Geology of the Enchanted Chocolate Mine
Naturally occurring seams of real chocolate are created when seams of ancient cacao are compressed between antagonistically opposed tectactic plates of granite, where a supply of fresh spring water heated by deep earth activity bubbles through and where there is magical interaction with the faery world. So specific are the requirements for this that there are only two or three places in the universe where this occurs.
Where the molten chocolate bubbles through it can be farmed as molten chocolate or mined when the chocolate has set hard, however it is only faeries who have special magical powers that can make this happen.
In the chocolate mine here in Kirkby Lonsdale, both molten chocolate and solid chocolate is produced. The molten chocolate is drawn straight from the bubble pool to supply the shop direct and the solid chocolate is mined by a team of hard working Redshank, Blue Cap and Chocolate Keeper faeries. The workings are controlled by the master faery who in this mine is a Chocolate Keeper called Nando.
The majority of the work to extract the chocolate takes place in the deep part of the mine. The mining process involves blasting sections of the chocolate seam away from the granite layers with dynamite. The large blocks of chocolate are then broken down into bite size pieces by the faery teams using pneumatic drilling equipment and by hand with hammers and chisels. It is the Redshank faeries that are responsible for the deep mining as they have considerable experience in using explosives. The Blue Cap faeries are largely responsible for finishing the process and the Chocolate Keepers are in charge of bagging and presenting the chocolate for sale.
Typical of underground workings you can see choclactites and choclagmites which form naturally where water runs slowly through the chocolate substrate over many thousands of years.
You may be puzzled to see some brightly coloured sections amongst the chocolate on the walls of the mine. This is a very interesting and unique feature of this mine. Some of the small sections of chocolate have been compressed so much that it has become ‘smartified’. Smartification occurs when a faery footprint traps a small amount of the magic dust used by the faeries to convert the chocolate. A brightly coloured coating, or shell, grows over the chocolate surface. You can see red, yellow, green and – rarest of all – blue smartified sections in this mine.
In some parts of the mine the chocolate has become so solid that it is impossible to eat as it has set like stone. This chocolate can also be mined and can be made into attractive artifacts.