Live in the &The History of Chocolate
- 1500 BC-400 BC – The Olmec Indians in South America are believed to have been the first to grow cacao as a domestic crop.
- 250 to 900 CE – Mayans made a drink from ground cacao beans and chilies mixed into hot water. It was unsweetened, and restricted to the society's elites.
- 14th Century – Aztecs were introduced to the drink by the Mayans, and it became popular among their royalty who promptly taxed it. They called it "xocalatl," meaning warm or bitter liquid.
- 1502 – On his fourth voyage to the New World, Columbus encountered cacao beans being used as currency.
- 1519 – Spanish explorer Hernando Cortez didn't like the cacao drink, but was fascinated by the beans value as currency. He established a plantation in the name of Spain, believing he could “grow” money.
- 1528 – Cortez returns to Spain, and presents King Charles with beans from his plantation. The Spanish mixed the bitter beverage with sugar, vanilla, nutmeg, cloves, allspice, and cinnamon. This raised demand for the Spanish plantations' beans. Spain kept chocolate secret for 100 years.
- 1544 – Dominican friars took a group of Mayan nobles to meet with Spain’s Prince Philip. The Mayans brought beaten cocoa, mixed and ready to drink.
- 1585 – First shipment of cocoa beans began arriving in Seville, Spain from Vera Cruz, Mexico.
- 1657 – London's first chocolate house opened. The shop was called The Coffee Mill and Tobacco Roll. London's chocolate houses became the trendy meeting places for the elite.
- 1674 – The first solid chocolate was introduced. It was served in chocolate emporiums in the form of chocolate rolls and cakes.
- 1753 – Carolus Linnaeus, a Swedish naturalist, renamed “cocoa” "theobroma," Greek for "food of the gods."
- 1765 – James Watt invented the steam engine and its technology would rapidly be applied to chocolate manufacture.
- 1800 – Antoine Brutus Menier builds the first industrial-size chocolate factory.
- 1819 – The pioneer of Swiss chocolate-making, François Louis Callier, opened the first Swiss chocolate factory.
- 1828 – Conrad Van Houten invents the cocoa press, which helped cut prices and improve the quality of chocolate by squeezing out some of the cocoa butter, giving the beverage a smoother consistency. Van Houten also invented the process of treating cocoa with alkali, giving it the name "Dutching".
- 1847 – Joseph Fry & Son developed a process of mixing some cocoa butter back into the "Dutched" chocolate. They added sugar, creating a paste that could be molded and hardened. The result was the first modern chocolate bar.
- 1849 – Cadbury Brothers displayed chocolates for eating at an exhibition in Bingley Hall, Birmingham, England.
- 1851 – Queen Victoria’s husband, Prince Albert, organized The Exposition in London. This was the first time that Americans encountered bonbons, chocolate creams, hard candies, and caramels. The hard candies were called “boiled sweets.”
- Mid-19th Century – Prime Minister William Gladstone reduced the taxes on cacao beans, making them more attractive to British manufacturers wanting to cater to a large portion of the population.
- 1860 – The first British Food and Drugs Act was passed after investigations by the British journal, the Lancet, whereby it was discovered that numerous food adulteration strategies were practiced by manufacturers including adding brick dust to chocolate powder.
- 1875 – After eight years of development, Swiss chocolate maker Daniel Peter markets the first milk chocolate.
- 1879 – The almost universal technique of “conching” is developed. This is a process of rolling and heating the chocolate for as much as 72 hours, and has more cocoa butter added to it. This makes the chocolate “fondant,” and it will literally melt in your mouth.
- 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 – A Swiss chocolate maker, Jules Sechaud, develops a machine to fill chocolates.
- 1925 – The New York Cocoa Exchange, opened on October 1, 1925, bringing buyers and sellers together. Most of the transactions do not involve any actual cocoa, as total transactions involve over seven times as much cocoa as actually exists.
- 1991 – Green & Black’s produces the first organic chocolate bar in London, England.
- 1994 – Green & Black’s Maya Gold chocolate was the first product to receive the Fair Trade symbol for meeting the standards set by the Fairtrade Foundation.
