Chocolate timeline

This Timeline is from a book called :CHOCOLATE The Nature of indulgence; in the Mill Valley Public Library,by Ruth Lopez.

A.D.600 The Maya establish the earliest known cocoa plantation in the Yucatan.

1200 Aztecs begin their rule Mexico, demanding tributes of cocoa,among other products, from conquered territories.

1502 On his fourth voyage to America, Columbus captures a Maya trading canoe in Guanaja and finds in the cargo "almonds" that appear to be used as a currency. Columbus's son describes how,when beans were spilled, the Maya scrambled after them " as if their eyes had dropped out of their sockets"

1732 Fenchman Monsieur Dubuisson invents a table for grinding cocoa that is heated underneath to hasten the process.

1765 Walter Baker & Company opens the first chocolate mill in the United States.


1780 The first factory using machines to make chocolate is established in Barcelona.


1795 J.S. Fry & Sons in England grinds cocoa beans using steam power.


1819 Francois-Louis Cailler opens the first chocolate factory in Switzerland after studying in Italy.


1852 Domingo Ghirardelli, an Italian immigrant, opens a chocolate factory in San Francisco.


1868 Etienne Guittard establishes a chocolate business in San Francisco after studying in France.


1875 Swiss inventor Daniel Peter creates milk chocolate using Henri Nestle's condensed milk product.


1879 Rodolphe Lindt of Switzerland invents conching, a process that creates a smoother-eating chocolate and
revolutionizes chocolate making. The process is still used today.


1894 Pennsylvania candymaker Milton Hershey establishes a chocolate company to coat his caramels; he also creates
the first Hershey bars.


1996 Sharffen Berger Chocolate Maker, founded in Berkeley, Califonia, offers its first products for cooks, including a
bittersweet chocolate with 70 percent cocoa.


1998 Lindt & Spruengli acquires Ghirardelli Chocolate Company, combining three venerable chocolate firms dating back
to the nineteenth century