Up until the 1870s, chocolate didn't come in bars, bunnies, or truffles — it tended to be dark, brittle, and hand-molded with a crumbly and sandy texture that had difficulty holding its shape. Chocolate as we know it today started in 1897 with Rodolphe Lindt, the 24-year-old son of a Swiss pharmacist and confectioner.

Lindt set up two factories in Berne to begin his experiments with cocoa and sugar. However, the real discovery came by accident after an employee left the chocolate mixing machine on during the weekend, creating a smooth pool of chocolate and inventing "conching," in which heated liquid chocolate is mixed, agitated, and aerated.

Conching lets the more astringent elements of the cocoa vaporize and leave behind a smoother, sweeter product, also evenly coats tiny particles of sugar and cocoa with cocoa butter, resulting in a creamier chocolate that melts in your mouth. Next time you enjoy any sort of chocolate, remember to thank one forgetful Lindt worker.