An age-old obsession 3

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* Prince Albert's Exposition in 1851 in London was the first time the United States was introduced to bonbons, chocolate creams, hand candies (called "boiled sweets"), and caramels.

* An 1891 publication on The Chocolate-Plant by Walter Baker a Co.

records that, "At the discovery of America, the natives of the narrower portion of the continent bordering on the Caribbean Sea were found in possession of two luxuries which have been everywhere recognized as worthy of extensive cultivation; namely, tobacco and chocolate."

* Chocolate was introduced to the United States in 1765 when John Hanan brought cocoa beans from the West Indies into Dorchester, Massachusetts, to refine them with the help of Dr. James Baker. The first chocolate factory in the country was established there.

* Yet, chocolate wasn't really accepted by the American colonists until fishermen from Gloucester, Massachusetts, accepted cocoa beans as payment for cargo in tropical America.

* Where chocolate was mostly considered a beverage for centuries, and predominantly for men, it became recognized as an appropriate drink for children in the seventeenth century. It had many different additions: milk, wine, beer, sweeteners, and spices. Drinking chocolate was considered a very fashionable social event.

* Eating chocolate was introduced in 1674 in the form of rolls and cakes, served in the various chocolate emporiums.

* In 1747 Frederick the Great issued an edict forbidding the hawking of chocolate.

* By 1795, Dr. Joseph Fry of Bristol, England, employed a steam engine for grinding cocoa beans, an invention that led to the manufacture of chocolate on a large scale. Around 1847, Fry & Sons sold a "Chocolat Delicieux a Manger," which is thought to be the first chocolate bar for eating. * Nestle (The History of Chocolate and Cocoa, p. 3) declares that from 1800 to the present day, these four factors contributed to chocolate's "coming of age" as a worldwide food product: The introduction of cocoa powder in 1828; The reduction of excise duties; Improvements in transportation facilities, from plantation to factory;

The invention of eating chocolate, and improvements in manufacturing methods.

Submitted By CHARLENE DEERING On 03-13-95

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