This article investigates chocolate in Ancien Régime society through a selection of treatises, dictionaries, and novels from the Enlightenment. These texts provide valuable information on its benefits, preparation, and consumption – revealing new dietary as well as social rituals, closely linked to the libertine imagination. In addition, the novels inform the evolution of descriptive practices. The analysis of short excerpts enables us to propose a few topoi, such as “to take one’s chocolate,” “to invite to take chocolate,” “to feel pleasure with chocolate” or “(to attempt) to administer poison or narcotic in chocolate.”