It is said that chocolate began its run as a popular treat when Christopher Columbus returned from the new world circa 1502. Spaniards learned to use chocolate from the Aztec nation during the time of the invasion conducted by the explorer Hernan Cortes who was Spanish, in the year 1519. Hernan tasted the ambrosia that was chocolate and had the natives teach him how to prepare the bitter cocoa bean into the delicious and wonderful chocolate drink he would share with his fellow Europeans.
When chocolate entered the French consciousness in the 17th century, it was not met with glad tidings and was considered by some to be "a barbarous product and a noxious drug." It met its acceptance when approval was given by the Paris faculty of Medicine and Queen Anne of Austria who was the wife of Louis XIII, declared that chocolate would be the drink featured in French court.
Chocolate on the Move
It was in the 17th century that the delectability of chocolate was discovered in Italy and England. Other European countries followed suit in the delight of chocolate. It wasn't until 1765 that chocolate was manufactured in the new world of America. The processing house that began the trend was the Milton Lower Mills that was located in the vicinity of Dorchester, Mass. It was James Baker and John Hanau that opened the first house of chocolate processing.
Chocolate and the Swiss
Some of the finest chocolates ever produced were done by the Swiss. It took approximately eight years for M. Daniel Peter to add milk to chocolate along with sugar to produce a chocolate that was smoother. It wasn't until he teamed up with Henry Nestle, a maker of milk that was condensed, that they hit upon the brilliant idea of mixing chocolate and condensed milk.
It was in 1828 that C.J. Van Houton developed a cocoa press. He is considered to be a master of chocolate and he was determined to lower the prohibitive price of chocolate to bring it to the public. He developed a process that would remove the cocoa butter from the chocolate beans that would take the acidity out of the flavor. That is why chocolate processed through alkaline means was named Dutch chocolate.
You could only obtain chocolate until 1879 as a liquid. It was a man named Rodolphe Lindt who thought to add the cocoa butter back into the chocolate. It was the addition of the cocoa butter that helped to make a chocolate that was created into a bar that would snap when it was broken and melt deliciously upon the tongue it was placed.
