Chocolate gifts are very popular in Australia as Birthday, Christmas, Easter and Valentines Day presents. Also, to say “thank you”, “I’m sorry”, “I love you” - the list of chocolate friendly gift occasions in Australia and the western world seems endless .
Chocolate manufacturing commenced in Australia some 100 years ago. Prior to that it was imported from the US, UK and Europe. However, the enjoyment of chocolate as a food and gift has its origin in an ancient civilisation of another continent, where chocolate was considered a gift worthy only of the gods.
The cacao (chocolate) tree first grew in the tropical rainforests of central America. The Maya civilisation transplanted the trees into their communities and made the beans into a bitter concoction with water and spicy flavouring agents. The drink became a sacred feature of Mayan ceremonial and religious life. It was used as a sacrifice to the Gods and sometimes as a currency of payment. When the conquering Aztecs assumed power, chocolate maintained its sacred role in those cultures but became exclusive to rulers, priests and other honoured members of society.
After the Spanish conquered Central America in the 16th century, the colonialists started to drink chocolate in the same way as the locals. When chocolate spread to mainland Spain, the Spanish neutralised its bitter taste by adding cinnamon and sugar and drinking it heated. As in Aztec culture, chocolate became an elite beverage and a status symbol of wealth and importance, drank in elaborate porcelain and silver drinking vessels by royalty and the rich.
The Spanish royalty started to give chocolate as a dowry to other European royalty and it was not long before other countries in Europe, including France, the United Kingdom, Switzerland and Belgium caught up with this new fashion. Chocolate maintained its elite status all this time as an exclusive drink within royal and affluent circles.
By the 1850s, experimentation in Europe lead to the creation of solid chocolate in the form of the chocolate bar. One of the first of these was a dark chocolate bar made by the Cadbury Brothers who owned a chocolate factory in Bournville, England. Bournville, to this day, is the name of a dark chocolate bar manufactured by Cadbury.
In Switzerland, with the assistance of the Nestle company, the first milk chocolate bar was created and sold in Europe. By the 1870s, milk chocolate was being imported in huge quantities to America. Due to the industrial revolution and the creation of large colonial owned plantations, chocolate could be produced cheaply in mass quantities and therefore it became accessible to more people.
Ever tasted a Lindt chocolate and savoured that smooth, creamy sensation on your tongue? This is due to a technique called conching, another Swiss chocolate making discovery in 1879 by Lindt. By the 19th century, Switzerland was the leader in solid chocolate making innovations and processes.
And that is the history of chocolate production and gifting..... Starting as a gift to the Gods in an ancient civilisation, progressing as a gift between European royalty and recorded in history as a gift from royalty to the people (Queen Victoria is recorded as sending chocolate tins to soldiers in the Boer War as a Christmas Gift), it is not surprising that chocolate is the most consumed confectionary in the western world and chocolate gifts (eg chocolate gift boxes, chocolate gift baskets), the most popular because everybody loves chocolate!