And while I'm on the topic of hot chocolate, did you know that Marie Antoinette dipped her cake in hot chocolate. Seems they served hot chocolate frequently at the Palace of Versailles and it went perfect with the cake she often had. It also was believed to be an aphrodisiac; the hot chocolate that is - not the cake. It wasn't until 1847 when a pair of British confectioners invented solid chocolate. The Fry and Sons confectionary concocted what they called "eating chocolate" by combining cocoa butter, sugar and chocolate liquor which made a grainy, solid form of treat very similar to our chocolate candy. Actually cocao and cocoa are both the same thing. Over time, people just switched the same letters around, but came up with the same item. Made for something like fake news, I guess. I do that rather often you probably realize by now. Getting back to French culture, did you know that Napoleon loved chocolate? The French leader demanded that wine and chocolate be made available to him and his senior advisers even during intense military campaigns.
Now, if you look in my wife's pantry, you will probably find something which is known as Baker's Chocolate which isn't just for baking. She tells me that, but perhaps to keep me from eating it. Doesn't work though! Baker's Chocolate was actually developed by Dr. James Baler and John Hannon who founded a chocolate company which later became known as Walter Baker Chocolate in 1765. It wasn't just meant to be for baking, but it sort of revolved into that since it carried the name baker on it. Then along came Lancastrian Milton Hershey who was the real candy KING. Built a caramel factory in downtown Lancaster on Church Street at the age of 30. He later found that adding chocolate to his caramels made them sell faster. He sold his caramel factory in Lancaster and built a plant in Hershey, Pennsylvania and the rest is history, as they say. Milk chocolate was actually invented in Switzerland in 1875 when Daniel Peter created a tasty treat after eight years of experimenting. Would have loved to have worked for him in quality control.
LDub has turned into chocolate while typiing this story!! |
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