Chocolate Quiz

Chocolate has travelled an extraordinary journey, from the rainforests of Mesoamerica to every shop window in the world. The Olmec, Maya and Aztec civilisations were the first to roast and grind cacao seeds, drinking a thick, bitter brew they called the food of the gods. When Spanish conquistadors brought cacao to Europe in the 16th century, it became the secret luxury of royal courts before sugar, milk and steam-powered mills turned it into the universal pleasure we know today.

Modern chocolate owes much to the small Swiss town of Vevey, where Daniel Peter invented milk chocolate in 1875, and to Bern, where Rodolphe Lindt changed history four years later by inventing conching — the long mixing process that gives chocolate its silky texture. From the Cadbury factories of Birmingham to the Hershey chimneys of Pennsylvania, from the Italian Ferrero Rocher to the iconic triangular Toblerone inspired by the Matterhorn, every great chocolate brand has added its own chapter. Today, around 70% of the world's cocoa comes from West Africa, with Côte d'Ivoire alone supplying almost half.

From the four classic types — dark, milk, white and the newcomer ruby chocolate launched in — to the rituals of Belgian pralines, French ganaches, British Easter eggs and bean-to-bar craft makers, chocolate has become a whole universe. Behind every square is a story of farmers, fermenters, master chocolatiers and the shifting tastes of nine centuries. Few foods are loved so widely — and so passionately.