Chocolate Drinks

The Olmec civilization made a beverage, chocolatl, from the roasted and ground seeds of Theobroma cacao (cocoa tree) as early as 1600 bce. The Maya and Aztec continued the practice, instructing Spanish conquistadores on how to process the raw cacao beans. In 1528 Hernán Cortés brought cacao to the Spanish court, where the Mesoamerican delicacy quickly was adopted. The royal physicians praised it as a food and medicine, and King Philip successfully kept cacao away from the rest of Europe until 1655, when Great Britain took control of his cacao plantations in Jamaica. By 1657 the first of many chocolate houses had opened its doors in London.