Christopher Columbus is believed to be the first European to discover chocolate.

When Columbus returned to Spain in 1502 from his fourth voyage to the New World, he introduced many treasures to the court of King Ferdinand and among them were cocoa beans, almond-shaped seeds from the cacao tree that are the source of all the chocolate and cocoa products we enjoy today.

A few decades later, during his conquest of Mexico, Spanish explorer Hernando Cortez, found Aztec Indians using cocoa beans to prepare a drink called "chocolatl", meaning "warm liquid".

Cortez, who described chocolatl as "the divine drink, which builds up resistance and fights fatigue", and his countrymen conceived the idea of sweetening the bitter drink with cane sugar.

The recipe for the sweetened frothy beverage underwent several more changes in Spain, where newly discovered spices such as cinnamon and vanilla were added as flavourings.

Spain wisely began to plant cacao trees in its overseas possessions, but consigned the processing of cocoa beans to monasteries under a veil of secrecy.

They kept the recipe to themselves for nearly 100 years, but the secret was finally leaked to the rest of Europe.

So popular did chocolate become that in 1657 the first of many English chocolate houses was established, to serve the drink to the public.

Chocolate drinking arrived in the American colonies in 1765, when the first chocolate factory opened in New England.

The invention of the cocoa press in 1828 by C.J. Van Houten did much to improve the quality of the beverage by squeezing out part of the cocoa butter, the fat that occurs naturally in cocoa beans.

In the middle of the 19th century, two significant developments revolutionised the chocolate industry. In 1847, an English company introduced solid eating chocolate.

Now the public could enjoy chocolate eaten out of the hand as well as in the form of a drink.

Three decades later, at Vevey, Switzerland, Daniel Peter found that milk could be added to chocolate to make a new product, appropriately named milk chocolate.

Since that time, chocolate has been manufactured in solid bar form and to enrobe confections, as well as an ingredient in baked goods, ice cream, and flavoured milk.

The value of chocolate as a portable food for both energy and morale has long been recognised.

From the American Civil War on, chocolate has been carried into the field by soldiers.