Anne of Austria
France was the second country in Europe where chocolate was introduced. After chocolate was widely accepted in Spain in the sixteenth century, it was transferred to France by merchants who anticipated chocolate to be a big business in the near future. At the beginning, chocolate was greeted with suspicion and skepticism in France, and it was always referred to as a “barbarous product and noxious drug”. Thus, The French court encouraged the Paris Faculty of Medicine to investigate this sweet substance and the faculty issued its approval, this made the wife of Louis XIII, Anne of Austria, to declare chocolate as the drink of the French court. Later in 1660, chocolate was introduced to ordinary people when Maria Theresa of Austria, the wife of Louis XIV, kindly shared her love of chocolate with the people of France.

Today, some hi-grade chocolate products which are sold around the world are produced by French chocolate manufacturers such as Valrhona, Chocolat Bonnat, Jean-Paul Hevin, La Maison du Chocolat, Michel Cluizel, Chocolat Poulain and much more.

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Anne of Austria, age 14 when she married Louis XIII, brought a coterie of ladie-in-waiting and was attached to her Spanish ways, including, it is said, the drinking ofchocolate as a beverage. Her taste for chocolate supposedly was passed to the King and his court, from where it spread to the rest of France. IN reality, however, the marriage had been arranged to end a long period of Franco-Spanish enmity and there was considerable mistrust in high French court circles of Anne and her Spanish retinue, who were sent back to Spain in 1618. Louis Batiffol, whose biography of the young king was based heavily on accounts of the day, notes that Louis, also 14 at the time of the wedding, was not attracted to Anne and that they lived in separate apartments in the Louvre, then the royal palace. They saw one another only briefly, at set intervals during the day, with fixed rituals prescribed by ceremonial rules, and they said little to one another. Nor did they dine together. The Spanish courtiers who came to France with Anne were mistrusted as agents of a hostile power and their presence aggravated the situation. Until 1616, Anne was served her meals
“in the Spanish fashion” according to reports from the Spanish embassy at the Drench court. Batiffol’s study supports the likelihood that Anne nay have been served chocolate in France but makes it highly improbable that she inspired any fashions there. Madame Francoise de Motteville, latercourtier for Anne, whose memoirs describe the Queen’s wedding and subsequent court life in great detail, does not mention chocolate.
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Not everyone was eager to accept the mysterious new drink so readily though. At first the French were suspicious of this new drink and considered it a dangerous drug! Although there are several theories the most likely is that it took Spanish royalty to save the day. A Spanish Princess, Anne of Austria, married into the French Court and introduced drinking chocolate as a fashionable past time. By the mid-1600s, the chocolate drink had gained widespread popularity in France and an enterprising Frenchman opened the first chocolate house in London.
In France, chocolate was met with skepticism and was considered a 'barbarous product and noxious drug'. The French court was doubtful and accepted it only after the Paris faculty of medicine gave its approval. A French queen finally saved the day. In 1615, Anne of Austria, wife of Louis XIII declared chocolate as the drink of the French court.
During the early seventeenth century, chocolate found its way to Italy and England, among other European countries. In 1650, chocolate became the rage in Oxford and in 1657, a shop called the The Coffee Mill and TobaccoRoll opened in London. Although chocolate was not featured, the drink quickly became a best seller. As the popularity of chocolate grew, England imposed an excessive duty of 10-15 shillings per pound. By the way, the duty was comparable to approximately three-fourths its weight in gold. It took almost 200 years before the duty was dropped.
The first chocolate house was reputedly opened in London in 1657 by an unnamed Frenchman. Costing 6 to 8 shillings per pound (about 34p), chocolate was considered a beverage for the elite class. By the 1700s, chocolate houses were as prominent as coffee houses in England and there was a chocolate house for every type of clientele: politicians, gamblers, literati and the beautiful people - White's Chocolate House in St James's Street became one of the most popular meeting places for men and women. Charles II tried unsuccessfully to suppress these establishments which he considered 'hotbeds of sedition'. However, in the mid-nineteenth century the chocolate houses were transformed into more respectable 'clubs for gentlemen'. Several still exist today around Pall Mall including the famous White's. At this time chocolate was still being prepared by hand and another very different group of people were also taking an interest in it…