But who had this crazy idea one day to invent the chocolate bar?

The French consume on average 8 kg per household per year! 8 kg of chocolate that they enjoy in all its forms, solid and liquid. But before becoming part of the basics in our cupboards, in powder or wafer form, before being transformed into bites, candies, eggs and other Easter chickens and fish, chocolate has had a long journey.

To drink and not to eat

Before getting into the “hard” part of the subject, we must go back in time and stop around 2,500 years before Christ, in Mesoamerica, more precisely on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, in the basin of Mexico and in the present-day Mexican states of Guerrero, Oaxaca, and Chipas. This is where the Olmecs lived. And it was undoubtedly they who were the first to cultivate the cocoa tree. They then know how to transform the beans into powdered chocolate… but not yet into bars.

At the time, chocolate was drunk. It is prepared in infusions, consumed during rituals or used as medicine. The Mayans, also established in Mexico, also prepare a chocolate drink. From roasted cocoa beans, ground then mixed with chili pepper, water and cornmeal, they concoct xocolatl – bitter water. These traditions around cocoa will continue. And in the 15th^e century, the Aztecs continued to drink chocolate to refresh themselves and prepare for war. They even attribute an aphrodisiac power to it and use the bean as currency.

On the Pistoles trail

How will chocolate cross borders? Thanks to Christopher Columbus, who returned to Europe with a bag of beans. But it was the conquistador Hernan Cortès who popularized it and, above all, adapted it to the tastes of the time. When he returned to Spain in 1527, he had in his luggage the recipe for Aztec hot chocolate and some utensils for making it. Very quickly, his mixture of boiling water, cocoa powder and cane sugar met with great success among the Spanish nobility. The nectar will spread throughout Europe, although it will take a few years to be adopted in France.

It was in 1615, during the marriage of Anne of Austria – daughter of the King of Spain Philip III – and Louis XIII, that the precious mixture settled in France. But it was truly under Louis XIV, and under the leadership of his wife Marie-Thérèse of Austria, that its consumption took hold at court. For a long time, it remained reserved for the aristocracy, always more sophisticated and delicate. Sulpice Debauve, founder of the Debauve & Gallais chocolate factory in 1800, established himself as one of the great “reformers” of this material. This son of a doctor, certified pharmacist to the king at the courts of Versailles and Saint-Cloud, a true scholar, will very early immerse himself in the study of cocoa. Supplier to King Louis XVI, he mainly focused on satisfying Marie-Antoinette's penchant for chocolate. The queen is not entirely satisfied… Too much bitterness in the drinks.

Sulpice will therefore invent for her the Pistoles de la Reine, in the shape of coins of the time, coated in cocoa and garnished with almond milk. A real “shot” of sweetness which above all marks a decisive step in the history of chocolate: here it is hard and cold for the first time. Obviously, these Pistoles are not going to remain confined to Marie-Antoinette's apartments. All the courts of Europe will fight over them. Sulpice Debauve, who opened a boutique on rue des Saints-Pères in 1819, saw an increasingly numerous clientele crowding around his semi-circular counter. The latter evokes an apothecary's pharmacy and was designed by the very fashionable architects Percier and Fontaine, who notably worked on the Château de la Malmaison and designed the arc of the Carrousel du Louvre.

The house, still located at this address and now classified, will no longer be empty, attracting a public of enthusiasts who are ever more fond of new products and innovations. Because at Debauve & Gallais, we can be proud of having created the first bars with a high percentage of cocoa, Croquamandes, the first dried fruits coated in chocolate, and of having filed a patent in 1838 attesting to the discovery of the first cocoa process. dehydration of milk.

Menier did not rest on his laurels

Chocolate as we know it today is almost launched! In any case, it's already chewable. It will be democratized by Antoine Brutus Menier. Born in Bourgueil in 1795, and trained in pharmacy – an essential step for chocolatiers – Antoine Brutus Menier founded the Menier chocolate company in Paris, in the Marais, in 1816. His speciality ? Medicines whose unpleasant flavor he disguises by adding chocolate. As demand increased, he bought a mill in Noisiel. And, while pharmaceutical products were his core business, he decided, strangely, in 1830, to develop table chocolate, still considered a luxury. Thanks to its industrial tools, it succeeds in offering quality and accessible household chocolate. And in 1836, he had the brilliant idea of ​​launching a pack of six chocolate bars. In 1847, in England, Francis Fry, a chocolate industrialist, refined the formula and created the bar… That's it! Finally. We know the rest: the plate, its bars and squares, will enter our daily lives, never ceasing to melt all gourmands.