When Christopher Columbus discovered America, he didn’t only know that he had discovered a new continent but he either didn’t know, that he had created the assumption for the discovery of a ”chocolate world” . The history of chocolate began on 15th March 1519, when a conqueror Fernando Cortez landed on the Mexican coast. After Cortez got the possession of the great Aztecs´ empire, his soldiers found in the palace of the emperor Montezuma great stores of cocoa kernels. The emperor and his court used them for the preparation of a drink and griddle cakes called chocolati. The preparation of this precious food was following: they dried the beans in the sun, then they roasted them, removed the skin and crushed them between two stones. The arisen mixture was mixed together with vanilla and other spice and it was sweetened with honey. This thick drink was not as delightful as the cocoa we drink today. It was a very costly drink and only the elected could drink it. Also the beans – obtained from a cocoa tree – were very expensive and were also used as means of payment: for 10 beans you could get a very good dinner, and for 100 you cold buy a vigorous slave. (the cocoa tree originally grew only in the virgin forests in South America.)

This drink was made according to an Indian recipe, built up and recommended because of its stimulating effects by the American discoverers. But even though it didn’t find favour with the Europeans. First in the half of the 16^th century the women missionaries in Mexico devised a new recipe and started to add sugar in the cocoa mixture. And so a tasty and nourishing drink arose. It didn’t take long time and this drink spread in all aristocratic residences in Spain. It was a privilege of noble people who were ready to pay for it: e.g. in the half of the 17^th century one kg of cocoa beans cost ľ kg of gold… Consumers learned about the strong stimulating effects of this drink from the Indians. ”the consumers were also interested in its aphrodisiac effects: in the 18^th century French noblewomen and their lovers drank a great quantity of this drink.

The first chocolate factory, van Houten firm wasn’t established until 1815 in Holland. In 1828 the Dutchmen have the production of cocoa powder patented. They produced the powder from cocoa beans relieved of 2/3 of fat. And so a product called powder cocoa appeared on the market for the first time. Soon a use for the fat pressed from the cocoa beans was found – cocoa butter. The butter was mixed with powder sugar and so the first chocolate appeared.

Chocolate Amatller, Barcelon Centenario de la Case, 1900,
"chocolate" picture Alfonse Muchy
(from web page http://art.com/artgallery/)

The production of chocolate is fully mechanised today. Everything begins on the great cocoa plantations. It is also very interesting, that the fruits of a cocoa tree do not grow on the limbs, they row over the stem. Inside the fruit there are usually 15 – 40 beans. These are taken out and dried during their processing. The dried cocoa beans are roasted. Then they are cooled and crushed and the skin is removed with the help of air. Then the grinding follows, kernels change into thin mush, because the cocoa kernels contain a lot of cocoa butter. In the next processing this butter (of yellow colour) is segregated.. The remaining mixture is used for the production of cocoa powder. In a kneader the cocoa mixture is mixed with cocoa butter sugar and other ingredients. And so a chocolate substance arises. This is then enriched and aerated. Here comes the right moment when the chocolate mixture can be turned into chocolate candy. First the mixture is warmed up to a suitable temperature, then it comes to a shaping line with moulds. A machine pours chocolate into them, the moulds are then turned over and the chocolate which didn’t harden runs out. Then it is turned up again and each candle is filled with stuffing. In the end the moulds are ”closed” with chocolate. White chocolate is made from pour cocoa butter, sugar and other ingredients.

Everything seems to be very simple and well-known. But the quality of chocolate mainly depends on a detailed recipe. These detailed recipes make chocolate of different brands and therefore they are concealed so severely.

Our largest chocolate factory is Orion. It was established in 1896 by Frantisek Marsner, who used to produce Turkish Delight in Prague – Vinohrady. He achieved great succes and it didn´t take long and Orion became the best known chocolate factory in Bohemia.

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