An age-old obsession 2

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* Chocolate also appears to have been used as a medicinal remedy by leading physicians of the day. Christopher Ludwig Hoffmann's treatise Potus Chocolate recommends chocolate for many diseases, citing it as a cure for Cardinal Richelieu's ills.

* Chocolate traveled to the Low Countries with the Duke of Alba. By 1730, it had dropped in price from $3 per lb to being within the financial reach of those other than the very wealthy. The invention of the cocoa press in 1828 helped further to cut prices and improve the quality of chocolate by squeezing out some of the cocoa butter and giving the beverage a smoother consistency.

* With the Industrial Revolution came the mass production of chocolate, spreading its popularity among the citizenry.

* Discussing the introduction of coffee, tea, and cocoa into Europe, Isaac Disraeli (1791-1834) wrote in his six-volume Curiosities of Literature: "Chocolate the Spaniards brought from Mexico, where it was denominated chocolatl. It was a coarse mixture of ground cacao and Indian corn with roucou; but the Spaniards, liking its nourishment, improved it into a richer compound with sugar, vanilla and other aromatics. We had Chocolate houses in London long after coffee houses; they seemed to have associated something more elegant and refined in their new form when the other had become common." Submitted By CHARLENE DEERING On 03-13-95

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