It is traditional knowledge that already the Mayas, about 600 AD, planted cocoa and cultivated huge plantations. They brewed a nourishing drink from the cocoa beans called “Xocolatl” which is probably where the name chocolate comes from. The bean from the cocoa tree was so highly-valued by the Mayas that it was even used as a way of payment.
Spanish explorers brought the cocoa bean to Europe in the 16th century. Ground up and mixed with spices, the noble bean found great approval as an exotic and bitter drink, first in the Spanish and later also in the French court. Almost immediately the brew was adopted by aristocrats all over Europe as a fashionable drink.
With the decline of the aristocracy in the 19th century drinking chocolate also lost ground to coffee and tea. Instead, firm chocolate gained in popularity and it first emerged in Italy, where “cioccolatieri” working as a type of travelling salesman, offered the brown mass for sale at markets and fairs.
Francois-Luis Cailler learnt the art of the “cioccolatieri” in Italy, returned to Switzerland and in 1819 was the first to manufacture chocolate in Switzerland. Further pioneers followed Cailler, among them names such as Phillipe Suchard, Rudolf Sprüngli, Aquilino Maestrani, Johann Georg Munz, Rodolphe Lindt, Jean Tobler, Henri Nestlé, Robert and Max Frey, names which are still familiar today. It is astonishing that it was the Swiss who were so successful with their chocolate, although the raw materials such as cocoa and sugar were expensive and imported from abroad. However they succeeded in being the best thanks to their striving for quality. This is still the most successful recipe today.
Spanish explorers brought the cocoa bean to Europe in the 16th century. Ground up and mixed with spices, the noble bean found great approval as an exotic and bitter drink, first in the Spanish and later also in the French court. Almost immediately the brew was adopted by aristocrats all over Europe as a fashionable drink.
With the decline of the aristocracy in the 19th century drinking chocolate also lost ground to coffee and tea. Instead, firm chocolate gained in popularity and it first emerged in Italy, where “cioccolatieri” working as a type of travelling salesman, offered the brown mass for sale at markets and fairs.
Francois-Luis Cailler learnt the art of the “cioccolatieri” in Italy, returned to Switzerland and in 1819 was the first to manufacture chocolate in Switzerland. Further pioneers followed Cailler, among them names such as Phillipe Suchard, Rudolf Sprüngli, Aquilino Maestrani, Johann Georg Munz, Rodolphe Lindt, Jean Tobler, Henri Nestlé, Robert and Max Frey, names which are still familiar today. It is astonishing that it was the Swiss who were so successful with their chocolate, although the raw materials such as cocoa and sugar were expensive and imported from abroad. However they succeeded in being the best thanks to their striving for quality. This is still the most successful recipe today.
