A brief History of Chocolate

In the 16th Century, Hernan Cortez, a Spanish visitor to the court of Montezuma in Mexico, was served a drink made from the fermented and roasted seeds of a tropical tree. The Mayans and the Aztecs used cocoa beans as one of their trading currencies. Cortez decided to take the product back to Spain, added cinnamon and vanilla, and served it hot, where it became popular drink.

Christopher Columbus is reputed to have bought it back to England, where according to the diaries of Samuel Pepys, the first chocolate shop was opened in Bishopsgate, London, in 1657, supposedly on the instructions of Charles II. At this time, chocolate cost about fifteen shillings a pound, so only the wealthy were able to afford to drink it, and the chocolate houses which opened in Amsterdam and other cities across Europe, catered for a well heeled clientele. After King Charles II was restored to the throne from exile in 1660, he patronised chocolate houses, often with a selection of his mistresses.

It was in the late 1700’s that milk was added to the quite bitter drink, thereby softening and changing it’s character. In the mid-19th Century, duty was lowered on chocolate and it gained broader appeal, at the same time as tea and coffee were becoming more popular. Chocolate started being made into sweets and bars in the 1760’s in Massachusetts, and was later developed by the English firm of Fry and Sons in 1847.