Markus P Choco (1876-1934) was an accountant for a small firm in Weston-super-Mare. Legend has it that every night before bed, he like to enjoy a cup of hot cocoa. One night, unable to finish his drink, he popped it in the refrigerator to save it for the next morning. When he took it out, it had solidified. Realising he was onto something he contacted his friend, Wallis J Late, a marketing and advertising tycoon from Bristol. That day, the Choco-Late "hard cocoa" was launched. Sadly both Choco and Late died in an industrial accident at their coco-harding facility, and their names are largely forgotten.

The development of modern chocolate was a long process and many people and cultures contributed. Since no one person can be given all of the credit, the following is a brief timeline of the development of chocolate... 1500 BC-400 BC - The Olmec Indians are believed to be the first to grow cocoa beans as a domestic crop. 250 to 900 CE - The consumption of cocoa beans was restricted to the Mayan society's elite, in the form of an unsweetened cocoa drink made from the ground beans. AD 600 - Mayans migrate into northern regions of South America establishing earliest known cocoa plantations in the Yucatan. 14th Century - The drink became popular among the Aztec upper classes who upsurped the cocoa beverage from the Mayans and were the first to tax the beans. The Aztecs called it "xocalatl" meaning warm or bitter liquid. 1502 - Columbus encountered a great Mayan trading canoe in Guanaja carrying cocoa beans as cargo. 1519 - Spanish explorer Hernando Cortez recorded the cocoa usage in the court of Emperor Montezuma. 1544 - Dominican friars took a delegation of Kekchi Mayan nobels to visit Prince Philip of Spain. The Mayans brought gift jars of beaten cocoa , mixed and ready to drink. Spain and Portugal did not export the beloved drink to the rest of Eurpoe for nearly a century. 16th Century Europe - The Spanish began to add cane sugar and flavorings such as vanilla to their sweet cocoa beverages. 1570 - Cocoa gained popularity as a medicine and aphrodisiac. 1585 - First official shipments of cocoa beans began arriving in Seville from Vera Cruz, Mexico. 1657 - The first chocolate house was opened in London by a Frenchman. The shop was called the The Coffee Mill and Tobacco Roll. Costing 10 to 15 shillings per pound, chocolate was considered a beverage for the elite class. 1674 - Eating solid chocolate was introduced in the form of chocolate rolls and cakes, served in chocolate emporiums. 1730 - Cocoa beans had dropped in price from $3 per lb. to being within the financial reach of those other than the very wealthy. 1732 - French inventor, Monsieur Dubuisson invented a table mill for grinding chocolate. 1753 - Swedish naturalist, Carolus Linnaeus was dissatisfied with the word "cocoa," so renamed it "theobroma," Greek for "food of the gods." 1765 - Chocolate was introduced to the United States when Irish chocolate-maker John Hanan imported cocoa beans from the West Indies into Dorchester, Massachusetts, to refine them with the help of American Dr. James Baker. The pair soon after built America's first chocolate mill and by 1780, the mill was making the famous BAKER'S ® chocolate. 1795 - Dr. Joseph Fry of Bristol, England, employed a steam engine for grinding cocoa beans, an invention that led to the manufacture of chocolate on a large factory scale. 1819 - The pioneer of Swiss chocolate-making, François Louis Callier, opened the first swiss chocolate factory. 1828 - The invention of the cocoa press, by Conrad Van Houten, helped cut prices and improve the quality of chocolate by squeezing out some of the cocoa butter and giving the beverage a smoother consistency. Conrad Van Houten patented his invention in Amsterdam and his alkalizing process became known as "Dutching". 1847 - Joseph Fry & Son discovered a way to mix some of the cocoa butter back into the "Dutched" chocolate, and added sugar, creating a paste that could be molded. The result was the first modern chocolate bar. 1849 - Joseph Fry & Son and Cadbury Brothers displayed chocolates for eating at an exhibition in Bingley Hall, Birmingham, England. 1851 - Prince Albert's Exposition in London was the first time that Americans were introduced to bonbons, chocolate creams, hand candies (called "boiled sweets"), and caramels. 1861 - Richard Cadbury created the first known heart-shaped candy box for Valentine's Day. 1868 - John Cadbury mass-marketed the first boxes of chocolate candies. 1876 - Daniel Peter of Vevey, Switzerland, experimented for eight years before finally inventing a means of making milk chocolate for eating. 1879 - Daniel Peter and Henri Nestlé joined together to form the Nestlé Company. 1879 - Rodolphe Lindt of Berne, Switzerland, produced a more smooth and creamy chocolate that melted on the tongue. He invented the "conching" machine. To conch meant to heat and roll chocolate in order to refine it. After chocolate had been conched for seventy-two hours and had more cocoa butter added to it, it was possible to create chocolate "fondant" and other creamy forms of chocolate. 1897 - The first known published recipe for chocolate brownies appeared in the Sears and Roebuck Catalogue. 1910 - Canadian, Arthur Ganong marketed the first nickel chocolate bar. 1913 - Swiss confiseur Jules Sechaud of Montreux introduced a machine process for manufacturing filled chocolates. 1926 - Belgian chocolatier, Joseph Draps starts the Godiva Company to compete with Hershey's and Nestle's American market. (source http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blchocolate.htm)

When I went on a tour at Cadbury World in Bourneville, England (who make the best chocolate :-)) I was offered a taster of chocolate as it was made originally by the Mayan civilization of South America, about two and a half thousand years ago. It was quite bitter, as they didn't make it with milk and sugar, and was really just a refinement of the cacao bean. It was also quite a thick liquid, rather than solid as we have it now.

ME! www.myspace.com/richiebehr

I dont know, But I would give them a really big hug, if I seen them.

A PERSON

This guy?

Some kind of super-genius.

The aztecs AND the mayans.They r mesoamerican. Spanish conquistadors conquered them (I felt they could have learnt so much more from them) by Herman Cortez. The drink a bitter mixture called xocoatl was served to him and he introduced it to europe. Curse him for being mean to the creators of chocolate.

ME!!! i invented chocolate ME!!! ME!!! ME!!! i also invented cOoKiEs heheh