Chocolate started out as a drink and had a long journey to make before it became the elixir we all enjoy today. Made with water, either hot or cold, this drink was fairly bitter, heavily spiced and flavoured with vanilla, herbs, flower petals, honey and, most commonly, chilli. These drinks were often used as sacred offerings and even today chocolate still has a ceremonial role in some cultures.
5000BC
The origin of chocolate is not entirely clear but it is believed that cacao first grew in South America, in the Amazon River basin and in Venezuela as far back as 5000 BC.
Late 14th century
The Aztecs conquer parts of Mexico and embrace cacao. Cacao is shipped hundreds of miles to satisfy the Aztecs’ appetite for cacao.
1519
A crucial moment in the history of chocolate when the Spanish explorer and one of Columbus' ambassadors, Hernan Cortes, meets the Aztec Emperor Montezuma. Montezuma is convinced that the fair-skinned bearded man, Cortes, is their god and saviour Quetzalcoatl returning from the wilderness. Cortes is showered with gifts including cocoa.
1527
Cortes brings cocoa back to Spain and by the 1600s the country has adopted the habit of drinking chocolate.
1692
The fondness for chocolate quickly spreads throughout most of Europe to France, Italy and England. In 1692 the first Chocolate House opens in St James’s, London (now White’s Club).
18th century
Drinking chocolate is still associated with high social standing. Most cocoa is identified by the name of the area where it is grown and some areas are more prized than others.
For the next 200 years, chocolate is mostly drunk for its physical and mood enhancing qualities, and it becomes one of the most important medicines in the apothecaries’ medicine chest.
1728
A company called Churchman (which later becomes Joseph Fry Ltd) invents a water-mill-powered steam engine that produces a smoother chocolate. Joseph Fry invents the first crude tablet of eating chocolate 42 years later. This is the origins of the refined chocolate product we have today.
1824
John Cadbury starts his chocolate business from a shop in Birmingham.
1828
Until this point, the cocoa beans are roasted and ground into a thick paste (cocoa liquor). Then Dutch man, Conrad Van Houten, is credited with developing a method to extract cocoa butter from cocoa liquor. However, there is also evidence that shows this method was actually developed in France in 1763. This results in an easier way of making drinking chocolate with the two substances being recombined in different proportions to create eating chocolate. This breakthrough transforms chocolate from a luxury enjoyed by the upper classes into an inexpensive daily snack.
1847
Joseph Fry invents a way of mixing cocoa butter with chocolate liquor and sugar to produce the world’s first bars of eating chocolate. A year later George & Richard Cadbury introduces its first chocolate bar.
1879
Rodolphe Lindt in Switzerland discovers that grinding roasted cacao with sugar for several hours (conching) eliminates the graininess of chocolate, and makes it smoother and more pleasant to eat. In the same year, Daniel Peter, who is also Swiss, adds dried milk to the process, and creates milk chocolate.
1879
Cadbury buys the Bournbrook Estate to create a model factory and village for employees and works hard to abolish slavery on the cacao plantations.
Early 20th century
Chocolate is manufactured on an industrial scale by Joseph Fry and Cadbury in the UK, by Lindt and Suchard in Switzerland and by Hershey in the USA. Chocolate becomes divorced from its origins; fine quality chocolate becomes rare; and quality manufacturers disappear under the shadow of the big manufacturers.
1905
Cadbury launches its Dairy Milk bar and 14 years later buys JS Fry & Sons.
Present day
There has been a growing appreciation of fine chocolate since the 1980s and 1990s. Chocolate is experiencing a revival and the beans, the source, the cultivation and how it is made are now becoming as important as they were a few hundred years ago. There are now some top quality chocolate brands such as Valrhona, Prestat, Rococo and New Tree.
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