A Wider Distribution

Although the chocolate trade developed throughout the eighteenth century, it is clear from old shop cards, as well as housekeeping accounts kept by customers, that in England not all chocolate was sold by specialists. The Russells of Bloomsbury bought their chocolate not from a chocolate maker but from a grocer who supplied them with many other products. Likewise the Purefoys, a landed Buckinghamshire family, used an agent who bought their chocolate from a grocer called Moulson. Such families living on country estates produced many of their own basic wants, but ordered luxuries such as chocolate, tea and sugar from London grocers. They employed agents who organized the purchasing and transport of such items. Mrs Purefoy, a very determined lady, kept a close eye on these transactions. On one occasion she wrote that the chocolate was so bitter and highly dried that she could not drink it. Perhaps the grocer had heated it too long or too quickly. This complaint also illustrates the variations in quality which one might expect from such small workshops.