The tradition of proferring offerings of love on St. Valentine's Day is well documented. The role of giving chocolate on this day is not. We can, however, confirm the practice originated in the mid-19th century. At that time chocolate was an expensive and highly valued commodity. Some folks believe chocolate is given because it's an aphrodesiac. Others reason it's a clever marketing scheme developed by confectioners to promote products in the seasonal lull between Christmas and Easter. No matter what the reason, the end result is lovely and delicious!
About chocolate packaging
"Initially, chocolate was packed as unwrapped bars in wooden boxes with paper labels, displayed
on the shop counter. Individual paper wrappers developed soon afterwards. Gold printing and
metal foils repeated the luxury message which gold leaf had given to sweets in earlier centuries.
Design used the latest images, and graphics publicized the desirability of chocolate. Even more
status was attached to special boxes, decorated with pictures, lined with tissue and paper lace. As
the package, not the contents, occupied more and more of the foreground, so advertising has
shifted almost entirely from the tast of confectionery towards style by association."
---Sugar-Plums and Sherbet: The Prehistory of Sweets, Laura Mason [Prospect
Books:Devon] 2004 (p. 208)
"Cadbury marketed the first box of chocolate candies in 1868, packed in a box decorated in the
sentimental Victorian style."
SOURCE: Chocolate
timeline
About giving chocolate on Valentine's Day
"Whatever the real effect of chocolate, the origins of chocolate-giving on Valentine's Day are
obscure."
---Giving Chocolate On Valentine's Day More Than Romantic, KAREN SCHWARTZ,
Associated Press Writer, The Associated Press, February 12, 1989
"The tradition of giving chocolates on Valentine's Day can be traced to Richard Cadbury, of the
English chocolate-making family, who "invented" the first Valentine's Day candy box during the
Victorian era. The Victorians, who fancied decorating cards with plump cupids shooting arrows
of love, later transferred the image to the lids of heart-shaped boxes filled with dreamy
combinations of silken chocolates."
---For Lovers, Chocolate, Niki Dwyer (UPI), The Buffalo News, February 11, 1998,
Lifestyles (p. 2D)
Cadbury itself acknowledges making boxes of chocolates, though it stakes no claims on Valentine's Day:
"Cadbury's 'fancy chocolates' (or assortments) were sold in decorated boxes with small
pictures that children could cut out to stick into scrapbooks.
Richard Cadbury, who had considerable artistic talents, set out to introduce more ambitious
and attractive designs from his own paintings: many of his original boxes still exist. Using his
own
children as models, or depicting flowers and scenes from holiday journeys, he introduced the first
British made fancy chocolate boxes. These proved to be popular, helping both the Cadbury
business and the confectionery trade in general.
Elaborate chocolate boxes were prized by the late Victorians as special gifts, to be used as
trinket or button boxes once the fancy chocolates had been eaten: designs therefore had after-use
very much in mind. Designs ranged from superb velvet covered caskets with bevelled mirrors
and
silk lined jewel boxes, to pretty boxes with pictures of kittens, landscapes or attractive girls on
the
lid.
Their popularity continued until their disappearance during the 1939-45 war: Victorian and
Edwardian chocolate boxes are now treasured collectors' items.
In the 1870s the quality of the chocolates produced by the company following the introduction
of the cocoa press helped Cadbury break the monopoly French producers previously enjoyed in
the British market."
SOURCE: Cadbury
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Research conducted by Lynne
Olver, editor The Food
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