Many people are aware that chocolate was first introduced to the European explorers during their first visits to the New World in the early 1500's, but did you know that…

1) The earliest recorded use of chocolate dates back to approximately 1000 B.C., where it was a staple of the Olmec tribes of southern Mexico.

2) The Maya used 'beaten' (whipped liquid) chocolate as a ceremonial drink at baptisms, engagements, weddings, and funerals.

3) Cacao beans (the raw source of chocolate) were widely used as currency by the Maya and Aztec peoples.

4) The early Spanish explorers thought the primary (if not only) use of chocolate was medicinal.

5) Chocolate first crossed the ocean in 1544, when it was served to Prince Philip of Spain.

6) The first attempt at making a solid chocolate product came in the 1700's, when Mexican nuns raised money for their convent by producing and exporting solid chocolate bars.

7) America's chocolate industry began in 1765, with the founding of the Walter Baker Company.

8) Coenraad van Houten, a Dutch chemist, developed the processes that made the concept of truly eatable chocolate possible (developing cocoa, making chocolate less acidic, and increasing its solubility).

9) The first two companies to produce "eating" chocolate on a large-scale basis were the British firms of Cadbury and Fry and Sons, both in the early 1840's.

10) 1879 was perhaps the most important year in the history of chocolate. It was in that year that Henre Nestle and Daniel Peter collaborated on the invention of milk chocolate, while Rudolphe Lindt invented the conching process which gives chocolate the smoothness we have come to appreciate.