By the year 1895, France imported approximately 15000 tonnes of cocoa,
while UK 14000 and USA 13000 (Clarence-Smith, 2000:40). First at all,
there were different uses of chocolate. The recreational use of
chocolate was different of that medicinal. But, if you are interested
in the chocolate as an enjoyable food, we have the powder cocoa (e.g.
Cadbury), although it was also thought to be preventive of diseases;
the chocolate as that made by Lindt's family or that by Milton Snavely
Hershey, and finally the chocolate used by pastry-makers or in the
bakery.
The chocolate bar was introduced almost 50 years before, when in 1847
Joseph Fry "created" the candy bar, so the people started to eat
chocolate and not only drinking it. It was a real "boom" of
consumption.
Here you have a description of a chocolate in 1850:
John Tarbell published his book The Sources of Health and the
Prevention of Disease in 1850 and wrote:
The [chocolate] kernels of the nut, after being heated upon an iron
plate, and afterwards ground, form with the addition of water, a
paste, which is sweetened, flavored, dried in moulds and sold in shops
as chocolate.
Cited by:
Pucciarelli, D. L., & Grivetti, L. E. (2010) The medicinal use of
chocolate in early North America. Mol. Nutr. Food Res., 52, 1215 –
1227.
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/121371517/abstract
However seems that the taste was not so good. It was later that the
Swiss machinery brought us in 1879 those fabolous milk chocolates (at
that time were Nestlé and Lindt).
In summary: "late in the nineteenth century, chocolate took on the
finished forms, either as solid bar or as covering for other
confections, we know best today. The same is true of the manufacturing
processes that nearly all large-scale manufacturers follow to the
present day." (Moss, 2009:61-62)
I recommend you to take a look on this book:
Cocoa and chocolate, 1765-1914
By: W. G. Clarence-Smith
Routledge, 2000
Read it online:
http://books.google.com/books?id=ksmna7JQ9IwC
And the chapter 3 of this one:
Chocolate: A Global History
by: Sarah Moss, Alexander Badenoch
Reaktion Books, 2009
http://books.google.com/books?id=AXx3PgAACAAJ
If you want early texts, take a look on this website:
http://www.uni-giessen.de/gloning/ctc.htm
Best regards.
C.A.A.V.
On Oct 24, 9:29 am, Allegrobox <Allegrobox.
Post by AllegroboxWhat was it like? I mean for eating, not for drinking. Particularly in
1895 if possible. Did it come in bars? If so, were there squares on the
bars? If not, and they came in a box, did they have fillings, or was it
more about the shapes?
--
Allegrobox