Choices Choices
Which Christmassy thing has travelled the furthest? The answers…
Infuriated by your poor performance in our festive Meta Quiz?
Here are the answers behind them!
Disclaimer: Lots of things come from lots of places (that’s logistics in practice!), so for the purposes of this quiz, we’ve gone with the biggest or most prominent production locations.
Q1 – Cranberries or Turkey?
CORRECT ANSWER: CRANBERRIES (Wisconsin)
Mainly because folk in the US go crazy for these little tangy lads, meaning that the majority of those we eat over the festive period are exported from the states, and specifically Wisconsin. In fact, Wisconsin is so big on cranberries that it’s actually got its own tourist-attracting ‘Cranberry Trail’. No word of a lie.
And of course, Wisconsin is further away (wherever you are in the UK) from Norfolk – which is the bit of the UK most synonymous with turkeys. Gobblegobble!
Q2 – Chestnuts or Brazil Nuts?
CORRECT ANSWER: BRAZIL NUTS (Brazil & beyond)
There is a slight clue in the name with this one – but I guess if you thought, say, that Chestnuts came from Indonesia, then perhaps you still could have got this one wrong?
As it happens, Chestnuts are primarily sourced from Europe and particularly France. Brazil nuts do come from Brazil – but also Peru and Bolivia, i.e. the higher elevations of the Amazon rainforest.
To think, the Brazil nut you’ll be nibbling during the King’s speech may have been fondled by a curious howler monkey just weeks before? That’s the magic of logistics, folks!
Q3 – Tinsel or Bad Cracker Jokes?
CORRECT ANSWER: TINSEL (South Wales)
Easy!
As we all know, cracker jokes are sourced through secret recordings of Dad’s going about their everyday business, via innovative audio technology. Essentially every time the phrase Listen, I’ve got a good one for ya… or knock, knock… or have you heard the one about…, an automatic recording function is triggered, with the godawful results sent on to cracker production factories to reproduce and hide away next to low-grade explosives (that never go off when they are meant to, amirite?).
Distance-wise, cracker-joke contributing Dad’s are all around us; in our streets, in our homes, maybe sitting next to you right now. On that basis, the correct answer has got to be tinsel – because the UK’s biggest producer is based on South Wales… and we reckon that’s further than your nearest Dad. Kapeesh?
Q4 – Santa Hat or Trafalgar Square Christmas Tree?
CORRECT ANSWER: SANTA HAT (Taiwan)
To be clear, we’re not talking about the Santa Hat (my elf on the inside tells me that’s Balenciaga), but the ones we can all get everywhere come the season.
And these tend to be made en-masse in Taiwan, or China. Which trumps the Trafalgar Tree in distance, since that particular spruce comes from Norway, via sea freight. Logistically, it’s a pretty cool operation, just not worth a point in this quiz.
Q5 – Chocolate Money or Candy Canes?
CORRECT ANSWER: CANDY CANES (Bryan, Ohio)
Yes, confectionery kinda comes from everywhere. But it’s the US that is the candy cane capital of the world (at least in modern times). The Spangler Candy Company produces over 45% of the USA’s candy canes, with a whole lot of them shipped over to adorn the UK trees, stockings and slobbery tongues.
Chocolate money, however, is made a bit closer to home, with chocolate makers across the UK getting in on the act. Interestingly the tradition of giving choccy coins actually came from Turkey. Now, how about that?
