Unlike sugar confectionery, which traces its beginnings back to the Egyptians candying fruit, sesame seeds and nuts in honey some 3,500 years ago, chocolate moulding has a very lean history. Cocoa was brought back to Europe by Cortes, along with vanilla, during the 16th century. Chocolate or cocoa was consumed only as a drink until the mid-1800s. It was a very rich, cloying drink with the 54 percent of cocoa butter typical in the ground nib. Additionally, any attempts to make a product for eating yielded a dry, crumbly confection due to the low fat content after mixing with sugar. To improve on the drinking quality of cocoa, Van Houten developed a hydraulic pressing method to remove some of the fat from the cocoa, making a much more palatable drink.
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