“There is nothing better than a friend, unless it is a friend with chocolate.” – Charles Dickens

The history of chocolate is long and goes back to thousands of years. The first known use of chocolate was in 1900 BC, more than 3,500 years ago. Only at that time, it was not called chocolate.

The findings suggest that people knew how to make chocolate from the cacao seeds way back in 1700s BC. Ancient people used chocolate in their drinks.

The Mayans and the Aztecs may also have used cacao seeds in some important rituals. They made a drink with it and called it ‘chocolatl’. They considered the seeds so precious that they may have been used as currency for trade, while the drink made from it was considered food of gods. Only the rich Mayans enjoyed the drink.

In 1504 chocolate found its way into Europe when Christopher Columbus brought cocoa seeds back with him to Spain from his fourth journey to the Americas. He presented them as a treasure to King Ferdinand.

Two centuries later, an Englishman called Joseph Fry made the first solid chocolate. About 25 years after that, Henri Nestle made the first chocolate bar using condensed milk. And the rest, as they say, is history!

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – ‘Land of Candy’