A comprehensive timeline of chocolate history – from the Ancient Maya in 1500 BC to the introduction of popular brands of chocolate we all know today and all the way to 2024.
The history of chocolate has always fastinated me. From how it was first cultivated in Central America as a bitter hot chocolate drink and then brought over to Europe and gradually developed into a chocolate bar for eating, pralines, truffles and other delicious chocolate treats.
As you will see the history of chocolate timeline starts a very long time ago, but the recent history is also fascinating, since it’s only about 90 years since chocolatiers developed white chocolate bar!
1500 BC – Early history of cocoa in Central America
1,500 BC: The people of Central America begin to drink chocolate and are considered to be the first who invented chocolate. The cacao tree may have been cultivated earlier than people first thought.
Linguistic links to the words cacao and chocolate can be traced back to the Olmec peoples which pre-dates Maya and Atzec civilisation by several hundred years. Cocoa beans are full of interesting facts and the cacao tree is a very special plant that needs specific climate and environment to prosper.
900 AD: Maya Civilisation: Pottery cups found in the tombs of Maya nobility contain symbols for cacoa and images for its preparation.
1500s: Since cocoa beans are difficult to harvest, the Aztecs drink chocolate rather than eat it. The drink was made by mixing the roasted, ground cacao beans with water, flavouring it with herbs or spices (chilli was common) and then stimulating the mixture until foamy by pouring it from one vessel to another. The drink is bitter tasting and not sweet in any way. In this form, the drinking chocolate, consisting of pure cocoa was very healthy and full of nutrients.
1492 Columbus discovers America and whislt he brings back cocoa beans to Europe, at the time nobody realises the importance of this new food.
1500s – Cocoa is brought to Europe
1528: The Spanish conquestors led by Hernan Cortez bring chocolate or rather cocoa bean back to mainland Spain. The Spanish find chocolate too dark and bitter and start to add cane sugar to chocolate. They also infuse chocolate with vanilla and other lighter spices, such as nutmeg, cloves, allspice and cinnamon to give the finished chocolate a sweeter taste.
1540s: An Aztec document containing a list of price equivalents designated the value of a tomato as one cacao bean, while an avocado was worth three, and a “good turkey hen” was worth 100 “full” or 120 “shrunken” cacao beans. Since there is only about 60 cocoa beans in one cocoa pod, this was a great amount of currency.
1569 – the new chocolate drink got a seal of approval from Pop Pius V, who proposed that people can drink chocolate on Fridays (and during Easter Lent) and it won’t break the fast, which was a normal thing to do at the time. This possibly happened because the Pope didn’t like chocolate and didn’t care if people consumed it or not.
1585 – the first ship with cocoa beans intended for sale arives in Spain
1600s: Chocolate drinking spreads to other parts of Europe.
1609: The first ever book dedicated to chocolate is published in Mexico and it’s called ‘ Libro an el cual se trata del chocolate’
1643: chocolate makes it to France as Spanish Princes Maria Theresa gives her new husband Louise XIV of France a beautifully carved wooden chest full of cocoa beans and chocolate becomes very popular during his long reign as a king.
1657: A chocolate house opens in England by a Frenchman where you can buy a drink of chocolate. Diarist Samuel Pepys makes regular mention of visiting chocolate drinking houses.
1662: as chocolate becomes more popular the Pope decides that whilst drinking chocolate is fine, eating chocolate during a fast is not. This is where the tradition of giving up chocolate for Lent comes in and even today lot of people don’t eat chocolate 40 days before Easter.
1674: chocolate is used for the first time as an ingredient to bake a cake and rolls by a London coffee house called ‘At the Coffee Mill and Tabacco Roll’
1704: chocolate is starting to be imported to Germany, but the king insists on taxing this new fancy food
1711: chocolates makes it to Vienna as the Spanish king moves his royal court from Madrid to Viennna
1753: Scientific Classification. The Swedish biologist, Carolus Linnaeus gives the botanical name Theobroma cacao to the chocolate tree. Theobroma, in Latin, means “food of the gods,” while cacao refers to the native word for the plant. The cocoa tree grows around the equator, where the most important cocoa beans producing countries are based.
End of 18th centrury – The first larger scale cocoa manufacturing
1765 The first chocolate factory in America opens. Using an old grist mill, Dr Baker and Mr Hannon ground cacao beans into chocolate liquor and pressed the paste into cakes meant to be made into drinking chocolate. After Hannon was lost at sea on a cacao buying expedition, Baker’s family continued production until the firm was bought out by General Foods in 1927.
1780: the first ever machine made chocolate is created in Spain (Barcelona)
1792: the first chocolate factory opens in Berlin, Germany
1795 Steam engines are used to grind cocoa beans making chocolate cheaper, as part of the Industrial Revolution and James Wyatt’s invention of the steam engine in 1765.
1800: the first industrial chocolate factory is built by Antoine Brutus Menier
1828 The Invention of Dutch Cocoa. Inventions are made that will result in chocolate becoming a commodity to be eaten as well as drunk. Coenraad Van Houten develops a process for making chocolate powder by using hydraulic pressure to remove almost half of the cocoa butter from chocolate liquor.
1847 The first chocolate bar from the list of many British chocolate bars is made by Quaker Joseph Fry.
1849: the world first ever chocolate exhibition was put together by Cadburry’s in Bingley Hall in Birmingham (England)
1853: the import taxes on cocoa beans are reduced in England, which means that the price can come down and drinking chocolate can be enjoyed by more people
1854 Cadburys receives a Royal Warrant to be the sole purveyor of cocoa and chocolate to Queen Victoria. In 1866, Cadbury’s sons, Richard and George, who had taken over the business, purchased a Van Houten machine for the factory and began to market their own cocoa powder.
1868: Cadbury markets the first box of chocolate candies in 1868; decorated and packaged in a sentimental Victorian style.
End of 19th century – Milk chocolate is invented
1875: Milk chocolate is invented by Henri Nestle, initially from a formula meant for babies for sweetened condensed milk .
1879: Rodolphe Lindt (Switzerland) invents the conching machine which makes chocolate smooth and starts making chocolate fondant. It also means that chocolate can be better tempered.
1890’s: American Milton Hersey starts production coating his original caramel and candies with chocolate. He goes on to create more iconic American chocolate candy bars with different flavours such as Cookie & Cream, White Chocolate and others.
1899: Queen Victoria sends every one of her soldiers fighting in the Boer War a chocolate bar
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1900: Switzerland takes over Spain in the terms of chocolate consumption – a record that’s been holding for most of the next 125 years. At the time Germany is on the top of yearly consumption per person followed by USA, France and then Enland.
1905: Dairy Milk is introduced
1908: Toblerone goes on sale developed by Jean Tobler, in its famous triangular shape after the Swiss Mountains where he lived.
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1910: Walnut Whip goes on sale
1913: Swiss chocolatier, Jules Sechaud develops the filled chocolate bonbon.
1915 Milk Tray goes on sale
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1930s The golden age of chocolate bars production
1920 Flake goes on sale
1921 Fruit and Nut goes on sale
1923 Milky Way goes on sale in the USA
1925: cocoa trading becomes to important, that New York (USA) establishes a separate Cocoa Exchange as part of their World Trade Centre
1926: Belgian Godiva Chocolatier first goes on sale and becomes of the most recognisable Belgian chocolate brands in the world
1929 Crunchie goes on sale
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1930’s: Ruth Wakefield invents chocolate chip cookies after running out of baking chocolate. Originally, the chopped up improvised Nestle chocolate bar was supposed to blend into the mixture, rather than standing out and being visible.
1930 Snickers and Freddo go on sale
1932 Mars Bar goes on sale. So does Terry’s Chocolate Orange and All Gold.
1933 Whole Nut goes on sale. So does Black Magic.
1935 Aero and Kit Kat are introduced
19030s – White chocolate is invented
1936 Nestle are the first chocolate company in the world to produce white chocolate bar, by excluding the cocoa mass from the chocolate coverture and increasing the amount of milk powder and sugar. It’s called ‘Galak’ and it’s still sold by the Nestle company to this day.
1936 Maltesers and Blue Riband go on sale. Dairy Box and Quality Street also go on sale.
1937 Smarties, Rolo and Milky Bar go on sale
1938 Cadbury’s Roses go on sale.
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1941-1945: US military servicemen issued with three, four-ounce chocolate bars, containing around 600 calories per bar.
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1953: End of chocolate rationing in the UK – a full eight years after the end of the 2nd World War.
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1960: Galaxy goes on sale
1962: Topic goes on sale. After Eight goes on sale.
1963: Toffee Crisp goes on sale
1967: Twix goes on sale
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1971: Yorkie, Double Decker and Lion Bar go on sale
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1983: Wispa goes on sale
1980s onwards: Valrhona introduces the concept of the single origin chocolate bar, making their first with beans exclusively from South America. The 70% cacao bar is named Guanaja in honor of the island of Guanaja, off Honduras, where Christopher Columbus first tasted chocolate almost 500 years earlier. They call it a Grand Cru chocolate
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2000 – Chocolate in the new milenium
2000: The Ivory Coast in West Africa becomes the world’s largest producer of cacao beans’ mostly harvested from smallholdings.
2014-19 the 4th type of chocolate – the brand new ruby chocolate is developed by Callebaut.
2017: The average Briton ate 11.2kg (24.7lb) of chocolate – the equivalent of munching through 266 Mars bars. This accounted for almost a third of the European market. In total, its estimated that the UK consumed 661million kg of cocoa-based products per year.
2024: The consumer taste is changing slightly and there is a trend of artisan chocolates made with less sugar, single origin chocolates and dark chocolates. The consumption of chocolates accross the first 10-15 countries has also changed with England coming down the table (which is not a bad thing!).
Switzeland is still taking the world first place with each person eating just under 9 kg of chocolate per year. The next place takes Austria and Germany with 8 kg per person and then Ireland, United Kingdom with around 7 kg of chocolate per person.
Whatever the future holds for chocolate one thing is certain; the chocolate timeline is sure to hold yet more fascinating cocoa facts as the new milenium carries on.
This blog post was originally written on 1 January 2018 and last updated on 6 March 2024
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