All language subtitles for Inside.the.Factory.S09E01-Chocolate.Seashells.1080p.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-7VFr33104D_3_text

- So, Paddy, Christmas is upon us.
- Yes!

- What's your favourite bit?

- So many things, isn't there, really?
Er...

Watching the kids getting excited
about opening their presents.
- Yeah.

- Oh, and of course, chocolates.
- Chocolates!
- Chocolates!

- Yes, but not the coffee cream ones.

- Oh, no, no - the devil takes many
forms.

And when it comes to creating the most
luxurious chocolates

in the world, one country is head and
shoulders above the rest.

- So, to find out how they're made,

we've come to the home of chocolate,
Belgium.

- To one of the biggest chocolate
factories in Europe.

I'm Paddy McGuinness, the new sheriff
on the factory floor.

The old saloon doors. Come on!

Before I got a job on the telly, I
worked in a few factories...

Whoa!

..so I'll be running this place in no
time.

Let's do it.
- But not with that.

- Oh.

But I'm not the only one having all
the fun.

Cherry's getting involved as well.

- Ah! Oh!

You know it, Paddy.

I'm discovering the secrets...

It's snowing, and yet it's chocolate.

..of the perfect white chocolate.

- And historian Ruth Goodman is in
Belgium too,

in the city of Sint-Niklaas, searching
for Santa Claus.

- This is his bedroom?!
- His bedroom and his bed.

- These production lines make a
mind-blowing 4 million chocolates

every single day.

- And we're going to find out exactly
how they do it.

- Welcome to Inside The Factory.

- Ho, ho, ho!

- This is the Guylian factory

in the very Christmassy sounding
Sint-Niklaas in Belgium.

Here, 190 staff produce over 500
tonnes of chocolate

every single week.

They make all sorts of chocolate here,

from bars to caramel filled
temptations.

And in the run-up to Christmas,

the factory works 24 hours a day to
ensure the shops never run out.

Oh, thank goodness for that.

Today, I'm finding out how they make
their original seashells box.

In here are 22 individual chocolates,

all filled with a creamy hazelnut
centre

wrapped up in milk and white
chocolate.

I can't believe I get paid to do this!

One of the most important ingredients
for my chocolates

are hazelnuts.

They're used in the filling,

which they call praline around these
parts.

And bang on cue is a delivery at the
intake bay...

..where I'm meeting production manager
Kevin Stevens.

Kevin. How are you, pal?

- I'm fine. And you?
- Merry Christmas.
- Thank you.

- Kevin Stevens?
- Yeah. That's correct.

- Have you got a little bit of British
ancestry in you?

- It seems.
- Just a small part.
- Just a very small part.

- Don't take this the wrong way, Kevin
-

we've only just met - but show me your
nuts.

- Here are my nuts.
- Oh, look at this.

How many's on there?
- 13 tonnes of hazelnuts.

- How many individual nuts is that?

- Roughly 13 million.

- And this is - we're getting really
technical now...
- Yeah.

- ..so how many individual chocolates
does that make?

- Roughly 5 million.
- My word!

Why hazelnuts?

- Because hazelnuts is a fine
ingredient to make praline.

Praline is roasted hazelnuts with
sugar, we add some chocolate,

and that's the filling we use inside
our chocolates.

- Oh, I know it well, Kevin. Trust me.

Let's get them off and get inside.
- Let's go.

- And as the first load of hazelnuts
leaves the lorry...

..it's time to start the clock on our
chocolate seashells production.

In the run-up to Christmas, the
factory gets through

five 13-tonne truckloads of nuts every
week,

and they're all brought in here, to
the warehouse.

Do you know, I never asked you
outside, Kevin,

where are they actually from, these
hazelnuts?

- Actually, these come from Turkey.

80% of the worldwide shipped hazelnuts
come from Turkey.

They have a Mediterranean climate.

- Right.
- It's the best environment to grow
hazelnuts.

- Can we have a look at one?

- Yeah, of course.
- Let's have a look.

Get in there, Kev.

Not playing games.

So what makes a good hazelnut, Kevin?

- You have to have the right size and
then...

- Oh, now, what is the correct size?

- Between 8mm and 11mm.

If it's bigger, then it's too fatty

and then you get a really wet praline.
That's not what we want.

And when they're small and they're too
dry,

and then you get the dry praline, and
that's also not what we want.

- Not too big, not too small.
- Correct.

- No-one wants a small nut.

KEVIN CHUCKLES

To test the moisture in the nuts,

300 are selected at random from each
delivery.

- For that, we have a hazelnut
guillotine.

- Wow, look at this.

Welcome to Inside The Factory,

where tonight we'll be chopping nuts
in half.

- Would you do the honour?
- Oh, ho!

Is it a strike or a push?

- Just strike it down.

- You ready?
- Yeah.

- Get down there!

Look at that.
- Nice. Well done.

- Tell you what!

Here we go.

Oh, beautiful chopped nuts.

Right, Kevin, what makes a good nut?

- We look at it and we search for any
mould.

- Mould would mean that the moisture
level is too high.

- If we don't see any mould, then it's
fine.

They have to be shiny white.

This hazelnut looks very, very
healthy.

- Can we try these?
- Yeah, of course.

- OK, here we go.

They taste quite mild, you know, it's
very subtle.

- But later on, we will show you how
we make them even better.

- So once you've done this little
test, Kev, then what?

- Then it's time to fill up the silo.

- Let's do it.

- But not with that.
- Oh.

150 of these 50kg sacks are loaded
into the silo.

Nut sack in place. What's next, Kevin?

- For that, we use a safety knife.

- Oh, fantastic.

Oh, glorious!

One down...

- Come on, Paddy.
- Stand aside.
- Let's go to work.

Let's go to work.

- All right, Scrooge!

Just 149 sacks to go.

I've found my calling in life.

I'm living the dream.

You can leave me and me nuts here for
a bit!

Our chocolate factory is on the edge
of the city of Sint-Niklaas...

..which sounds a bit like the jolly
fella himself,

delivering kids' presents at
Christmas.

But here in Belgium, it's all done
rather differently.

Ruth is unwrapping a yuletide mystery.

- Santa Claus, Father Christmas, Saint
Nicholas -

he has so very many names,

and you might think that you know the
story,

but here, in this town in Belgium,

they have a quite convincing claim to
their own origin story.

As well as the usual excitement on
Christmas Eve and Christmas morning,

in Belgium, children await the arrival
of another visitor,

called Sinterklaas, on the 5th of
December.

He has a big red hat and cape, and a
white bushy beard.

Children hope to meet him and make it
into his good book.

Sound familiar?

To find out more, I'm meeting the
Mayor of Sint-Niklaas,

Lieven Dehandschutter.

Hello.
- Hello!

Hello, welcome, welcome to Sinterklaas
House.

- So who exactly is Sinterklaas?

- Sinterklaas is adored by children in
the Low Countries.

But during the night on December the
5th,

he and his white horse, they ride on
the roofs

and he drops presents and chocolate

and biscuits and marzipan through the
chimney.

- This is a rather grand Belgian
equivalent of Santa's Grotto.

- Yeah!

- What do you think about these
children, Sinterklaas?

Will they receive what they want

when they put their shoe in front of
the fireplace?

- In one condition...

- It does feel familiar, but there are
obvious differences.

Children leave out a shoe for
Sinterklaas

and a carrot for his horse.

And why the 5th of December, not the
24th?

In search of the origins of
Sinterklaas,

we're heading inside the Church of
Sint-Niklaas,

which was founded in the 13th century

and gave rise to the city around it.

So who exactly is this, then?

- Well, this is Saint Nicholas.

He was a real person who lived in Asia
Minor - nowadays Turkey -

at the end of the third century.

- This looks so much like the sort of
robe

that a modern Sinterklaas does wear.
- It does, yes.

- So what is the connection between
Saint Nicholas and children?

- The oldest legends concerning Saint
Nicholas

say that there was a man who was very
poor and had three children.

Saint Nicholas passed along the house,

and through an open window, he threw a
purse with golden coins.

The purse landed into one of the shoes
of the family...
- Oh!

- ..and the fact that now children put
their shoe at the fireplace

is probably referring to what
happened.

- So it's all that tradition that we
still have of gifts to young people.

So when was it that Saint Nicholas
died?

- Well, the exact year is not known,

but we know the day, that was on
December the 6th,

and that is why we celebrate Saint
Nicholas on December the 6th.

- Of course.

Nicholas was made a saint, and his
saint's day was celebrated

every 6th of December across much of
Catholic Europe.

And on the eve of this date, legend
has it that he visits homes

on his white horse, leaving gold coins
and gifts for children.

But how does this relate to the Santa
Claus we know today?

We've returned to the House of
Sinterklaas to find out.

This is his bedroom?!
- His bedroom and his bed.

- Shall we take a pew?
- Yeah, yeah.

- So, is Santa Claus an American
thing?

- Yes and no.

Dutch and Belgian immigrants,

they took their traditions to the New
World.

But gradually, things started to
change.

For instance, you have this picture,
this is 1821,

and the white horse of Sinterklaas

is replaced by a reindeer and sleigh.

Those American traditions were
imported in Europe.

- So Sinterklaas goes out to the
Americas and Santa Claus comes back.

- Comes back, yeah.

- RUTH LAUGHS

- And by the late 19th century,

the UK had also adopted the
American-style Santa.

But here in Belgium, they hold on to
their older traditions too.

- But in the Low Countries, we still
have Sinterklaas

and also Santa Claus.
- So Belgian children are lucky.

They get two bites of the cherry.
- Yeah, yeah.

- December the 6th and December the
25th.

- Correct, yeah.

- CHILDREN SING

All
- my
- Christmases are coming at once too.

Me and Kevin have emptied 7,500 kilos
of hazelnuts,

and we're following them into the
intriguingly named Kettle Room.

I wish you folks at home could smell
this place.

- Well, Paddy, this is the heart of
the company.

- Wow. Now, this is proper old school,
Kevin.

This reminds me of, like, something
out of Willy Wonka.

The smell's gorgeous.

Like a sweet, nutty, sugary smell.

They've been using these copper
kettles for nearly 40 years.

And it's here they roast the hazelnuts
with sugar.

There's an empty one here. How do you
get it all in there, Kevin?

- Well, on top of you, you see a weigh
bunker.

It fills with the right amount of
hazelnuts and sugar

before we pour it into the copper
kettle.

- Right, time to mix my nuts with some
of the sweet stuff.

- Let's bring in Manuel and he will
show it to us.
- All right, yeah.

- Manuel!

- How are you, Manuel? Nice to meet
you, pal.
- Nice to meet you.

- This fantastic contraption, like a
telescopic chute,

can be moved to reach six of the
kettles.

So how do the nuts come down here,
Manuel, how do they get in?

- Just press the green button.
- Green button?
- Yes.

- Go and get a cup of tea. Leave this
to me.

You go and relax, I've got this.
- OK!

- Are you ready?

Whoa!

A perfect torrent of hazelnuts and
refined white sugar.

Nailed it.

My word.

Oh, that's a lovely sweet smell as
well, that.

Whoo!

Right, so they're in there now.

How did we get it cooking?

- But first we have to remove the arm.

- Move this?

Manuel! Break's over, Manuel!

Back in, pal.

- So what happens now is we cook the
hazelnut at 130, 140 degrees

in a copper kettle, because copper is
a great heat conductor.

- But what's actually happening in
there?

- Actually, there's two things
happening.

The first thing is the hazelnuts get
roasted,

all different kinds of flavours come
out of the hazelnuts.

Like when you bake a steak at home,

all different kinds of flavours come
out of the steak.
- Yeah.

- The same thing happens when you
roast the hazelnuts.

And the second thing that happens is
the caramelisation of the sugar,

which made the praline a little bit
more sweet.

And it has a fine, sweet taste.

- Caramelisation is when the sucrose
in the grainy sugar

breaks down, producing a thick, sweet
paste.

And obviously spinning it as well to
give it a nice, even coat.

- Yeah, of course. You want to have
the sugar caramelised

around all the hazelnuts.

- The mixture needs to cook for 20
minutes,

so Kev and I head downstairs to wait
for it.

- So, Paddy, now we're actually below
the copper kettles.

- I can hear something rattling about
up there, Kev.

The sugary hazelnuts, which these
kettles churn out

at a rate of 936 kilos an hour, are
finally ready.

- They're pouring down the mixture
now.

So in a minute we're going to see the
mixture on the steel belt.

- So these are the caramelised nuts
coming down.
- Yeah, that's right.

- Right, OK.

Here we go!

Oh, here they are!

Look at them! Wow, the heat!

- Be careful, because it's really,
really hot.
- Whoo!

- That's 140 degrees, so it's very,
very hot.

- I bet they taste absolutely
delicious.

- Yeah, but I wouldn't taste them from
the belt.

I got some for you, if you want to
taste.

Be careful. They're still hot.

- Oh, look at that.

Caramelised nuts, nice and warm.

Oh, yeah.
- Is it better than the raw hazelnut?

- I know they're sweeter, obviously.

But the nut's a lot stronger than when
it first came in.

But a little bit chunky.

I don't think they're going to work in
the actual seashells.

- Ah, but from here, they go into the
mincer.

- Can we see that?
- Yeah, of course.

- All right, go on. Lead on, Kevin.

- Right, go.
- Go.

Nothing better than hot sugary nuts
for Christmas.

And Cherry's getting into the festive
mood too.

Ah, lovely baubles.

- The lights, the smell, the sparkle.

I love Christmas at home.

Decorating the tree is actually my
favourite bit of Christmas,

but no matter how hard I try,

the decorations and the lights always
end up looking a bit rubbish.

I'm not quite sure what I'm doing
wrong.

- # Merry Christmas, everyone... #

- The man who believes he has the
answer

is mathematician Bobby Seagull.

Bobby!
- Merry Christmas!

- I have a problem.
- Oh?
- Come in.

Remarkably, Bobby uses mathematical
theories

to craft Christmas tree perfection -

something I clearly haven't mastered
yet.

Ta-da!

- Oh, my... Oh, no.

- Is there anything that's really
standing out as not working?

- This tinsel here, it's just a
nightmare.

The baubles, there's not enough of
them.

And then the lights, just, like,
what's going on?

I'm convinced the mathematics behind
aesthetics and decoration

can help change this. And to be
honest, everything's got to go.

- # Baby, if you've got to go away...
#

- We stripped my tree right back to
create a blank canvas...

Ooh!
- Whoa.

- Right.

..ready for the glitziest makeover you
could imagine.

- So, here in the Las Vegas Bellagio
Casino, a 13-metre tall tree,

they've looked at the sort of ratios
between the lights to the branches

and the baubles to the branches,

and we can apply that to this tree as
well.

- Are we going to do a Las Vegas
Christmas?

- Yes, we are, but we're going to need
maths to help us work out

the surface area to help scale it to
your tree.

- To calculate the surface area of my
Vegas-inspired tree,

we first measure the slanted height.

That's the distance from the edge of
the top branch

to the edge of the bottom branch.

- OK, that's seven foot. And now the
radius.

- So right from the centre of the
tree...
- Right from the centre...

- 2.5.

- So the maths behind working out the
surface area of the cone

is pi - 3.14 approximately...

- Obviously.
- ..multiplied by the slanted height,
seven,

multiplied by the radius...
- 2.5.

- ..which gives us approximately 55
square feet for your tree.

- Yeah, that's about 55.

The Vegas tree has 18 lights per
square foot.

18...
- And we multiply it by the 55 square
foot on your tree

to give us...

- 990. That's a lot of lights, Bobby.

- It's Las Vegas, baby!
- Las Vegas baby!

- # Those Christmas lights... #

- A little tip for you - keeping the
lights on is actually helpful

because then you can see where you're
placing them.

- If you want the golden glow of a
cosy fire,

choose lights with about 3,000 Kelvin
-

the unit that measures colour
temperature.

- 989,

990!
- Woohoo!

- All right, baubles.
- How many?

- So, this is where we look at the
Bellagio tree,

and there were three baubles per
square foot.

- They did not hold back.

- So we've got 55 square feet on our
tree -

three baubles per square foot.

- 165.
- Maths genius.
- Woohoo!

OK, here we go.

- Hold on to your reindeers!

- What?!
- Got to apply some maths here.
- Right.

- Because of the cone shape, there's
more distributed at the bottom

and fewer at the top.

- To figure out how to spread the
baubles evenly,

Bobby recommends applying a
fraction-based formula.

- You need to distribute a half in the
bottom third.

- Half of the baubles.
- Yeah.

And a third in the middle third.

- OK.
- And then a sixth in the top third.

- And that's mathematically the right
proportion?

- Yes, to make sure that things are
evenly distributed.

- We already know that we need 165
baubles to cover the tree evenly.

So now we just need to multiply that
number by our fractions...

..and sort the baubles accordingly
ready for hanging.

- Mathematically and aesthetically,

we gain pleasure from seeing things
that are symmetrical,

so probably, we could place maybe the
red ones on first...
- OK.

- ..evenly, and then the gold ones in
between after.

- Why do we like things that are
symmetrical?

- So I think it's something that we
see in nature.

We can see the radial patterns of
flowers,

or we think about the hexagonal shapes
of honeycombs.

So symmetry really does appeal to us.

- 165.

Bobby Seagull, I do believe we
finished decorating the tree.

- Not quite.
- Of course!

I'm so sorry. I forgot the star. The
key bit.
- Yes.

And optimally, mathematically,

you need something that's about 10% of
the size of a tree.

- So for my six-and-a-half-foot tree,

that's a glittery star of around eight
inches.

- # Christmas time

# Don't let the bells end... #

- I do think it is a vast improvement.

It's absolutely tree-mendous.

Maths has worked today.

- Back at the factory,

we're two hours and 22 minutes into
production

and my caramelised hazelnuts

have gone through a lethal-looking
mincer,

creating a rough crumb called sugar
nut paste,

which is then gently sprinkled onto a
conveyor belt.

# Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle
all the way... #

Come on, Kev, join in.

PADDY HUMS JINGLE BELLS

Nothing.

Here we go.

- So, Paddy, what we see over here

is the sugar nut paste, which is 35
microns.

- Forgive me, Kevin, I'm not sure what
a micron is,

but can you compare that to something
for me?

- Well, to get it in perspective, a
piece of paper is 100 microns.

- Wow!
- It's really, really fine.

- So the particle size of this crumb
is three times thinner than paper.

Can I try some?
- Yeah, of course.

- Any excuse to get me blue glove on.

That is amazing.

- It's heaven, isn't it?

- Get over here!

Get over here! Look at that.

That looks quite thick and claggy.

Pop it in your mouth...

Oh, wow.

I can't believe you have to add more
stuff to that.

That's good enough for me.

What gets added to that, then?

- Let's go find out.

- Oh, Kev, come on! Now we're talking.

Whoo!

This delicious sugar paste travels a
few short metres

into one of eight 950kg mixers.

Right, what have we got here, Kevin?

- What happens here, the hazelnut
sugar paste gets into the mixer

and through the pipes, we add some
chocolate.

- Oh, just gets better, this.

Can we look inside?
- Yeah, of course.

Have a look.

- Oh, look at that.

That looks to me like the world's best
cement mixer.

But this is no cement.

This silky liquid chocolate is mixed
with my hazelnut sugar paste.

What kind of chocolate's that, Kevin?

- That's milk chocolate, 21.5% cacao.

That's the same chocolate that we use
to make our seashells.

- So that is the kind of final
mixture, so it's the...

it's the praline ground up and then
milk chocolate added.

And I'm guessing that's going to take
it to the next level again.

So how long is it staying in here for,
Kevin?

- For 20 minutes.

- While the nut paste and liquid milk
chocolate blend together

to make my filling, I'm following my
nose to the next stage.

Oh!

Now, that is a beautiful smell of
chocolate, let me tell you.

That really hits you as soon as you
walk in here.

What a bit of kit this is.

What's going on here, Kevin?
- This is our production line.

This is where we make the chocolate
shells, with the white chocolate

and the milk chocolate, where the
praline filling goes into.

- I cannot believe how far this goes
down there.

- It's exactly 90 metres, Paddy.

- The ingredients for my shells

are fed into this massive production
line and moulded together

to make a whopping 2.2 million
chocolates a day.

- But that's just one line, Paddy.

But there's two lines, so double it.

- So you're, like, over 4 million
seashells every day?

- Every day, within 24 hours.

- That's a lot of shells.

And this beast needs feeding, so we
better crack on with the next batch.

We've already made our praline
filling,

which will form the centre of the
chocolate.

Now we need to create the chocolate
seashell casings

into which it will be pumped.

Now, I recognise these, Kevin.

I've seen them on the production line.

These are obviously the moulds.

- In total, there's 2,600 moulds in
one production line.

We have a bottom mould and we have a
top mould.

- These moulds will ultimately be
joined together

to create a seashell sandwich, so to
speak.

Each mould contains 11 different shell
shapes

featuring a marbled effect of milk and
white Fair Trade chocolate.

And in search of that snow-themed
cocoa...

..is my mucker, Cherry - strong
hairnet -

30km down the road at another factory

in the rural setting of Wieze, near
Antwerp.

- This, Paddy, is Barry Callebaut,

one of the biggest chocolate factories
in the world.

They make over 300,000 tonnes of
chocolate here every year.

Even I couldn't eat that much
chocolate at Christmas.

Today I'm focusing on the white
chocolate for Paddy's seashells,

but before I see how it's made,

I'm meeting Wim Van Wonterghem in the
Chocolate Academy kitchen.

Wim, a very happy Christmas.
- Merry Christmas to you.

- What exactly is white chocolate?

- Well, white chocolate comes from the
cocoa fruit.

- Cocoa fruit, or pods, are grown in
equatorial regions around the world.

The pods contain beans that are
roasted to produce cocoa liquor,

which is pressed into cocoa butter and
cocoa powder.

- We get cocoa butter...
- That's cocoa butter.

- ..and we get cocoa powder.
- Cocoa powder.

- And for white chocolate, we only
need cocoa butter.

- So is that why white chocolate isn't
dark in colour?
- Yes.

- Because you don't add the cocoa
powder?
- Indeed.

- I mean, it's got almost no flavour
at all.

- When you make white chocolate,
you're not tasting cocoa butter.

You're tasting milk, you're tasting
sweetness.

- Cocoa butter may have little taste,

but it's vital for Belgian chocolate
making.

In Britain, we often substitute it
with cheaper vegetable oil,

but not here.

They use 150 tonnes of cocoa butter
every week to make the magic happen.

There's all sorts going on in here.
What is that?

- We have milk powder, we have sugar
and we have cocoa butter.

- So this is like an enormous mixing
bowl.

- Yeah, it's 1,500kg.

- After a five-minute churn,

the mix still contains large particles
of sugar crystals...

- There we are.
- Oh, look!

..so it's squeezed between giant
rollers to start

the two-stage process of refining or
crushing the lumpy particles.

- And then it goes into the refiner.

- Five more sets of rollers break down
the mix even further

to create a fine powder.

- CHERRY GASPS

- Oh, it's a magical winter
wonderland.

Except it's even better because it's
made out of white chocolate.

- Yeah, and it tastes better than
snow.

- It's snowing and yet it's chocolate.

- Here it snows every day.
- It snows every day!

I mean, it's so fine now.

- Yes, that is what you expect from
Belgian chocolate.

You get that real smooth chocolate.

- Oh, look, it's going up a ski lift.

The conveyor transports four tonnes of
powdery mix every hour.

But we need velvety liquid chocolate,

and that requires a process called
conching,

which reduces the tiny particles of
sugar, milk powder,

and cocoa butter even further.

The conch heats and blends the mix,

which makes it silky and smooth and
releases aromatic flavours.

Do you conch all chocolate, or is it
specific to white?

- No, we conch all chocolate.

The main difference is the temperature
that you want to reach.

- And is it higher or lower for white
chocolate?

- For white chocolate, it is lower.

- The white chocolate conches for
several hours.

- So this is the final bit of the
conching process.

- Oh, look at that!

It's so much more liquidy.

What have you done to change the
consistency of the chocolate?

- We've added more cocoa butter.

- And what has the cocoa butter done?

- The cocoa butter has made it more
liquid, more smooth.

- Is that what makes Belgian chocolate
really special?

It's the cocoa butter?
- It does for me, indeed.

I mean, that is a quality standard of
all Belgian chocolate.

You use 100% of cocoa butter. No other
fats.

- Once conched, the chocolate flows
through a large sieve

to remove any remaining lumps.

- So, the final finished product,
liquid chocolate.

- Wim, I know what I'm asking Santa
for this year -

a white chocolate Christmas waterfall.

The busy Barry Callebaut elves

produce four tonnes of white chocolate
every hour.

And my batch of liquid white gold

is now ready to be sent to awaiting
tankers.

I feel like this is the button to
start Christmas.
- Yes.

- Merry Christmas, everyone in the
world!

- # Well, I wish it could be Christmas
every day... #

- Each week, seven tankers of white
chocolate are dispatched

to Paddy's seashell factory,

along with another seven loads of milk
and dark chocolate too.

Well, I hope Paddy's dreaming of a
white Christmas.

- Because he's surely going to get
one.
- He really is.

- # Bells ring out for Christmas... #

- I really hope you like my present,
Paddy.

- Love it, Cherry!

I always say you can never have too
many 24-tonne tankers of chocolate

at Christmas.

Here at my factory, the seashell
moulds I saw earlier

have had a splash of milk chocolate
added to the bottom,

which will help create the outer
marbled effect.

Now to create the casing for my
praline centre,

it's time for Cherry's white
chocolate.

Aah, the white chocolate!

Here we go.

- Well, we have a silo over there
where white chocolate

is getting pumped up through the pipes
and to this depositor.

There's 44 nozzles in it that move up
and down

and the chocolate flows by gravity
into the moulds.

- The white chocolate drops into the
moulds

on top of the thinly-sprayed layer of
solid milk chocolate.

But then it's flipped upside down.

Whoa! Hang on a minute.

Kev, we're losing it.

You're pouring it straight out!

- That's normal, Paddy. That's normal.

- The moulds are tipped for just the
right amount of time

to ensure a two-millimetre thick
coating of white chocolate remains.

And the excess isn't wasted,

as it's fed back to the start of the
line to be used again.

From here, the moulds travel through a
chiller for six minutes

to harden the chocolate.

Then the process is repeated on the
empty rolls of the same moulds,

but in reverse.

A white chocolate splash followed by
milk chocolate.

I hope you're keeping up.

Then the whole lot is cooled again

before 2,906 perfectly formed hollow
shell halves emerge.

This, I suppose, Kevin, is where the
magic happens.

We've got the shell.

They're all ready to go.

This is the praline, the filling.

- That's correct. This is a big
moment.

- The hazelnut praline is pumped
straight to the line

and into a fancy machine called a
depositor.

Kevin, I've just got to say,

that, there, is crying out for a
marshmallow.

I would love to put a marshmallow in
that

and spend the day here just watching
this process.

- Unfortunately that's not possible,
but I understand the idea.

- PADDY LAUGHS

The chocolate-lined moulds for the
bottom half of my chocolates

are now fed beneath the depositor
head.

- This is the magical moment.

This is where the praline meets the
chocolate for the first time.

- 88 little taps gently release an
average of 6.8g of praline...

..filling each and every half of the
chocolate shells.

So, we've got the bottom of the shell
and the top half of the shell

coming together for the first time in
perfect harmony.

The top moulds and bottom moulds are
then pressed together

to form a full shell sandwich.

I love that. A marriage made in
heaven.

Inseparable.

The moulds then pass through a chiller

to guarantee that special bond between
the two shell halves...

..and three hours and five minutes
since the start of production,

it's time for the big Christmas
moment.

Bring on the Buble.

- # It's beginning to look a lot like
Christmas

# Everywhere you go

# Take a look at the five-and-ten,
it's glistening once again

# With candy canes and silver lanes
that glow... #

- Oh, there they are!

Look at those, glistening away, there.

It's like being on a chocolaty beach.

I love that, married together, out
they come.

RHYTHMIC TAPPING

And what's that noise?

- There's some of the shapes are very
difficult

and they need a little bit of help.

So we knock on the top of the mould,
get the seashells out of the mould.

- The soft tip pneumatic hammers
gently tap the chocolates

out of the top half of the moulds.

So, when you look on, Kevin,

you can see they're really intricate,
the shapes.

- And that's why they need a little
bit of help.

- Look at that. Beautiful.

Up to 20 million chocolate shells are
de-moulded here every day

in the lead-up to Christmas,

which surely has to be worth
celebrating, eh, Kev?

- Well, Paddy, would you like to try a
delicious chocolate seashell?

- At last, Kevin.

All day I've been hinting at this.

And now you're saying... Well, I am
ready, my friend.

Look at this.

Here we go.

Straight off the old production line.

I'm going to go for that shell there.

- That's a good choice.
- Come here, come here.

Ah!

- How does it taste?

- It tastes even nicer now as I know
the process that it's gone through,

how much hard work has gone into each
individual shell.

It makes it taste so much sweeter.

Just try one more, just in case.

Yeah...still good.

- You can try them all if you want.

- I will.

I really like Kevin.

So while I fill me boots, take a look
at Ruth,

who's been investigating the history
of this very Belgian treat.

- Belgium is full of beautiful little
chocolate shops,

carrying on a long tradition of
handmade praline.

The first is said to have been made in
1912

by chocolatier Jean Neuhaus,

who sold them from this shop

in the glittering Queen's Gallery in
Brussels.

So could you give me a praline?

- I'll give you our signature
chocolate, called a Caprice.
- OK.

- It's a shell made of salted caramel
and hazelnut, we call nougatine,

filled with fresh cream vanilla.

- Now, that is good.

But to find out how Belgian chocolate
became world-famous,

I've travelled to Antwerp,

27km from Paddy's factory.

Inside the fabulous Chocolate Nation
Museum, I'm meeting Ben Roelants.

Hello!

- Ruth, hi.

- So how is it that Belgian chocolate
goes, well, big?

- There was one game-changer.

This man revolutionised the making of
chocolate.

His name is Octaaf Callebaut.

- Callebaut. Is that the same or
related in any way to the Callebaut

who is producing the chocolate for
Paddy's factory?

- So, yes, he is. And actually he came
from a family of brewers,

and he found a way to transport not
cocoa powder, but liquid chocolate.

This was 1925 when he revolutionised
this way of making chocolate.

And soon, the factory they had in a
little village called Wieze

grew and grew and grew and grew.
- That's a big factory.

- What Callebaut did was he helped the
chocolatiers,

because now they didn't have to go
through the laborious process

of making their own chocolate, from
bean to chocolate.

- So this chocolate in a liquid form

goes out to lots of little
factories...
- Exactly.

- ..who are doing all the pretty
stuff.
- There you go.

Because from then on, chocolatiers
could focus, really,

on the filling of the pralines, for
instance,

or the different architectural
beauties they could make

with this chocolate, rather than
having to go through

the laborious process of changing
cocoa beans into chocolate.

And it puts Belgium on the forefront
of the chocolate revolution,

if I might say so.

- BOTH CHUCKLE

- This innovation was showcased at the
1958 World Fair in Brussels,

launching the reputation of the finest
Belgian chocolates

across the globe, and sales boomed...

..with exports of 70,000 tonnes of
chocolate in 1965

to more than half a million tonnes
today.

So what is it about chocolate that
makes it Belgian chocolate?

- Well, we can narrow it down to the
percentages,

because Belgian chocolate has to
contain at least 30%

of cocoa powder...
- Mm-hm.

- ..and there's only cocoa butter and
no added vegetable fats.

That's the secret.
- So this is a particularly chocolaty
chocolate.

- BOTH LAUGH

- Well, it's a lot more chocolaty than
it is where you're from,

for instance, because in Great
Britain, you can call it chocolate

as from 20% of cocoa, where we have to
go 10% higher.

And of course, it has to be made in
Belgium.

- Ah, of course.
- I mean, Ruth, you would like to try
one?

- This looks good!

- Rich taste.
- Mm-hm.

- This smooth texture when it just
slides on your tongue.

- Yeah. Belgian.

- LAUGHTER

I think she enjoyed that.

I've been doing my own share of
chocolate tasting.

And look at these beauties.

My marbled shells have been dropped
into blister packs

and I'm following them to packaging.

Oh, love this, the old saloon doors.

Come on!

Sorry, I forgot you have to come
through.

Get in. Get in, get in.

Wow, this is massive.

Somewhere in this 4,600 square metre
warehouse

is operations manager Paul Bevers.

Paul, how are you, sir?
- Hello.

Hello.
- Merry Christmas to you.
- Hello, Paddy.

Thank you very much.
- Merry Christmas.
- Thank you very much.

- So, what's this room, Paul?

- Well, we are here in the packaging
area of our factory.

- The smell is just...
- Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- ..gorgeous.

- We love chocolate's smell, and we
always have that in the factory.

- My packs of chocolate shells

are streaming along from the
production line...

..marching four abreast like little
intergalactic soldiers...

..towards four enormous robots.

First, they fold flat pieces of card
into boxes...

..before gently plucking up the
blister packs

and dropping them into position.

Now that's some serious multi-tasking.

At last.

You know, when I see them going in, I
think, "Merry Christmas."

- Yeah!
- Merry Christmas.

- Nice to see.
- 80 trays per minute.

How many individual chocolates is
that, then?

- Well, we are up to 1,760 of our
original seashells each minute.

- 1,760 seashells...
- Yeah, yeah.
- ..each minute.

- Each minute.
- Wow.

- But we have a second line, so it's
actually double that amount.

- So you're round about 3,500, a bit
more than.

- 3,500 per minute on the two lines,
absolutely.

- Oh, that's a lot!
- Yeah.

- Which - now this is a coincidence -

that's how many I get through a minute
on Christmas.

- OK!
- One, whoa, whoa, whoa...

In fact, I probably get more than
that.

Now, we've all got that one relative

who prefers something savoury at
Christmas.

So Cherry's sniffing out a festive
cheese board favourite.

- I'm at a factory in the heart of the
Leicestershire countryside,

one of the world's biggest producers
of Stilton.

There are people who don't take kindly
to this smelly,

blue-veined cheese, but...

..I personally am a big fan, so this
should be cheese heaven.

Long Clawson Dairy has been a
farmer-owned cooperative

for more than 100 years.

Today, milk is arriving from one of 41
local member farms.

And to reveal the alchemy behind
Stilton's classic blue veining,

I'm meeting master cheesemaker, Steve
Smith.

Merry Christmas, Steve.
- Merry Christmas.

- How do we turn that huge bathtub of
milk into cheese?

- So we have to have three
ingredients,

the first of which is our friendly
bacteria called starter culture.

So this culture starts the
fermentation process.

We need to distribute that evenly
throughout that huge vat,

so what we do is we place it into a
bucket of milk.

- All right, friendly bacteria - it's
party time.

Starter culture is added to most types
of cheese.

Whee!

The bacteria converts lactose in the
milk into lactic acid,

and this slow acidification is crucial
for cheese flavour.

- So next we have to add the blue
mould.

- And so is that a live ingredient?

- It is, yeah, and it's responsible
for that lovely blue veining

and appearance that we get later on

as well as a unique flavour and taste.

- This is what makes Stilton a classic
blue cheese -

penicillium roqueforti - a natural
fungus once found on cheese

left in caves, today it's made by
specialist manufacturers.

Merry Christmas, magic mould.

Transform this enormous tub of milk
into Stilton.

Woohoo!

Next, Steve adds a vegetarian
coagulation enzyme,

causing the milk to clot into a
semi-solid in just one hour.

Oh, that's so weird, it's like a
blancmange or a mousse.

A machine then cuts it into chunks
called curd,

and the liquid whey is drained off

and used to make products like protein
shakes.

Salt is added to the fresh curd,

reducing the formation of unwanted
bacteria

and delivering a strong hit of
flavour.

What does this taste like?
- Very acidic and very salty at this
point.

- So it's not really blue cheese yet.

- Way off yet.

- The blue mould hasn't yet had the
time or conditions to grow.

First, the curd must be broken down to
mix in the salt.

Stilton is a protected regional food,

which means it must be made in
Derbyshire, Leicestershire

or Nottinghamshire.

It also has key protected
characteristics.

- So it has to be made in a round
cylindrical hoop.

- Traditionally formed in wooden
buckets called hoops,

here milled curd is placed into
plastic cylinders.

So if it's square, it's not Stilton.

- It's not Stilton if it's square. It
has to be round.

- So many rules to making Stilton!

- Nearly... 10.5...

There we go.
- Yeah, got it!
- Well done.
- Brilliant. Woohoo.

Do I give it a really big press now?

- No, we don't press Stilton. That's
one of our other rules.

It has to be naturally settling.

We don't want to have the texture too
compact.

We want to leave lots of gaps and
crevices

for that blue mould to grow later on
in the process.

- To maintain these gaps, the filled
hoops are turned

to allow the liquid to drain away

whilst the cheese slowly forms evenly
inside.

They're rotated here several times for
one week

before being removed from the hoops
and turned by hand.

Then they're sent to the maturing
room.

Steve, they look so different.

Look, they've already got a lot of...

A kind of mouldy covering on them.

- Yeah, so that's referred to as our
crust.

- How old are these now?

- These are now coming up to nearly
four weeks of age.

- So what does it look like inside?

- Very pale.

- The crust has kept the blue mould
inside dormant.

- We need to pierce the cheese to
allow the oxygen in,

which stimulates the blue mould
growth.

- Each wheel of Stilton is pierced
with hundreds of holes.

This process is only done at four
weeks

to prevent the blue mould penetrating
the cheese too quickly.

But now, exposed to the air, it
spreads through the crevices,

developing yeasty, sweet flavours with
a salty, nutty aftertaste.

The process of this mouldy magic is
checked two weeks later -

a total of six weeks since the cheese
was made.

- So you've got to push the grading
iron

into the centre of the cheese.
- Mm-hm.

- Quite tough.
- Eeh!

- Spin it round and then remove it.

- Oh, much bluer. Look at that.

- That's exactly what we're looking
for.

Looking for the blue veining to start
from the centre of the cheese,

all the way out to the exterior crust,
with a nice open texture.

- Do you think that's ready to eat?

- At least another three weeks.
- Oh, really?

- It's not quite broken down enough to
give it that nice creamy,

savoury texture.

- OK, so this needs to go back to bed.

It takes up to 14 weeks to be ready
for the Christmas dinner table.

Oh, look at that!

That is absolutely beautiful blue
marbling.

- That's because the mould's travelled
down all those gaps and crevices.

- It's absolutely everywhere. Is that
a good looking Stilton?

- That's a great looking Stilton, and
every Stilton is unique.

- So when you get a Stilton at
Christmas,

that is your unique individual
Stilton.

- That's right.
- So it's quite special.
- Very special.

- That is the best Christmas present
ever.

- You can keep your cheese, Cherry - I
am all about the chocolate.

At the factory, my seashells are
spiralling onwards...

..to be packed and stacked, 120 at a
time, onto pallets.

And Paul and I are following them to
the warehouse.

You're all set for Christmas, Paul.

- We are all set, Paddy. We have all
the chocolates all made.

- Chocolates made, presents wrapped.

- I propose, Paddy, we go now,

see in the warehouse where we load our
product to the consumers.

And let's take the bikes.

It's the way our technicians move
around the factory

to be a little bit faster.

- I like this.
- Yes, it's nice.

- Why has no-one thought of this
before?

Love this.

What horsepower is this, Paul?
- Huh?
- Never mind.

Let's go.
- Yes, please follow me, Paddy.

- This is what it's all about.

I always wanted a bike for Christmas,

but getting to ride one around a
chocolate factory...

Wahey!

..the six-year-old me would have never
have dared to dream.

We're burning off all those chocolates
we've eaten.

It's just as well we've got the bikes.

This site covers an area of 27,000
square metres.

Aha, loaded them up.

And it looks like I've arrived just in
time

to put the last pallet on the wagon.

Here we go.

I do some of my best work at
Christmas.

40% of the chocolate shells made here
every year for the UK

are sold over Christmas.

Oh...
- Yes.
- There she goes.

There she goes.

She's on.
- Nicely done, Paddy.

- So how many are on that wagon, Paul?

- 33 pallets, or about 47,500 boxes of
chocolates.

- And how many's that work out
individually, do you know?

- That's about 1 million seashells.
- 1 million seashells!

- Yeah, on each lorry.

- And how many of them leave a day?

- We are at our busiest period of the
year at Christmas,

we have about 20 lorries per week
leaving the factory.

- So that's effectively 20 million
individual chocolates leave,

all for everyone to get stuck in at
Christmas.

- Absolutely, yeah.
- I love that.

How do you say, in Belgium, how do you
say Merry Christmas?

- Gelukkig Kerstmis.

- Merry Christmas!

Four hours and 25 minutes since I saw
raw hazelnuts being delivered,

my chocolate seashells are leaving the
factory.

From this small town in Belgium,

they travel to 120 countries across
the globe,

including North America, China and
Australia.

But of course, it's us Brits who munch
the most,

putting away a whopping 44.7 million
chocolate shells at Christmas.

Well, what a treat that was.

And I'm sure you'll agree, nothing
says Christmas like seashells,

copper kettles and a sack of nuts.

Merry Christmas, everyone.