Chocolate in Seventeenth-century England and Spain: An Edited Transcript of the Earl of Sandwich’s Journal

Abstract

In the late 1660s, the first Earl of Sandwich and his aide John Werden compiled a remarkable set of information on the manufacture and consumption of chocolate in Spain and England. These details, entered into Sandwich’s diary, included an exceptionally valuable chocolate recipe supplied by Charles II himself. From Madrid, Werden provided illustrated accounts of chocolate manufacture in Spain and of elite ways to consume the drink. He supplied detailed guidance on making frozen delicacies, while Sandwich recorded perhaps the earliest workable recipe for a chocolate ice in English. They appear to have been gathering information not just for purposes of gourmandizing, but with an eye to the Royal Society’s investigations into the history of trades and to England’s colonial plans for Jamaica. Published here for the first time, with an introduction, translations and explanatory notes, Sandwich’s manuscript offers vivid insights into the technologies, customs and motives surrounding the adoption of chocolate from the Americas into Spanish and English cultures.