Food & Drink
October 2022
500 Years of Chocolate History
The temptation par excellence, that craving that suddenly arises and we cannot fight it unless we satisfy it: the desire for chocolate. Perhaps it is because of this power that it is called the most loved food on the planet. Or perhaps it is because its cultivation, production and consumption - which has been growing strongly in the last 10 years - are spread across all continents. Napoleon Neri tells its story, starting with the plant and its fruit, from the pioneers of chocolate, to the birth of confectionery factories in the 19th century and then the great modern industries. He describes in detail the processing and transformation of cocoa beans, their beneficial properties, the sensory characteristics of the finished product, and spices everything up with a thousand anecdotes and curiosities that only those who have lived and worked in this world for so long can know.