Coenraad Johannes van Houten
Coenraad Johannes van Houten was a Dutch chemist and chocolate maker known for the treatment of cocoa mass with alkaline salts to remove the bitter taste and make cocoa solids more water-soluble; the resulting product is still called "Dutch process chocolate". He is also credited with introducing a method for pressing the fat from roasted cocoa beans, though this was in fact his father, Casparus van Houten's invention.
Portrait of Coenraad Johannes van Houten
Dutch process cocoa (left) compared to natural cocoa (right)
Chocolate, or cocoa, is a food made from roasted and ground cacao seed kernels that is available as a liquid, solid, or paste, either on its own or as a flavoring agent in other foods. Cacao has been consumed in some form for at least 5,300 years starting with the Mayo-Chinchipe culture in what is present-day Ecuador. Later Mesoamerican civilizations also consumed chocolate beverages before being introduced to Europe in the 16th century.
Chocolate in its most common forms: powder and bars
Image from a Maya ceramic depicting a container of frothed chocolate
Mexica. Man Carrying a Cacao Pod, 1440–1521. Volcanic stone, traces of red pigment. Brooklyn Museum.
"Traités nouveaux & curieux du café du thé et du chocolate", by Philippe Sylvestre Dufour, 1685 ("New and curious treatises of coffee, tea and chocolate")