Anthony Sammarco will be signing copies of his newest book, “The Baker Chocolate Company A Sweet History”  and giving a lecture at two convenient locations:

October 13    Cunningham Park, 75 Edge Hill Road, Milton   7:00 PM
Sponsored by the Milton Historical Society

October 15      Lower Mills Branch, Boston Public Library
27 Richmond Street, Dorchester    6:30 PM

Chocolate! That creamy, rich, delicious confection we adore is something that few of us can resist, refuse or deny ourselves. Yet this sweet and decadent delicacy is something far different that what was enjoyed by our ancestors just a few centuries ago when it was a delicious and flavorful drink referred to as the “Food of the Gods.”

The Baker Chocolate Company: A Sweet History

By Anthony M. Sammarco
Published by The History Press, 2009

In his new book The Baker Chocolate Company: A Sweet History, Anthony M. Sammarco chronicles the evolution of chocolate from the savory cacahuatl to the sweet delicacy of what we know today. The Baker Chocolate Company was founded along the Neponset River in 1765 by Dr. James Baker and James Hannon, a skilled chocolate maker. Over the next two centuries, the company became one of the leading manufacturers of chocolate and cocoa in North America. In the book, Sammarco uses numerous illustrations some of which are from the collection of the Boston Athenaeum. As Baron Justus von Leibig extolled about chocolate, “it is highly nourishing and easily digested, and is filled to repair wasted strength, preserve health, and prolong life.”

Anthony M. Sammarco is the author of over fifty five books on the history and development of Boston and the neighborhoods, and he teaches history at the Urban College of Boston.

Contact: asammarco@msn.com