The Missing Golden Ticket and Other Splendiferous Secrets (3 page)

Veruca Salt

A girl who is allowed to HAVE anything she wants

Violet Beauregarde

A girl who chews gum all day long

And one more
. . .

Miranda Mary Piker

A girl who is allowed to DO anything she wants

And it is in this draft that Charlie’s grandparents are introduced for the first time, and tiny people called “Whipple-Scrumpets” become Mr. Wonka’s workforce, reciting poems as each child leaves.

The Swiss
eat more chocolate per person than any other nation in the world.

Belgium is the third biggest producer of chocolate in the world.

Just like Willy Wonka, many Belgian chocolate makers keep their recipes secret.

Cocoa was discovered by the South American Indians over 3, 000 years ago.

The scientific name for cocoa means
“food of the gods.”

Cocoa beans were considered so valuable, the Aztecs used them as money—ten beans would buy a rabbit!

Originally, chocolate was used just as a drink. The Spaniards took cocoa to Europe from Mexico in the sixteenth century. They kept the recipe for drinking-chocolate secret for nearly 100 years!

In 1606, an Italian took the recipe to Italy, and chocolate drinking became popular throughout Europe.