In this episode of True Crime Culinary, we unwrap the chilling story of Christiana Edmunds — the Victorian poisoner who slipped strychnine into chocolate creams — and trace chocolate’s own extraordinary journey across continents and centuries.

We go way back: to the Indigenous origins of cacao in Central and South America, where chocolate was medicine, ritual, ceremony, and even currency. Then we follow cacao across the Atlantic, into colonial systems powered by enslaved labor, and into the hands of European confectioners.

By the 19th century, Swiss innovators — Daniel Peter, Henri Nestlé, Rodolphe Lindt, Philippe Suchard, and Jean Tobler — transformed chocolate entirely. Milk chocolate, conching, mass production, global export: these breakthroughs turned chocolate from a sacred drink into an everyday treat.

Their success made chocolate beloved.
That love made it trusted.
And that trust is exactly what Christiana Edmunds exploited.

Join us for a story that blends crime, colonization, culinary innovation, and the surprisingly dark history behind something we all think of as sweet.

References:

1. “Christiana Edmunds.” Wikipedia.
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christiana_Edmunds

2. “Death by Chocolate: The Brighton Poisoner.” Brighton Museums.
   https://brightonmuseums.org.uk/discovery/history-stories/death-by-chocolate/

3. Women’s History Network — “The Case of the Chocolate Cream Killer: The Poisonous Passion of Christiana Edmunds.”
   https://womenshistorynetwork.org/the-case-of-the-chocolate-cream-killer-the-poisonous-passion-of-christiana-edmunds/

4. “The Chocolate Cream Poisoner, 1871.” Crimes Through Time.
   https://crimesthroughtime.co.uk/the-chocolate-cream-poisoner-1871/

5. “A Lady Poisons – The Case of Christiana Edmunds.” History Women Brighton.
   https://historywomenbrighton.com/2015/03/10/a-lady-poisons-the-case-of-christiana-edmunds/

6. Historian Andrew — “Christiana Edmunds: The Chocolate Cream Killer.”
   https://historianandrew.medium.com/christina-edmunds-the-chocolate-cream-killer-568b117a61e0

1. “History of Chocolate.” Wikipedia.
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_chocolate

2. “History of Chocolate: Cocoa Beans & Xocolatl.” History.com.
   https://www.history.com/articles/history-of-chocolate

3. Fauchon Paris — “The History of Chocolate: Where Does It Come From?”
   https://www.fauchon.com/en/blogs/news/history-chocolate-origins

1. “Chocolate and Switzerland: A Story That Goes Way Back.” House of Switzerland (2023).
   https://houseofswitzerland.org/swissstories/history/chocolate-and-switzerland-story-goes-way-back

2. “Swiss Chocolate.” Wikipedia.
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_chocolate

3. “The Sweet History of Chocolate.” History.com.
   (Covers Lindt, Nestlé, and industrialization context.)
   https://www.history.com/news/the-sweet-history-of-chocolate