Italian merchant Antonio Carletti is credited for introducing Italy to chocolate in 1606, after having enjoyed it himself in Central America and Spain. He is given credit because he first presented chocolate to Ferdinand I de’ Medici, the grand duke of Tuscany, but some scholars argue that Duke Emanuele Filiberto of Savoy actually introduced chocolate to Piedmont in 1559.
Clergy, physicians, the Spanish court, and other travelers carried chocolate as they traveled around Italy during the mid-1600s, fueling chocolate’s popularity in the area. At first, chocolate was only thought of as a new kind of medical treatment. However, the Italian elite began to drink chocolate as a leisure activity.
The first drinks for the royalty and clergy were adopted from the Spanish, made of chocolate mixed with water and spices. Italians then began to develop their own versions of chocolate drinks by incorporating aromatic flavors such as ambergris, musk, jasmine flowers, and citrus. The apothecary to Cosimo III de’Medici, for example, prepared a famous jasmine chocolate drink that was exclusively for the Tuscan court. Italian merchants traveling all over Europe helped to spread the practice of drinking chocolate among the elite, building chocolate’s status as a luxurious and very special delicacy.
The first “chocolate house,” or small chocolate shop, was opened in London in 1657. Italians followed suit, with “cioccolatieri” or chocolatiers soon opening their own chocolate shops in Venice. Soon all major cities had such shops, with Perugia especially emerging as a bustling center of the Italian chocolate world. Though chocolate was highly priced and still intended for the elite class, the cioccolatieri helped to begin the democratization of chocolate, slowly exposing all classes to the sweet treat.
By 1720, several of the chocolate shops in Venice and Florence were selling chocolate that had already gained international reputation. The growing emphasis on the quality and refinement of chocolate led to the concept of chocolate preparation as an art. Italian chocolatiers were the forerunners in this discipline, quickly gaining respect for their techniques. And by this period, chocolate was gaining even more of a decadent reputation; Giacomo Casanova was a renown Italian wanton in the 1700s who drank chocolate before seducing many women.
In Turin during the late 1700s, an Italian named Doret invented a machine that could produce solid chocolate, as an alternative to the drinking chocolate that Italy had been accustomed to. This innovation was part of the international movement toward industrialization; it represented a step toward mass production and increasing the availability of chocolate to more people than ever before. The first chocolate factory was also built in Turin during this period, by Pierre Paul Caffarel. Caffarel used a machine invented by another Italian, Bozelli, that was essentially the first powered refining machine for chocolate manufacturing. It mixed vanilla, sugar, and chocolate together using hydraulic power.
From that point onward, the 19th and 20th centuries were characterized by more advanced industrialization for chocolate, and the birth of large chocolate companies. Italians founded companies both in their homelands and abroad. Artisan chocolatier Silvano Venchi founded his gourmet chocolate company in 1878, which has since become one of the most popular vendors of high quality chocolate. Domingo Ghirardelli immigrated to San Francisco at the onset of California’s gold rush, but instead started a chocolate business in 1849 that continues to be a major corporation today.
Italy keeps its spirit for chocolate very much alive. The Eurochocolate Festival in Perugia, for example, celebrates Perugia as a major hub for all things chocolate; it is the most popular chocolate festival in Europe. The festival features exhibitions, cooking classes, mass tasting sessions, and more. So just as chocolate has played a major role in Italy’s cultural history, the Eurochocolate Festival exemplifies how chocolate continues to play a major role by strengthening national tradition and pride.