Let's be honest, we all love chocolate. But there's more to this gorgeous, indulgent substance than you may think.
We've put together a list of key dates for chocoholics... if you think we've missed anything, drop us a line and let us know!
| 1500 BC | The Olmec civilisation emerges and the Olmecs have the good sense to start cultivating the cocoa bean. |
| 600 AD | The Maya (who lived on the Yucatan peninsular) start using the cocoa bean as money. |
| 1502 | Christopher Columbus lands on the island of Guanaja near Honduras. He is presented with some cocoa beans. He doesn't like them! |
| 1519 | Hernan Cortez conquers the Aztec Empire and gets to drink chocolate with Montezuma. |
| 1589 | Regular shipments of cocoa reach Spain. Chocolate makers set up in Belgium – then under Spanish rule. |
| 1650 | The first cocoa plantations are established in the West Indies. |
| 1657 | A Frenchman sets up England's first chocolate shop in Bishopsgate, the City of London. |
| 1725 | Mary Tuke starts a grocer's shop in Walmergate, York - this would go on to become Rowntree. |
| 1824 | John Cadbury starts his chocolate business in Birmingham. |
| 1847 | Fry's make the first bars of eating chocolate. |
| 1849 | George and Richard Cadbury make their first chocolate bars. |
| 1905 | Cadbury's Dairy Milk is launched. |
| 1932 | Forrest Mars makes the first Mars bar in Slough. |
| 1935 | Rowntree launch Aero. |
| 1941 | Chocolate is rationed during the war. |
| 1952 | Rationing is over, hurrah! |
| 1969 | Cadbury merges with Schweppes. |
| 1984 | At Kaysens, a London-based dessert manufacturer, Erik Russell comes up with the name "Death by Chocolate". |
| 1990 | The Chocolate Society is founded in Britain. |
| 2010 | Death by Chocolate is re-born as a range of very tempting mega-chocolatey desserts available at Sainsbury and Asda. |