Image via Wikipedia1500 BC: Olmec Indians plant and harvest kakawa (cocoa beans). Cacao trees have grown wild for 10,000 years.600 AD: For over four centuries, Mayan and Aztec nobles enjoy frothy "cacau." The beans are also used as currency.
1492: Christopher Columbus brings back cacao beans to King Ferdinand after his fourth visit. They're dismissed.
1641: The first publication of a recipe for "chocolate" is by a Spanish doctor, based on the Aztec bitter and spicy formula.
1780: American James Baker and an Irish immigrant chocolate-maker build the first chocolate mill to make BAKER's brand chocolate.
1847: The Fry brothers mix cocoa butter with churned chocolate and sugar. This makes a molded paste, which becomes the first candy bar.
1900: Milton Hershey creates a model factory town called Hersheyville, dedicated to making chocolate affordable to the masses.
2000: Cote d'lvoire is the world's largest exporter of cacao beans: 1.4 million tons. American consumption of chocolate tops 10 pounds per capita annually.
Present: New generations of chocolatiers fuse flavors into chocolates, from curry and saffron to goat cheese, rosemary and olive oil.
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