take out my false teeth.”
When she walked out of their office, Mr Crinkle raised his eyebrows.
Mr Gold also raised his eyebrows.
“What are we going to do?” said Mr Crinkle looking down at the production floor, where the shapes man, insides, outsides, tops and wrappings were all doing their jobs perfectly, but there was no taster.
“We are going to have riots tomorrow,” said Mr Gold.
They packed up their identical black briefcases and walked to their identical purple cars and went home to their identical pink houses on the same wide street.
Their wives, who were twin sisters, came out to greet them at the same time and give them each a hug. Mr Crinkle had a daughter called Candy and Mr Gold had a son called Gusto.
Their children, who were both six years old, also came out to give their fathers a hug.
Then Gusto said, “Dad, Candy and I know you have a problem at the factory and we have an idea.”
Candy said, “Can we have a meeting?”
Now Mr Crinkle and Mr Gold had not got to the top of the chocolate business without learning how to listen to children.
”Jolly good idea,” Mr Crinkle said, “Shall we meet in your house Gold?”
“Jolly good idea,” Mr Gold said, “Let’s have supper.”
So they had a yummy supper of snack pies while they listened to the children’s ideas.
“This is the idea,” said Gusto, “you don’t need a taster, what you need is a colourer.”
“What?” said Mr Crinkle.
“I don’t understand,” said Mr Gold.
“Well,” said Candy, “You get a colourer to make each chocolate flavour a different colour and then no one will get mixed up.”
“And,” Gusto added, “what will be even more fun, is that each chocolate will make your mouth that colour. So if you eat a purple chocolate, you will get a purple mouth. People will look funny and the children will love it.”
“Do you really think so?” said Mr Crinkle.
“Definitely,” said Candy.
“It’s worth a try,” said Gusto.
So the very next day, Mr Crinkle and Mr Gold went looking for an artist who specialized in food colourings – which you can eat - not like paint, which you can’t.
They found an artist called Mad Maurice, who wore a tartan smock and always spoke in a whisper.
Then they went to work colouring the chocolates. It was great fun.
Mad Maurice had fun and all the chocolate workers on the production line had fun, because suddenly everything was so different.
They decided to make the chocolates all the colours of the rainbow. The Naughty Nutties were purple, the Fantastic Fudge was blue, the Lime Surprises were green, the Caramel Cups were yellow, the Orange Creams were orange, the Jolly Jellies were red, the Strawberry Dips were pink, the Coffee Swirls were gold and the Almond Delights were silver.
(Of course, the last two are not colours of the rainbow, but Mr Crinkle and Mr Gold had to come up with two extra exciting colours.)
At the end of the day, all the workers were very pleased with their work. They just had to see what all the people thought.
There was nearly a riot! Everyone wanted more and more Superior Chocolates. They looked so beautiful in all the different colours in their pretty boxes and people couldn’t help laughing at each other’s funny coloured mouths.
Also, the children would immediately know if mum or dad had tried to steal the last favourite chocolate just by looking at their mouths!
Superior Chocolates were, once again, the yummiest (and funniest) chocolates you could buy.
Mr Crinkle and Mr Gold were so proud of their children.
“We know one day you will make this company even better,” Mr Crinkle said to them.
"We look forward to retiring,” said Mr Gold.
And of course, Candy and Gusto had lots of different plans up their sleeves and in their drawing books upstairs. But they didn’t tell their fathers. They are hoping to open a crisps’ factory one day!
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