Chocolate milk's history

[Canogaki]

Milk was likely added to chocolate drinks when the two ingredients were made public. The first domesticated cows were introduced to the Caribbean in 1493 by Christopher Columbus. Cocoa was introduced to Europe in the 1520s. The Natural History Museum lists the Anglo-Irish botanist Hans Sloane as the inventor of milk chocolate. Sloane found the local Jamaican drink made from cocoa and water served in Jamaica to be tasteless, but found it much improved by adding milk. However, according to historian James Delburgo, Jamaicans had been making “a hot drink boiled from freshly chopped cocoa pieces boiled with milk and cinnamon” since 1494.

In the late 19th century, Swiss entrepreneur Daniel Peter developed a dry solid chocolate milk so that it could be easily divided, transported, and stored (fresh milk was in short supply in the city). He eventually created Milk Chocolate in 1875.