The development of modern chocolate was a long process and many people and cultures contributed. Since no one person can be given all of the credit, the following is a brief timeline of the development of chocolate...
1500 BC-400 BC - The Olmec Indians are believed to be the first to grow cocoa beans as a domestic crop.250 to 900 CE - The consumption of cocoa beans was restricted to the Mayan society's elite, in the form of an unsweetened cocoa drink made from the ground beans.AD 600 - Mayans migrate into northern regions of South America establishing earliest known cocoa plantations in the Yucatan.
14th Century - The drink became popular among the Aztec upper classes who upsurped the cocoa beverage from the Mayans and were the first to tax the beans. The Aztecs called it "xocalatl" meaning warm or bitter liquid.
1502 - Columbus encountered a great Mayan trading canoe in Guanaja carrying cocoa beans as cargo.
1519 - Spanish explorer Hernando Cortez recorded the cocoa usage in the court of Emperor Montezuma.
1544 - Dominican friars took a delegation of Kekchi Mayan nobels to visit Prince Philip of Spain. The Mayans brought gift jars of beaten cocoa , mixed and ready to drink. Spain and Portugal did not export the beloved drink to the rest of Eurpoe for nearly a century.
16th Century Europe - The Spanish began to add cane sugar and flavorings such as vanilla to their sweet cocoa beverages.
1570 - Cocoa gained popularity as a medicine and aphrodisiac.
1585 - First official shipments of cocoa beans began arriving in Seville from Vera Cruz, Mexico.
1657 - The first chocolate house was opened in London by a Frenchman. The shop was called the The Coffee Mill and Tobacco Roll. Costing 10 to 15 shillings per pound, chocolate was considered a beverage for the elite class.
1674 - Eating solid chocolate was introduced in the form of chocolate rolls and cakes, served in chocolate emporiums.
1730 - Cocoa beans had dropped in price from $3 per lb. to being within the financial reach of those other than the very wealthy.
1732 - French inventor, Monsieur Dubuisson invented a table mill for grinding chocolate.
1753 - Swedish naturalist, Carolus Linnaeus was dissatisfied with the word "cocoa," so renamed it "theobroma," Greek for "food of the gods."
1765 - Chocolate was introduced to the United States when Irish chocolate-maker John Hanan imported cocoa beans from the West Indies into Dorchester, Massachusetts, to refine them with the help of American Dr. James Baker. The pair soon after built America's first chocolate mill and by 1780, the mill was making the famous BAKER'S � chocolate.
1795 - Dr. Joseph Fry of Bristol, England, employed a steam engine for grinding cocoa beans, an invention that led to the manufacture of chocolate on a large factory scale.
1819 - The pioneer of Swiss chocolate-making, Fran�ois Louis Callier, opened the first swiss chocolate factory.
1828 - The invention of the cocoa press, by Conrad Van Houten, helped cut prices and improve the quality of chocolate by squeezing out some of the cocoa butter and giving the beverage a smoother consistency. Conrad Van Houten patented his invention in Amsterdam and his alkalizing process became known as "Dutching".
1847 - Joseph Fry & Son discovered a way to mix some of the cocoa butter back into the "Dutched" chocolate, and added sugar, creating a paste that could be molded. The result was the first modern chocolate bar.
1849 - Joseph Fry & Son and Cadbury Brothers displayed chocolates for eating at an exhibition in Bingley Hall, Birmingham, England.
1851 - Prince Albert's Exposition in London was the first time that Americans were introduced to bonbons, chocolate creams, hand candies (called "boiled sweets"), and caramels.
1861 - Richard Cadbury created the first known heart-shaped candy box for Valentine's Day.
1868 - John Cadbury mass-marketed the first boxes of chocolate candies.
1876 - Daniel Peter of Vevey, Switzerland, experimented for eight years before finally inventing a means of making milk chocolate for eating.
1879 - Daniel Peter and Henri Nestl� joined together to form the Nestl� Company.
1879 - Rodolphe Lindt of Berne, Switzerland, produced a more smooth and creamy chocolate that melted on the tongue. He invented the "conching" machine. To conch meant to heat and roll chocolate in order to refine it. After chocolate had been conched for seventy-two hours and had more cocoa butter added to it, it was possible to create chocolate "fondant" and other creamy forms of chocolate.
1897 - The first known published recipe for chocolate brownies appeared in the Sears and Roebuck Catalogue.1910 - Canadian, Arthur Ganong marketed the first nickel chocolate bar.
1913 - Swiss confiseur Jules Sechaud of Montreux introduced a machine process for manufacturing filled chocolates.
1926 - Belgian chocolatier, Joseph Draps starts the Godiva Company to compete with Hershey's and Nestle's American market.
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