Initially, chocolate came to Europe as a medicine.
The real recipe of sweet chocolate has to be attributed to the Mexican nuns who added honey and vanilla to make its taste more pleasant; this custom was later sent to Spain in 1590.
In 1606 the Italian Carletti, who had come in contact with the drink during his commercial travels, decided to spread the recipe to allow all his countrymen its use; by this time it triggered a craze and throughout Italy the first chocolatiers began to appear. From Italy then the chocolate spread to Austria, Switzerland and Germany.
Until 1900 the chocolate was a luxury only for the wealthiest classes due to the high prices of cocoa and sugar which are the main ingredients for the preparation of chocolate, then in the twentieth century there was a collapse in the price of these substances, this made the cocoa and then the chocolate within the reach of an increasing number of people.