The
history of Confection dates back at least 4,000 years, however,
chocolate doesn’t get an look-in until 600 AD when the Mayans
migrated into the northern regions of South America and established
the earliest known cocoa plantations in the Yucatan region.
Aztec Indian legend held that cacao
seeds (Theobroma cacao) had been brought from Paradise
and that wisdom, power and sexual prowess came from eating the fruit
of the cacao tree. Theobroma literally means "food
of the Gods". Passion
was born!
Moving forward, in the twelfth-century
Mesoamerican marriages, as part of the actual a marriage ritual,
a mug of the frothy chocolate was shared. More passion developing!
Chocolate was considered a beverage
for centuries, and predominantly for men. It became recognized as
a drink for children in the seventeenth century. During this period
chocolate was much experimented with and had many different additions:
milk, wine, beer, sweeteners, and spices. Drinking chocolate was
considered a very fashionable social event. Social passion?
By 1795, Dr. Joseph Fry of Bristol, England, employed a steam engine
for grinding cocoa beans,
an invention that led to the manufacture of chocolate on a large
scale. The passion was building again (but only for the well to-do)!
By 1810, Venezuela was producing
half the world's requirements for cocoa with one-third of all the
cocoa produced in the world being consumed by, no not the English,
but by the Spanish. Our passion was yet to be fully explored!
The invention of the cocoa press
in 1828 by a Dutch chocolate master, C.J. Van Houten, helped to
reduce the price of chocolate and bring it to the masses.
Around 1847, Fry & Sons sold
a "Chocolat Delicieux a Manger", which is thought
to be the first chocolate bar for eating. The Cadbury Brothers launched
their own eating chocolate in 1849 at an exhibition in Bingley Hall
at Birmingham.
Daniel Peter of Vevey, Switzerland,
is said to have experimented for eight years before finally inventing
a means of making milk chocolate for eating in 1876. On achieving
this goal, he brought his magnificent (and passionate) creation
to a Swiss firm that today is the world's largest producer of chocolate:
Nestle.
Another Swiss national: Rodolphe
Lindt of Berne produced chocolate that melted on the tongue in 1879.
He had invented "conching," a means of heating and rolling
chocolate to refine it.
Yet another Swiss national: Jules
Sechaud of Montreux, introduced a process for manufacturing filled
chocolates in 1913.
Rolling
on another 90 years or so, chocolate is still a major passion for
millions of chocoholics around the world today. The invention of
the Chocolate Fountain in the latter part of the 20th Century in
America has revolutionized the concept and sheer indulgence as well
as decadence of consuming chocolate. Child-hood fantasies stemming
from such books as Dahl’s “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate
Factory” have now become a reality – not just for
children but for adults too!
Dipping
fruit or confectionary items into a flowing, wall of chocolate is
sheer fantasy and ‘heaven’ to many, many people.
This is passion at it’s highest.This is OUR speciality.
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