From Beverage to Bar
1828 marked the “modern ear” of chocolate making when Dutch chocolate maker Conrad J. van Houten patented an inexpensive method for pressing the fat from roasted cacao beans along with other processes to create a fine powder known as “cocoa”. The powder was then treated with alkaline salt that help the power the mix the water easily. The creation of powdered chocolate made it easier to mix with water, sugar and a possible combination of other ingredients to make chocolate a solid form. Many other chocolate makers began to build on Van Houten’s success to make a variety of chocolate products. (Want to know some recipes of chocolate? Check out our section for Recipes of Chocolate and for more information about chocolate production, check out our section for Production of Chocolate.) “In 1894, English chocolate maker Joseph Storrs Fry produced what was arguably the world's first eating chocolate” (Brenner, 1999; Spadaccini, 23rd online edition).