Introduction

Appears in

Published 1987

About

Chocolate is made from the bean of the cacao tree, which is native to the tropical areas of Central and South America. Thousands of years before the Europeans discovered it, the Mayans and Incas were brewing it as a drink, offering it to their gods during tribal ritual, and using it as currency between individuals and states.

Although Columbus returned from the New World in 1502 bearing cocoa beans for the King of Spain, no one showed much interest in them. Twenty years later, Cortez again brought cocoa to Spain. He had first tasted it at the Mexican court of Montezuma in a cold, bitter drink called chocolatl, and he then planted cocoa beans in Africa on his way back to Spain. The Spaniards added vanilla and sugar to the spicy concoction he offered them, improving it so much that for nearly a century they jealously guarded the secrets of its cultivation and preparation from the rest of Europe.