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History of Chocolate
 Legend tells us how Montezuma, the powerful Aztec emperor who ruled a remarkable civilization in central Mexico in the 1st millennium AD, drank 50 golden goblets every day filled with chocolate as thick as honey. Even then, chocolate was a luxury imbued with special potency.
 Chocolate was both a spicy drink and a form of currency for Aztec and Mayan cultures. Since sugar was unknown to the Aztecs, they flavored the drink with chile peppers and corn meal and it developed into a hot, frothy drink. Made from ground cacao beans or pods harvested from the cacao tree that was native to tropical rainforests of Central America and Mexico, chocolate was considered valuable and nutritious, perhaps holding aphrodisiac powers.
Christopher Columbus is credited with bringing cacao beans to Spain following his third voyage to the New World in 1502-1504. But it took his fellow explorer, Hernando Cortez, to recognize the commercial value of the cacao bean, which became a trading commodity in 1595. For nearly 100 years, the beverage – which the Spanish flavored with sugar and vanilla – was a secret of the Spanish court.
 Expensive and exotic, chocolate was gradually introduced to the rest of Europe by touting its purported medicinal benefits. As plantations cultivating cacao trees spread to West Africa, Sri Lanka, Sumatra, New Guinea, Java and Brazil by the 19th century, both cacao beans and processed chocolate became more plentiful and affordable. However, all the chocolate consumed during this time was a rather bitter chocolate.
Milk chocolate was not introduced until 1875 when Henri Nestlé collaborated with a neighboring manufacturer in Vevey, Switzerland. There inventor Daniel Peter added Nestlé condensed milk to his chocolate. The result of this experiment was a new and delicious milk chocolate, which met with immediate success. With this delectable invention, the Swiss chocolate industry expanded far beyond its regional roots. By 1904, after Nestlé established a joint venture with the Peters company, they began to introduce milk chocolate to the world.
SOURCE: The First Hundred Years of Nestlé, Jean Heer
Today, each country around the world has one or more chocolate manufacturer, giving us a splendid assortment of chocolate to discover and enjoy.
Timeline |
| A.D. 600: |
The Olmecs are said to be the first people to discover the wonders of chocolate, hundreds of years before the Mayans |
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600-1000: |
The Mayans thrive in what is now Guatemala and the Yucatan Peninsula, cultivating cocoa and using it as a beverage and currency |
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1200s-1500s: |
The Aztecs rule Mexico. Chocolate is popular among the elite and as currency. |
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1528: |
Hernando Cortez brings the first chocolate to Spain |
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| 1764: |
First American chocolate mill opened in Dorchester, MA. |
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1905: |
Nestlé entered the chocolate business. |
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1939: |
Nestlé Toll House Morsels introduced. |
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2006: |
Nestlé introduces CHOCOLATIER. |
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SOURCE: Chocolate Smarts Guide, Julie Tucker and Jennifer Elias, Published by SmartsCo in SF, CA, copyright 2004
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