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The story begins with cocoa trees growing in the rain forests of the Amazon Basin. It was the Maya, an ancient people living in Central America, who first grew cocoa and used the beans in AD600. A drink called "chocolatl" was the beans' most important use but they were also valued as currency.
Mayan merchants took the cocoa beans as far as Mexico to sell to the Aztecs who considered the drink a luxury and consumed large quantities. However the Aztecs could not grow cocoa trees in their dry climate and thus the international trade in cocoa beans began.
Christopher Columbus first brought word of cocoa to Europe in the late 15th century. However it was when Don Cortes conquered Mexico in 1519 and discovered the Aztecs drinking "Chocolatl" that its importance was appreciated. Don Cortes enjoyed the thick rich liquid of the ground roast beans mixed with water, maize and vanilla and in 1528 returned to Spain with cocoa beans and chocolate making equipment. "Chocolatl" soon became the fashionable drink of the Spanish court.
The chocolate drink was finally introduced into England in the 1650s as an expensive luxury. The first London Chocolate House was opened in 1657. The drink was made from blocks of chocolate prepared and imported from Spain.
At the end of the 17th century chocolatl became popular in Belgium, Germany and Switzerland.
In England the government saw cocoa as a useful form of revenue and in 1724 George I issued an act imposing a fine of 20 shillings on every pound of cocoa which did did not bear the stamp of duty paid.
In 1755 cocoa made its return journey across the Atlantic to North America and shortly after ships of the New World colonists began to sail to the Caribbean to trade cocoa beans.
The first machine made chocolate was produced in Barcelona in 1780.
In 1828 Van Houton in Holland invented the first viable cocoa press allowing the easy extraction of coca butter from the beans which enabled a less rich more palatable drink to be made.
Thus the nineteenth century saw a revolution in cocoa processing and chocolate manufacture. At the beginning of the century the cocoa processing was a small scale industry. Solid chocolate blocks were produced, but mostly for use in making drinks. This type of chocolate was occasionally eaten on its own, although it was not at all pleasant as its texture and flavour was coarse and unrefined. By the end of the century, eating chocolate, not very different from chocolate today, was available, thanks to advances in techniques and technology.
1835 William Newton discovered a process for preserving milk with sugar, the result being condensed milk.
1847 Joseph Fry made the first block eating chocolate, using cocoa liquor, cocoa butter and sugar.
1875 Daniel Peter invented milk chocolate using condensed milk.
1880 Rodolphe Lindt discovered the process of conching which resulted in a smooth chocolate with none of the grainy texture, and modern chocolate was born.
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