We are focusing our math PBL on creating a precise cut diagonally on a chocolate bar which will result om the creation of a perfect rectangle by reducing squares. We will do our social studies component with an essay about the history of chocolate.
The history of chocolate traces back to Mesoamerica, but the original candy bar was produced in the late 1900's. The cacao tree is native to the Americas. It may have originated in the foothills of the Andes in the Amazon and Orinoco basins of South America, current day Colombia and Venezuela, where today, examples of wild cacao still can be found. However, it may have had a larger range in the past, evidence for which may be obscured because of its cultivation in these areas long before, as well as after, the Spanish arrived. Spain managed to keep their chocolate discovery a secret until a daughter of Spanish King Philip III wed French King Louis XIII in 1615 and brought her love of chocolate to France. The popularity of chocolate soon spread to other European countries where the popularity of chocolate began to spread all around the world.
In 1847 a British chocolate company, J.S Fry & Sons created the first edible solid chocolate bar. Despite making a successful solid chocolate bare it did not attract much attention as it had a bitter taste. In 1874, Daniel Peter experimented with various mixtures in an effort to balance chocolates rough flavor, and stumbled upon milk. The addition of milk took away the bitter taste and consumers responded enthusiastically. Very soon Rodolphe Lindt's invention of the conching machine in 1879 for the mass production of milk chocolate on factory assembly lines.