A ‘fun-sized’ history of chocolate

February 29th, 2012

Appliance News

Last week this Appliances Online blogger was lucky enough to visit Claremont, Tasmania – home of the Australian Cadbury Factory.

Being a big chocolate fan from way back, I approached this experience with embarrassing levels of excitement. Psychologists are always telling us to ‘nourish the child within‘, which is advice I seem to have taken literally.

Anyway, hot on the heels of ‘Does chocolate belong in the fridge?’ we gleefully present to you a brief history of everyone’s favourite sweet treat:

6th Century

Seeds from the cacao tree were used by the Maya culture – cocoa pods symbolised fertility and life. Carved pictures of cocoa pods can be found on stones from their palaces and temples.

The Mayans were also the first to cultivate cocoa plantations, which I suppose means that their culture was good for something other than predicting the end of the world.

13th Century

Meanwhile, the Aztecs were using cacao seeds as a form of money. But when not spending their cocoa seeds, they were grinding it up to make a thick, cold drink called xocoatl. Since the Aztecs didn’t have sugar they used spices such as chili peppers and corn meal to add flavour. Mmm, delicious!

16th Century

The exchange rate for cocoa beans in 1513 was as follows:

1 slave = 100 cocoa beans
The services of a prostitute = 10 cocoa beans
1 rabbit dinner = 4 cocoa beans

Considering the fact that you need around 500 beans to make a kilo of chocolate, next time I’m in the market for a slave I’m just going to hand over a Kit Kat and see how it goes…

1528

The Spanish explorer Hernando Cortez brings cocoa beans back to Spain, which he presented to the King. Cortez was also the first person to suggest blending the bitter drink with sugar (the Spaniards also mixed it with vanilla, nutmeg, cloves, allspice and cinnamon).

Reserved for the Spanish nobility, chocolate is a secret that Spain kept to itself until 1643 when the Spanish Princess Maria Theresa gave it to her fiancé Louis XIV of France as a gift.

1657

The first chocolate house – serving “this excellent West India drink” was opened in London, and it was only a matter of time before chocolate found its way into cakes and rolls.

1704

Chocolate appears in Germany, and Frederick I of Prussia responds of course by imposing a tax.

1755

Chocolate arrives in the USA, and in 1765 the first chocolate factory opens, which speeds up the process of making chocolate. This makes chocolate production faster than ever before.

1830

Finally, solid eating chocolate is invented by J. S. Fry & Sons, a British chocolate maker. It was discovered that if you blend milk, sugar, cocoa powder and cocoa butter together and leave it to set, the result is a delicious solid treat that tastes great and ‘melts in your mouth’ as you eat it.

1905

Cadbury (established in 1824 by John Cadbury in Birmingham, England) launched its Dairy Milk bar which had a higher proportion of milk than other chocolate bars, and went on to become a runaway success. By the 1920s Dairy Milk was the brand’s market leader and today Cadbury Dairy Milk sales are valued at around $85 million per year.

1922

Following on from Cadbury’s successful merger with rival Fry’s, Cadbury decided to expand overseas. Since Australia was one of the company’s largest markets, it was decided that a new factory would be built in Tasmania (because of the cool climate and availability of high-quality milk). The building was modelled upon the English facilities, and Cadbury’s Claremont remains the largest chocolate factory in the Southern Hemisphere.

2012

Appliances Online blogger Louise visits the Cadbury factory. Sales in the gift shop were abnormally high that day.