insideKENT Magazine Issue 83 - February 2019 | Page 72

FOOD+DRINK
VIVE LA Chocolate Revolution!
CONT.
CHOCOLATE AND VALENTINE’S DAY
We all know that chocolate is lovely and
that it soothes pretty much all ills – or at
least, that’s what we tell ourselves – but why
has it become so completely linked with
Valentine’s Day?
Perhaps surprisingly, it’s a relatively new
idea. And, perhaps unsurprisingly, it all
started with a clever advertising campaign.
The name behind the ads is one that will be
known to everyone: Richard Cadbury, who
was the son of John Cadbury, founder of
Cadbury’s chocolate company.
Cadbury was able to produce sweet tasting
chocolates for a fraction of the price of
anyone else (mainly because his factory was
using the parts of the process for making
drinking chocolate that would otherwise be
thrown away). This meant that chocolate
became affordable for everyone, and could
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turn into a nice gift if you had a limited
budget and wanted to get your loved one
something they would definitely like.
Richard Cadbury decided to push these
cheap chocs out in February – just in time
for Valentine’s Day. He packaged them in
heart shaped boxes (the design for which he
came up with himself), added pretty ribbons,
flowers and images of cupid, and there it
was – the ideal gift for a husband, fiancé, or
lover to give to the one they adored. They
wouldn’t break the bank, the gift was eye-
catching and attractive, and the chocolates
inside were tasty.
It became something of a tradition.