History of Chocolate

Chocolate was introduced to Europe in 1519, when Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés conquered Tenochtitlan. He brought cacao beans back to Spain and started a plantation, with the intention of using the cacao beans as currency.

Hernán Cortés did not enjoy the Xocolatl drink himself, but he discovered that adding sugar to the drink made it taste very pleasant. This trend soon spread throughout Spain, and became a widely consumed delicacy.

When Spanish Princess Maria Theresa married the French Prince Louis XIV, she brought chocolate to him as a gift of their nuptials. It became very popular among the royals, and eventually throughout all of France. It then reached England, when a Frenchman opened a chocolate shop in 1657 called 'The Coffee Mill and Tobacco Roll' in London, introducing it to the British.

Dutch chemist Coenraad Johannes van Houten invented the 'cocoa press'; a machine that ground the beans up and extracted the natural fats (the cocoa butter) from the paste. It left behind a fine dark powder (cocoa powder). Houten then discovered that mixing the fine powder with milk produced a smoother chocolate drink than previous methods had.

Joseph Fry discovered that combining the cocoa powder and the cocoa butter with a few other ingredients created a mixture that he found could be moulded and solidified.

Swiss chocolatier Daniel Peter added powdered milk to his chocolate, inventing the first 'milk chocolate' bars.

The first chocolate factory in Australia was built by Cadbury and Fry in 1919, however it wasn't until 1922 that the company made itself at home in Australia. The company combined with Pascall; an Australian and New Zealander confectionary company to mass produce chocolate within Australia. They operated out of Claremont, Tasmania, choosing the location based on it's proximity to Hobart, where there was a good supply of fresh milk and an inexpensive hydro-electricity supply.

Chocolate is a commonly consumed confection in Australia. The average Australian consumes about 32kg of chocolate per year. It can be found in pretty much every supermarket in the country and in a vast range.