Chocolate also
played a special role in both Maya and Aztec royal and
religious events. Priests presented cacao seeds as offerings
to the gods and served chocolate drinks during sacred
ceremonies.
The history of chocolate in Europe came
during the conquest of Mexico in 1521. The Spaniards recognized
the value attached to cacao and observed the Aztec custom
of drinking chocolate. Soon after, the Spanish began to
ship cacao seeds back home, they doctored up the bitter
brew with cinnamon and other spices and began sweetening
it with sugar. They managed to keep their delicious drink
a Spanish secret for almost 100 years before the rest of
Europe discovered what they were missing, but then only
those with money could afford to drink it as cacao and
sugar were expensive imports. Eventually, to keep up with
the demand for chocolate, Spain and many other European
nations established colonial plantations for growing cacao
and sugar.
For centuries, chocolate
remained a handmade luxury sipped only by society's upper
crust. But by the 1800s, mass production made solid chocolate
candy affordable to a much broader public. The first European
chocolate factury was setup in France in 1761 in the town
of Bayonne. Exports at the time were limited to mainly
Spain and Paris. The first hydraulic machine for crushing
and mixing the chocolate paste was invented in 1778 and
in 1819 the first steam-powered production plant was built.
Many famous chocolate
companies today were founded as family run businesses in
Europe such as Van Houten in the Netherlands in 1815,
Menier in France in 1824, Cadbury and Rowntree in England;
and Suchard, Nestlé, Lindt and Kohler in Switzerland.
After about 1850 the
production of chocolate became a global business and production
facilities were setup all around the world.
To meet the demands of today's global market, chocolate
manufacturing relies on both ancient techniques in the
field and new technologies in the factory.
