Tom Browne‘s advertisement postcard for Fry's chocolate, 1912 – Public Domain
The origins of cacao date back to ancient Mesoamerica – but chocolate in the form we now know it has a much shorter history.
Cacao – the raw form of the cocoa bean – has been found in artifacts dating as far back as 3600 BC. Its first known specific use is by the Olmecs in Mesoamerica (what is now Mexico and Central America) in 1800 BC, when it was ground with chilies to create an astringent drink, similar to black coffee.
In the 8th century AD, Mayans and Aztecs used cocoa beans as a form of currency – the beans were considered more valuable than gold, and archaeologists have even found counterfeit beans made of clay!
Fast forward to the 1500s, when cocoa was introduced to Europe by way of Spain. The story of who was responsible, however, is hotly contested. Some claim it was Christopher Columbus who discovered it on a trade route in 1502, while others claim conquistador Hernan Cortes brought it back from Montezuma's court, while a third story gives credit to Spanish friars for bringing cocoa beans from the Mayans as a gift to the Spanish court.
By the late 1500s, Spain was importing cocoa beans, and by the 1600s the rest of Europe caught on. In the 1700s, chocolate houses – much like coffee shops – popped up in fashionable cities across Europe and became popular meeting spots for the upper classes. Europeans updated the traditional drink recipe by adding other things like cane sugar and cinnamon. Marie Antoinette famously brought a hot chocolate-maker to court with her when she married King Louis XVI.
In 1659, chocolate was first made into a confection by a Parisian confectionary house. In 1776, Frenchman Doret invented a hydraulic press to grind cocoa beans to paste, launching the mass production of chocolate confections. In 1828, Dutch chemist Coenraad van Houten invents a way to separate cocoa powder from cocoa butter using alkaline salts – now known as “Dutch processed” cocoa – making it easier to mass produce chocolate.
However, chocolate confections were almost exclusively available to the courts and high society, until in 1847 when London-based Fry & Sons set up shop selling the first chocolate bars available to the general public.
In the 1870s, Swiss chocolatier Daniel Peter employed powdered milk developed by his neighbor, Henri Nestlé, to create the first milk chocolate bar. The two entrepreneurs eventually formed the Nestlé Company. In 1879, Swiss chocolatier Rodolphe Lindt invented the conching machine - still in use today, conching machines employ large rollers to mix and aerate chocolate - leading to the mass production of silky-smooth milk chocolate bars... and the rest is history!
Sources: The History Channel, National Geographic, Tufts University European Center, World Agroforestry Centre