History of Chocolate ...
Christopher Columbus is believed to be the first European to discover chocolate . When Columbus returned to Spain in 1502 from his fourth voyage to the New World , he introduced many treasures to the court of King Ferdinand . Among them were cocoa beans , almond-shaped seeds from the cacao tree that are the source of all the chocolate and cocoa products we enjoy today .
Mass production of chocolate began when the steam engine , invented by James Watt in 1770 , mechanized the cocoa bean grinding process , thereby replacing the timeconsuming hand method of manufacture . In the middle of the 19th century , two significant developments revolutionized the chocolate industry . In 1847 , an English company introduced solid " eating " chocolate . Now the public could enjoy chocolate eaten out of the hand as well as in the form of a drink . Three decades later , at Switzerland , Daniel Peter found that milk could be added to chocolate to make a new product , appropriately named milk chocolate .
Since that time , chocolate has been manufactured in solid bar ..
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