hiya bucks in Bourne End, Flackwell Heath, Marlow, Wycombe, Wooburn March 2018 | Page 41

making a finer, smoother, chocolate and were able to extract the cocoa butter to add to the ground beans along with sugar! It was still pretty gritty and bitter! a recommendation of adding cinnamon and sweeteners to make it more palatable. It then spread across Europe with Samuel Pepys commenting in 1661 that it was a great hangover cure! It was still only seen as a drink and it was not until much later that cocoa butter and solid chocolate was invented. In the UK chocolate was causing quite a stir in the 19th century. A chap called John Cadbury opened a Grocers store in Bull Street, Birmingham in 1824. He was soon selling a wide range of cocoa powder and drinking chocolate. However, it was the company Fry’s of Bristol who produced the first chocolate bar. They had created a watermill which ground the beans Something then happened in Switzerland in 1875 that changed chocolate again. Daniel Peter, with the help of baby food manufacturer Henri Nestle, added powdered milk to chocolate to make the first milk chocolate. So now you’ve had an insight into where your chocolate comes from, how it’s made and the history behind it. I’m sure the next square you eat will taste even better than usual! Chocolate is one of the only foods to melt at body temperature releasing intense flavour at it warms up, so take your time, savour the flavour and enjoy! Dave Howe Team Manager Customer Service (read David’s full article about chocolate at www.hiyabucks.com) hiyabucks.com | 41