MCI is celebrating World Chocolate Day today. Whether you like your chocolate milk, dark or white, almost everyone has happy memories of eating chocolate. Latin America is the home of the cocoa and there is evidence of chocolate being drunk there 4,000 years ago by the Mayans, Aztecs and Olmec for medicine and during rituals. Even then, the chocolate drink was known to give energy and act as an aphrodisiac (we don’t give chocolate to our valentines for nothing!).
Chocolate wasn’t known in Europe until Columbus came back from the Americas with it in the 1500s. Chocolate wasn’t yet known as the sweet treat that we know now though, it was drunk rather like coffee as a ‘hot chocolate’. Needless to say, the scarcity of the cocoa nibs in Europe made chocolate available only to the exceptionally rich.
This is where the history of chocolate becomes distasteful. We refuse to hide the subject of slavery, or the part that it played in this story, because it is a terrible part of history and humanity should never let it happen again. We are appalled at the part it played. Other countries wanted in on the chocolate business and started cocoa plantations in countries colonised by the English, Dutch and French. Tragically, these plantations were largely worked by slaves. Thankfully, the chocolate industry in no longer mixed up in slavery and we can only urge you to make sure that you purchase fair trade chocolate to ensure that the cocoa farmers are paid fairly for their produce.
Back in the UK in 1729, the first mechanical cocoa grinder was patented. However, it was the Europeans that moved the process forward to the modern method that we use today during the early industrial revolution. Adding alkaline salt, removing/ adding cocoa fat; adding milk and conching was turning chocolate into the sweet treat we all know and love today. By 1868, these innovations were put together in the UK and Cadbury saw the first box of chocolates roll off the production line in England.
But where does MCI fit into the chocolate story? We have a long history with the confectionery industry. Whether we are fixing fans to regulate the temperature of chocolate, or helping to repair packaging machines, we can help you with your machinery. Call us on 01324 611371 to see how we can help you keep your business going.