A Brief History of Chocolate

The humble cocoa tree has grown in the tropical rain forests of the Amazon basin in South America for thousands of years. The Aztecs and Maya Indians soon recognised the value of the cocoa beans, making a drink by roasting the beans it became so valuable the bean was treated like a currency in some areas.

Christopher Columbus is said to have brought the first cocoa beans back to Europe from his visits to the 'New World' in the early1500’s. The British and Dutch at first dismissed this strange brown bean on the Spanish ships they seized as sheep droppings, throwing it into the sea, the gold and other treasures were far more interesting.

The secret of chocolate was taken to France in 1615, when Anne, daughter of Philip II of Spain, married King Louis XIII of France. The French adopted this new exotic drink, which was considered to have medicinal benefits as well as being a nourishing food. When France conquered Cuba and Haiti in 1684 they set up their own cocoa plantations such was the demand back in France.

In the 17th century, the Dutch, who were great navigators, broke Spain's monopoly of cocoa when they captured Curacao. They not only brought cocoa beans from America to Holland, where cocoa was greatly acclaimed and recommended by doctors as a cure for almost every ailment, but also enabled the trade in cocoa beans to spread.

Chocolate probably reached Germany in 1646, brought back by visitors to Italy. The secret of the aromatic chocolate-flavoured drinks finally reached England from France in the 1650s when they became very popular at the court of King Charles II. Up until this point all chocolate recipes were based on plain chocolate.

It was an British doctor, Sir Hans Sloane (who gave his name to Sloane Square in London) who discovered the sweet drink whilst in Jamaca. Bringing it back to England he started to sell it through apothecaries as a medicine. The Cadbury Brothers were one of the early sellers of Sloane's Drinking Chocolate. It is believed that the original Cadbury Milk Chocolate was prepared to his recipe.

Chocolate was exclusively for drinking until early Victorian times, when a technique was perfected for making solid 'eating' chocolate. Chocolate today is still a fashionable drink but considerably more affordable and available in millions of variations.

Fun Facts About Chocolate

Most Popular UK Chocolate

Cadbury Dairy Milk.

Most Popular Chocolate (World)

Snickers (used to be Marathon in the UK) by Mars, available since 1930. Global sales of over $2 million in 2007.

Most Expensive Chocolate

The Madeleine, produced by Knipschildt Chocolatier in South Norwalk, Connecticut, USA. Handmade, the Madeleine contains a creamy truffle ganache made from French Valrhona chocolate blended with fresh cream infused with vanilla pods and pure Italian truffle oil. a French Perigold truffle rolled inside of it and the whole thing is dusted with cocoa powder. At US$250 each it makes it an eye watering US$2600 per pound.

UK Chocolate Industry Turnover

$5 Billion per year.

UK Chocolate Consumption

500,000 tonnes per year the UK are one of the world’s largest consumers of chocolate per head of population.