Chocolate: Food product made from cocoa beans, consumed as
candy and used to make beverages and as a flavouring
ingredient or coating for various confections and bakery
products. Rich in carbohydrates, it is an excellent source
of quick energy and also contains minute amounts of the
stimulating alkaloids theobromine and caffeine. At the court
of Montezuma, the Aztec ruler of Mexico, in 1519, Hernán
Cortés was served xocoatl, a bitter cocoa-bean drink, which
he introduced to Spain. Sweetened, flavoured with cinnamon
and vanilla, and served hot, the beverage remained a Spanish
secret for almost a hundred years before its introduction to
France. In 1657 a Frenchman opened a shop in London, at
which solid chocolate for making the beverage could be
purchased at 10 to 15 shillings a pound. At this price only
the wealthy could afford to drink it, and there appeared in
London, Amsterdam, and other European capitals fashionable
chocolate houses, some of which later developed into famous
clubs. About 1700 the English improved chocolate by the
addition of milk. The reduction of the cost of the beverage
was hampered in Great Britain by the imposition of high
import duties on the raw cocoa bean, and it was not until
the mid-19th century, when the duty was lowered to a uniform
rate of 1 penny a pound, that chocolate became popular.
Chocolate manufacture started in the American colonies in
1765 at Dorchester, Mass., using beans brought in by New
England sea captains from their voyages to the West Indies.
James Baker financed the first mill, which was operated by
an Irish immigrant, John Hanan. Waterpower was used for
grinding the beans. Chocolate is made from the kernels of
fermented and roasted cocoa beans. The kernels are ground to
form a paste called chocolate liquor, which may be hardened
in molds to form baking (bitter) chocolate; pressed to
reduce the cocoa butter (vegetable fat) content and then
pulverized to make cocoa powder; or mixed with sugar and
additional cocoa butter to make sweet (eating) chocolate,
developed by the English firm of Fry and Sons in 1847.
Coating chocolate for use on candies and biscuits (cookies)
came into use soon afterward. The addition of concentrated
milk to sweet chocolate produces milk chocolate, introduced
by Daniel Peter of Switzerland in 1876.
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