The History of Chocolate

There are certain moments in the history of mankind when quantum leaps are made, such as when nomadic stone-age men settled long enough in one place to plant crops and domesticate animals; the invention of the wheel is another such moment, as was the discovery that the addition of lime to cornmeal, when soaked in water overnight, softened the tough outer husk of the cereal to make a protein-rich dough. The word for this process is nixtamalization, which comes from the language of the Central American Olmecs, whose diet was transformed by the process. The Olmec people settled the fertile lowlands of the Mexican gulf, cultivating maize, chillies, avocados, pumpkins and beans, and it was almost certainly the Olmecs who first cultivated the cocoa tree (Theobroma cacao).