Here Is Some Interesting Information About Who Invented Chocolate

Chocolate is one the most highly regarded flavors in the country. It was actually found to be used about 3,100 years ago by the Aztecs and Mayans. The cacao (or cocoa) beans were first used to make a beverage. It was touted to be a special tasting drink that became interesting to those outside of South America. Spaniards who conquered the Aztecs became smitten by the drink.

This was not the cocoa beverage as is known now but was made from fermented pulp and grown cacao seeds along with spices. It has been considered that the Olmec Indians were the ones who invented chocolate. There is the possibility cacao may have been first used a couple of centuries sooner.

It was in the early 1500's that Christoper Columbus first brought cacao beans to Europe. Spain was the first to develop the beans into a drink. About 100 years later cacao was welcomed to other places in Europe. It was in the mid 1600's that the French started using the cacao beans in coffee shops. The resulting beverage was considered to be for the elite. Shortly afterwards chocolate was found to be a tasteful ingredient in cakes and rolls. In 1732 it was french man, Monsieur Dubuisson, who invented chocolate grinding with a mill.

The first chocolate bar was made by Joseph Fry and his team of Fry and Sons in England. Fry invented a steam operated cacao bean grinder in the 1800's. Eventually Fry and Sons merged with Cadbury. It was a Dutchman by the name of Conrad J. Van Houten who invented "dutching" which was making cocoa powder by the use of a hydraulic press he has created. Cadbury went on to create the first Valentine candy box in 1861. In 1875 the first chocolate bar, made of milk chocolate, was invented by Switzerland's Daniel Peters. He can get credit as the person who invented chocolate candy.

Toll house chocolate chip cookies were invented by Ruth Wakefield. She was making cookies and didn't have the right kind of chocolate, so she used pieces of a semi-sweet chocolate bar. It didn't melt the same so the result was chocolate chip cookies. As the person who invented chocolate chip cookies, she received a lifetime supply of chocolate.

It was the Nestle company that began chocolate chip production. Hersheys has been around for many years and the popular Hershey's kiss was created in 1907. The chocolate candy created in the 1800's would not meet the taste standards of which most people are accustomed these days. Today chocolate is used in a variety of forms from chocolate milk to candy to shavings from solid chocolate to garnish fancy desserts.