chocolate

For almost a century, the Spaniards kept the secret of the ‘food of the gods’ to themselves, having, in turn, discovered it in Mexico a century earlier. It gradually crept over the Spanish border into France, to St Jean de Luz, Biarritz and Bayonne, and this is still where some of the best chocolatiers in the world are to be found. But it was the Spanish Infanta, Anne of Austria, wife of Louis XIII of France who popularized chocolate amongst the French aristocracy. Soon there were chocolatiers in Paris making chocolate drinks and confectionery. It caught on in England soon after that, particularly after Samuel Pepys had given his approval.