History of 1500-400 BC 900 - 250 BC 1200 - 1500 First recorded use of cacao The Ancient Maya of and made chocolate into a spicy The used cacao for trade and the bean - Olmec Indians, Mexico. (cacao paste mixed with chili peppers, and other ingredients) used in ceremonies. cacao seeds as a form of money.

1500 BC AD 0 1200 1300

1519 1671 1753 Spanish , Hernán Cortés, arrives in Central America. He are invented when an accident The cocoa tree was given an official latin botanical name sees Moctezuma II, Emperor, drinking ‘Xocalatl,’ the earliest occurs that combined pecans, chocolate from Linnaeus: cacao. The name refers to the known and realises its great value. and burnt . mythical background of the tree and means literally: “cocoa, of the gods”.

1400 1500 1600 1700

1502 1528 1540 1657 is the first European explorer to Hernán Cortés establishes a When the Spanish brought The first chocolate house was opened in London. Cacao was an expensive come into contact with cacao in . cacao plantation for trading. cacao home, they added import only those with money could afford. In France, chocolate could be He takes the beans back to and other drunk only by the royal family! with him along with to the bitter brew and began the chocolate drink recipe. sweetening it with sugar.

1830 1861 1875 1941-45 ‘Eating Chocolate’, the first Introduction of the first years of experimentation, The American military decided to include three real, moulded chocolate , mass marketed boxes of from puts chocolate bars, in a soldier’s “D-Ration,” to is produced by J.S Fry and by the the first chocolate on the market. sustain and nourish the men. The chocolate is Sons of England. brothers, England. still a standard issue in the military. 1800 1900

1765 1789 1894 Chocolate was introduced to the United During the , the Milton S. Hershey built a chocolate States when Irish chocolate maker John steam engine was invented, which factory and started to produce milk Hanan and Dr. James Baker built the made it possible to grind cacao and chocolate using modern, mass-production first American chocolate mill. produce large amounts of chocolate techniques that made the product more cheaply and quickly. affordable to all.