Who invented chocolate?

The invention of chocolate as we know it today is a truly global tale. Many nations claim the credit for this delicious creation enjoyed all over the world. Switzerland certainly deserves it for making chocolate so irresistibly melt-in-the-mouth!

Chocolate

The Aztecs were already drinking “xocolatl” 3,000 years ago. However, the cocoa drink of those days had little in common with the chocolate we know and love today. It was bitter and spiced with chilli powder, honey or rose water, among other things. After the discovery of America, the foamy drink finally found its way into the royal cups of Europe via the Spanish court.

Credit for making cocoa not only edible, but also accessible to all, goes to the Dutchman Coenraad Johannes van Houten. In 1828, he invented the cocoa press that allowed the cocoa powder and cocoa butter to be separated and then processed into a solid mass.

The chocolate bar had been invented! Now, it could be consumed anywhere although it was still very gritty and not yet all that tasty. It still needed refinement – and this is where Switzerland demonstrated its chocolate expertise right from the beginning!

Daniel Peter from Moudon, the son-in-law of François-Louis Cailler, managed for the first time to combine condensed milk with the cocoa mass, making future generations of milk chocolate lovers happy :)


With its coarse structure, however, chocolate was anything but melt-in-the-mouth in those days. A few years later, Rudolf Lindt reduced the liquid in the cocoa mixture by continuous stirring and discovered the agreeable side-effect: The result of this process was a smooth and shiny mass that had finally revealed its full flavour. Since then chocolate has been gently ground and warmed in so-called conches, giving it its special melting consistency and delightful flavour.

Our long conches have also been rumbling tirelessly for more than 50 years in the Kägi factory.They take no less than 48 hours to conjure up our irresistibly melt-in-the-mouth, top-quality chocolate coating from the coarse cocoa mass.

Let's have a look behind the scenes of our chocolate production:


29. January 2016