Catch up TV

Series 1: 2. Chocolate

This delectable episode traces our love affair with chocolate back to York. It was here that chocolate was transformed from a luxury drink for the rich into the nation's favourite treat. Presenter Steph McGovern leads the makers through the ages, guided by Yorkshireman and chocolatier Paul A Young.\n\nChocolate started as an expensive luxury drink. The makers begin the painstaking task of preparing the cocoa beans from scratch; roasting, shelling and grinding the beans, as would have been done in the Georgian era. Then in early Victorian times, the makers have to create a more affordable blended drink. They are appalled to learn that the ingredients include plaster, brick dust and crushed sea shells. The makers find a new respect for the health and safety laws that brought the poisoners to book.\n\nNext, they make solid chocolate at last, made possible by Victorian ingenuity. They are creating hand-decorated chocolates with exotic flavours for an expensive selection box. The makers learn that late Victorian chocolate boxes were seen as the equivalent of a marriage proposal. In the 1930s, chocolate became available for all. The makers become Kit Kat developers, a snack created for the lunch boxes of the workers of Britain. This famous bar was invented in York and became one of the most successful chocolate bars in the entire world. Now in the 21st century, our four time travelling chocolatiers invent some artisanal chocolate bars of their own. They are all thrilled to have so much creative leeway and so many ingredients to choose from. It is clear that chocolate making is still thriving in York today.

Source: BBC 2