After Colmenero’s treatise on chocolate translated into English and published in London in 1640, chocolate became fashionable drink in England.
The first chocolate drinking house was established in London in 1657 by a Frenchman who produced the first advertisement for the chocolate drinks.
The June 6, 1657 issue of the Public Advertiser announced, "In Bishopgate St, in Queen's Head Alley, at a Frenchman's house, is an excellent West Indian drink called Chocolate to be sold, where you may have it ready at any time and also unmade at reasonable rates."
The paper proclaimed chocolate’s medicinal qualities, writing that the drink ‘cures and preserves the body of many diseases.’ The chocolate house was mentioned in Pepys’s Diary of 1664 where he wrote that ‘jocolatte’ was ‘very good’.
During the 18th century White’s Chocolate House became the fashionable place for young Londoners, while politicians of the day went to the Cocoa Tree Chocolate House.
At chocolate houses wealthy men paid an entrance fee to drink hot chocolate, gamble, play cards, eat, socialize and discuss politics, became fashionable in London.
Excessive taxation did not spoil Britain’s appetite for chocolate. In 1874, an avant-garde London coffeehouse called At the Coffee Mill and Tobacco Roll began serving chocolate in cakes and rolls in the Spanish tradition.
History of chocolate drinking houses in London
