Who Invented Chocolate
There is no one-person answer to the question of who invented chocolate. History shows that the Olmec Indians were growing cacao beans as early as 1500 B.C. The Aztecs and Mayans also grew cacao beans. It is believed that all three of these civilizations used cacao beans to make the first chocolate drinks.
It was 1500 when Columbus brought cocoa beans to Europe, but while chocolate drinks became popular in Spain, chocolate did not really spread to the rest of the European Continent until almost a hundred years later. London saw its very first chocolate shop in 1657. However, chocolate was so expensive that only the very wealthy could afford it.
Several discoveries and inventions were needed before the use of chocolate progressed to new levels. For instance, a French gentleman created the first table mill to grind chocolate in 1732. In England, Joseph Fry was the first to develop a steam engine to grind beans. Fry and Sons is also credited with inventing the chocolate bar, though they were quite primitive compared to today’s. In 1929, Conrad J. van Houten invented a hydraulic press for cocoa beans, and made cocoa powder for the first time. Fry and Sons eventually merged with Cadbury.
Milk chocolate lovers can thank Daniel Peters from Switzerland for inventing the first milk chocolate bar in 1875. He used powdered milk that had been created by Henri Nestle and Nestle soon bought the milk-chocolate-making business from Peters. Richard Cadbury can be credited with making the first heart-shaped Valentines Day box for chocolates. That was in 1861. It is said to have had a picture of his young daughter holding a kitten. Today, thirty-six million of these heart-shaped boxes of chocolates are sold every year in the United States alone on Valentine’s Day.
The question, “who invented chocolate chip cookies?” does have an easy answer. Ruth Wakefield invented chocolate chip cookies in 1937. Ruth and her husband, Kenneth, ran a bed and breakfast named the Toll House Inn that was located near Whitman, Massachusetts. Ruth was trying to make an all-chocolate butter cookie and she used a bar of semi-sweet chocolate that had been given to her by Andrew Nestle. Unexpectedly, the chocolate did not entirely melt into the dough and tiny chunks of chocolate remained.
However, the guests at the Toll House Inn like the cookies so much that Ruth Wakefield continued to make them. She named them Chocolate Crunch Cookies. She published her recipe in many newspapers and magazines, and the popularity of the cookie skyrocketed across the country. Wakefield also made a deal with Nestle that they could include the recipe on their semi-sweet bars as long as they supplied her with as many bars as she needed for the inn. Nestle introduced the Chocolate Morsels they sell today in 1939. Toll House chocolate chip cookies are still made near the original Toll House Inn property.