Historical facts about chocolate
Traditionally, Belgium and Switzerland are considered the most “chocolate” countries in Europe. For a long time in Europe, chocolate was considered a medical remedy, a mysterious overseas medicine, because it was tasteless. Only in the 17th century, it gradually began to be perceived as an expensive and refined drink of the nobility. This became possible thanks to the addition of new components, first of all sugar, and later milk.
Drinking chocolate began at the Spanish royal court, then in London, and then throughout Europe. The 19th century became revolutionary in the production of chocolate. In 1828, the engineer Konrad van Houten invented and patented a hydraulic press, which was used to extract oil from cocoa beans. In 1879, after eight years of experiments, the Swiss Daniel Peter first released solid milk chocolate on the market. In the same year, the inventor Rudolph Lindt from Bern, having made an original device, started producing chocolate fondat that melted in the mouth. This chocolate was so successful that twenty years later the Zurich confectioner Rudolf Sprüngli bought Lindt’s invention for 1.5 million francs, which could have bought 435 kilograms of gold.