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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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chocolate
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The Aztecs and others in central America used crushed cocoa beans as the basis for a drink, and Columbus took some beans back to Spain in 1502. The Spaniards kept this expensive delicacy to themselves, and it was not until the 17C that it began to spread. The first shop in London selling chocolate opened in 1657. The first *coffee house was then also new, and the two drinks were in the following decades an essential part of social life for the richer classes (both drinks were expensive). The addition of milk, much improving chocolate as a drink, was a London innovation in about 1700.
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It was not until the 19C that bars of sweetened chocolate were first sold for eating, a market in which the *Cadbury family established an early lead. The Cadburys (like other famous chocolate families, such as Fry and Rowntree) were Quakers, and the sale of cocoa and chocolate as drinks was seen as part of the fight against alcohol.
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