One of my favourite canals and, so the story goes, the place where cocoa powder was invented. On the city plans of 1613 the Leliegracht was to have been one of four transverse streets linking the main canal rings. That plan was dropped and the canal was dug instead, becoming an important transport route between the old city centre and the fast-growing working class Jordaan. The house at number 49 hosted the first meeting of the Felix Meritis association in 1777. Ten years later the organisation moved to the Keizersgracht. In 1815 a certain Casparus van Houten got permission to install a chocolate mill at number 22 and his son Coenraad went on to make the highly profitable discovery of how to separate cocoa butter from the ground and roasted beans and so produce cocoa powder.