Thanks to Doret the manufacture of chocolate began to take hold and in 1819 F.L. Cailler opened the very first Swiss chocolate factory which was to become the modern chocolate giant Nestle.
In 1828 Conrad J Van Houten was granted a patent covering a method that extracted the fat from cocoa beans that produced cocoa powder and cocoa butter.
Van Houten hailed from Holland and another process he invented pays tribute to his nationality, the Dutch Process, as it is now know is widely used in the treatment of chocolate to produce a blend of chocolate much closer to the flavours we know and enjoy today.
By treating the chocolate with an alkaline the bitterness can be reduced and even removed completely. This process was instrumental in producing the first modern day chocolate bar.
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