As part of their Twinings tea display, the Twickenham Museum have new on long-term loan this lovely Royal Vienna double-handled chocolate cup. Dating to around 1780, it would once of been part of a service of around 30 pieces, including a teapot, coffee pot, sugar bowl, milk jug, slop bowl and other cups and sauces. The cup is finely painted with en grisaille pallet featuring the Greek Demi-god Hercules and the god Apollo, depicted here with the celestial globe and laurel leaf. On the rim of the cup and cover is a variant of Greek key, also known as ‘meander’. On the top of the cover is finial in the form of a flower. On the base of the cup is the shield like device for the manufacturer of Vienna. The quality of painting on this particular cup is of the highest order. Chocolate first arrived in England in the mid-17th century, trailing behind coffee but arriving before tea became a national obsession. It was initially marketed more as a medicine than a treat. By the late 1600s, "Chocolate Houses" became the trendiest spots in London. While Coffee Houses were for business and news, Chocolate Houses were for pleasure, gambling, and high-stakes politics.  As the 18th century progressed, chocolate moved from the public house to the aristocratic breakfast table. It became a ritual of the morning levée (the process of getting dressed). By the late 1700s, the heavy taxation on cocoa and the rising popularity of tea (which was easier to prepare) began to push chocolate into the background, where it remained a niche luxury until the Industrial Revolution turned it into a solid confection.