A Chocolate Lover's Timeline

600 - The 'Xocoati'
Chocolate is born in pre-Colombian America. The first traces of the use of cocoa appear from the Mayan civilisation in the seventh century. The Mayans make a religious tonic drink out of cocoa beans which they would christen `chacau haa' or 'Xocoatl.'

1200 - The Tree of Paradise
After the crumbling of the Mayan empire, the Toltecs continue with the cultivation of cocoa under the name of tree of paradise. The beans become a unit of currency in the whole of Central America. The Aztecs also give great importance to cocoa, claiming it gives them their wisdom and strength.

1502 - Silver grows on trees
Christopher Columbus discovers chocolate, but it is the conquistadors who will be the first to be aware of the value of "the silver which grows on trees". In 1513,Hernando de Oviedo y Valdez reports that he has bought a slave for a hundred cocoa beans.

1519 - An amorous conquest
When the conquistador Hernan Cortes lands on the Tabasco coast in April 1519, the Emperor Moctezuma assumes he is the god king Quetzalcoatl whose return by sea is predicted in the legends. He welcomes him, accepts Spanish domination and gives him the cocoa plantations. And introduces him to chocolate, a bitter drink which he is convinced has aphrodisiac properties. Cortes is more seduced by the idea of "growing silver".

1528 - The paths of sweetness
Cortes goes back to Spain with cocoa beans and the equipment needed for preparing chocolate. The instructions are recorded in a chronicle from around 1530: "You take thirty kernels for a quart of water, grill them and grind finely. Then add a natural orange-red pigment and often spices are mixed in." But the conquering Spanish had introduced the cultivation of sugar cane to Mexico. The idea of adding sugar, and then vanilla, to the recipe of the pre Colombian people was going to allow chocolate to conquer the whole of Europe.

1606 - They found the bean
Although at first jealously guarded by the Grand Court of Spain, chocolate makes its way into the Spanish Netherlands (present day Belgium). The Italian merchant Anton Carletti succeeds in breaking the Spanish monopoly over the cultivation and trading of cocoa and introduces the precious bean into his country where the "ciccolattieri" very quickly master the art of preparing cocoa.

1615 - A marriage of head and heart
The young Spanish princess Anne of Austria takes her love of chocolate to the French court by marrying Louis XIII. Her example would be followed by Marie-Therese of Austria, wife of Louis XIV, who it's said had only two passions: the King and Chocolate. Versailles imposes on high society its taste for the divine beverage, which is drunk very thick and frothy.

1657 - A meeting place for high society
The first chocolate house opens in London. The high price of cocoa limits access to only the most affluent classes. But as prices fall, establishments of this type multiply and even replace cafes, tea rooms and pubs.

1671 - The origins of "praline"
The chef of the Duke of Plessis-Praslin accidently spills boiling melted sugar on ground almonds. Delighted by this, the Duke would give his name to the preparation. The praline is born: a mix based on almonds or shelled nuts, covered in caramel and then ground together. Later, it is Belgian chocolatiers who improve on the recipe by putting it in the centre of a bouchée coated in chocolate.

1674 - The first cooking chocolate
While chocolate is still only a drink throughout Europe, English confectioners have the idea of adding cocoa to their cake mix. Chocolate is eaten for the first time. Another novelty appears at the end of the 17th century, to be developed in France in the 18th century during the reign of Louis XV: the chocolate sweet. Chocolate pastilles and drops to take with you in pretty sweet tins.

1697 - From Brussels to Zurich
The future Belgium is already a reputed chocolate centre. It is on the Grand-Place in Brussels that the Mayor of Zurich discovers chocolate and decides to introduce it into Switzerland. An initiative which would have delicious consequences.

1704 - Prussia taxes chocolate
At the end of the 17th century, chocolate makes a very welcome entry to Germany. But with his policy of restricted imports, Frederic 1st of Prussia slaps a tax on chocolate.

1711 - The beautiful blue Danube chocolate
Emperor Charles VI transfers his court from Madrid to Vienna, bringing with him a love of chocolate to Austria.

1712 - Chocolate returns to America
At the turn of the 18th century, chocolate comes back to North America. In little more than a decade, we see the flowering of advertising in Boston for imported chocolate from Europe.

1746 - A cloud of milk in your chocolate
The establishments where one consumes chocolate in the form of a drink are still in fashion. Around 1720, the cafes of Venice and Florence are particularly renowned for the finesse of their preparation. But the big taste innovation is to come in England. In 1746, the first club of chocolate lovers is founded who have the idea of replacing water with milk.

1778 - The industrial revolution is underway
The Frenchman Doret invents a machine to crush the beans and mix and blend the chocolate paste. In 1780, an entrepreneur begins the mechanical production of chocolate in Bayonne. It is to the push of 19th century industrial inventions that we owe the present day qualities of good chocolate. They depend on three essential elements: the scrupulous cleaning of selected beans, the roasting, which develops the aroma of cocoa, and the fine grinding of the cocoa mix and sugar (and milk when milk chocolate is being produced).

1819 - Switzerland discovers gold in a bar
122 years after the Mayor of Zurich has discovered chocolate in Brussels, François Louis Cailler opens the first Swiss chocolate factory on the banks of Lake Leman. And there he produces the first bar of chocolate in history.

1847 - England converts the try
Brothers Francis and Joseph Fry adopt the Van Houten procedure and discover a way to combine the bitter mass of cocoa, sugar and cocoa butter to create a new taste sensation.

1879 - The secret of smoothness
Once launched, Switzerland continues to innovate. In 1875, Nestlé and Peter invent milk chocolate by adding powdered milk to the mixture of cocoa, sugar and cocoa butter. In 1879, Lindt perfects the technique of conching which refines chocolate, developing its aroma and giving it a final smoothness.

1926 - The Belgian "praline" from Godiva
It is in Belgium that the idea of a little chocolate shell filled with delicious creams, ganaches, marzipan and other pralines is born. In 1926, the Draps family opens a craftsman workshop in Brussels supplying the best establishments of the capital. Joseph Draps would develop his talents as a master chocolatier there as well as his vision for a top luxury brand for connaisseurs the world over.