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[[File:1184px-Metate Maya.jpeg|thumbnail|300px|left|Figure 1. Mayan plate showing the preparation of chocolate.]]
Chocolate is derived from the New World cacao plant. Since the discovery of the New World, the popularity of chocolate has substantially grown. However, the history of chocolate and its consumption go back much further to about four thousand years ago. The forms chocolate has been found in has more recently greatly varied but it has always played an important role to tribes and complex societies. From a ritual product to more every day use, chocolate has greatly also had an impact on the development of the New World in the eyes of European explorers.
By the second half of the 18th century, with the introduction of industrialization in the UK, the first chocolate factories were being created that used hydraulic machinery. In subsequent decades, entrepreneurs began to experiment with different machinery to facilitate the process of separating cacao butter from cacao seeds and making chocolate not only easier but also with new tastes. The 1730s also began to break the Spanish monopoly, mostly in Central and South America, of cacao, where it was soon spread to other parts of the Americas and Africa for production. Gradually, Africa became the leading producer of cacao, but this took some time to develop. In the colonies in the United States in 1765, in the state of Massachusetts, the first chocolate factory was built (Figure 2).<ref>For more on the industrialization of chocolate, see: La Boone, J. A. (2006). <i>Around the World of Food: Adventures in Culinary History.</i> New York: iUniverse, Inc, pg. 83. </ref>
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By the 1820, new machines were invented that separated cacao solids and butter. Soon, cacao powder was produced. Chocolate now became more mass produced. The German chocolate manufacturer, still producing chocolates today, also established its first factories and helped to bring chocolate to a larger market, although it was still a product for the upper classes. Finally, in 1848, the realization was made that adding cacao butter, sugar, and cacao liquor allowed the creation of what would be edible, solid chocolate, which proved to be a revolutionizing moment for chocolate consumption that allowed it to become a more diverse food product.<ref>For more on the science of production of chocolate in the early 19th century, see: Beckett, S. T. (2008). <i>The Science of Chocolate</i> (2nd ed). Cambridge, UK: RSC Publishing, pg. 46.</ref>