Cioccostory

The dates that have made the history of chocolate

400 circa
In Northern Mexico, in the Yucatan peninsula, the Mayans begin cultivating cocoa. This is the date of the first certain example of the usage of the plant in a burial rite.

1502
The first meeting of western civilization with cocoa: Christopher Columbus lands on the isle of Guanaja in Honduras and receives cocoa pods as a gift.

1528
The Spanish conqueror Hernán Cortés, after having conquered the Aztec Empire, brings cocoa beans and the first utensils for processing chocolate to King Charles V in Europe.

1678
Madame Reale, the queen of the Savoy State founded in 1563 by Emanuele Filiberto, grants the first “license” to Turinese chocolate maker Giò Antonio Ari: our chocolate has more than three centuries of history behind it. During the 1700’s, thanks to the Savoys and their connections with the Madrid Court, Turin becomes the chocolate capital of the world.

1737
The Swedish naturalist Carl von Linné (known as Linneus), classifies the cocoa tree as Theobroma cacao, or "food of the gods", for the first time in his text entitled Genera plantarum.

1819
François-Louis Cailler opens, in Corsier presso Vevey, one of the first mechanized chocolate factories, from which the firm known as Nestlé was born.

1825
The chocolate maker of Amsterdam, Coenrad Van Houten perfects the process that allows the isolation of cocoa butter from cocoa paste.

1826
In Serriers, in Switzerland, Philippe Suchard opens a chocolate factory based on the first shop opened the year before in Neuchâtel.

1865
In Turin, the son of Paolo Caffarelli (who had Italianized his surname) Isidore Caffarel, with his partner Michele Prochet, launch their chocolate made of hazelnuts and cocoa (then with no milk) with the name of Gianduiotto, in honour of the Carnival mask called Gianduja.

1875
Milk chocolate is invented in Switzerland by Daniel Peter, who uses powdered condensed milk made by Henri Nestlé.

1879
In Bern, Switzerland, Rudolphe Lindt perfects the recipe for dark chocolate through a technique called “conchieren” in German, or conching.

1920
Frank Mars, with his son Forrest, invents his own chocolate bar.

1922
The Bacio Perugina is born. It was an idea of Luisa Spagnoli, who in her shop in Perugia, mixed hazelnut grains with chocolate to create a new chocolate called "cazzotto"- or “punch”- because of its fist-like shape. But it was Giovanni Buitono, another of the firm’s founders, to change the name to Bacio (Kiss).

1956
Mon Chéry is born, the first boero produced industrially by Ferrero: it is a liqueur-filled praline with a cherry inside.

1964
On April 20, the first jar of Nutella was made in a factory in Alba (CN).

1968
Ferrero launches the Kinder trademark, then used again for the Ovetti (Little Eggs) in 1974: a chocolate bar with milk filling.

1982
Ferrero produces the first industrial chocolate called Rocher: today it is still the best-selling chocolate in the world.

Photo: Jéan-Etienne Liotard, La Bella Cioccolatiera, 1745 - Gemädegerie, Dresda (courtesy of the Touring Club and La Madia Travel)

CioccolaTÒ 2008

Cioccostory

The dates that have made the history of chocolate

The Giangioiello

The 2008 Golden Bar Award

Chocolate dinner amidst the stars

Out to discover true cru, accompanied by François Pralus and Andrea Trinci