In those days, chocolate was reserved exclusively for the very rich. It was totally unusual in a peasant's diet, and it was mixed with corn flour in Antioquia. The first unsuccessful attempts at industrializing chocolate were made during the second half of the 19th century.

The earliest account in Antioquia has it that the Sovereign State awarded the Spanish citizen Antonio Martinez de la Cuadra the exclusive privilege of installing a steam machine with a grinding capacity of 400 pounds of cocoa per day. In the 1870's, other pioneers appeared, like Pedro Herrán, Timoteo Bravo, Felix Gaitán, and Agustín Freidel, who offered processed chocolate to homes, miners, and farmers, somewhat successfully substituting stone-ground chocolate for "block" chocolate.

Compañía de Chocolate Chaves was born in Bogota in 1877, which took the unprecedented step of opening a branch in Medellín in 1904, a fact that attests to the high acceptance of its chocolate. Cookbooks published in Antioquia in the early 19th century amply chronicle the acceptance of chocolate in the common diet. Works like the Practical Cooking Manual for the City and the Farm, published by Elisa Hernández in 1908, or Maraya Velez' Cooking Recipes Collection of 1915 contain varied and appetizing dish formulas to accompany the beverage, as well as novel recipes with chocolate as the main ingredient.