6. In 1657, the first chocolate houses opened in England
A few centuries ago, instead of heading to the nearest Starbucks you’d be meeting your friends at a chocolate house. Once the English worked out what the strange beans carried by the Spanish galleons they plundered were actually for, and developed a taste for the delicious drink, demand for chocolate became so great that people began making a living selling chocolate on the streets. Inevitably, this led to the establishment of permanent establishments, chocolate houses. The first chocolate house in the UK opened its doors to well-heeled customers in London in 1657, and others soon appeared around the country.
Unfortunately, these chocolate houses attracted a rowdy bunch. The novelty and expense of the drink – as well as its reputation for curing hangovers and being an aphrodisiac – made it appealing to the worst-behaved listless aristocrats in the country, who would drink chocolate in great quantities and behave in a generally rakish manner. The chocolate houses were notorious as a result, and the gambling room at White’s Chocolate House was simply known as Hell. Moralists such as the artist William Hogarth made seething criticisms and depictions of events at such places, and common consensus was that they were best avoided.