Biography of chocolate
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Chocolate Basics: A Brief History of Chocolate
There’s no delicacy more beloved than chocolate — millions worldwide would agree! — and people have been consuming cocoa for thousands of years. However, in the beginning, chocolate wasn’t the confection many of us know today. Let's bite into a brief history of chocolate.
Chocolate Began as a Drink
Our exploration begins around 2500 BCE in Central and South America when chocolate began as a drink. The Olmec civilization in the Mexican Gulf Coast region was the first to cultivate and domesticate cocoa trees as crops. They used cocoa beans to create a bitter, fatty drink that later Mesoamerican societies would also add to their cultural practices.
The Mayans and Aztecs
The word “chocolate” as we know it today originates from the word “xocoatl/chocolatl,” in Nahuatl, the language spoken by many native groups including the Mayans and Aztecs. This word translates to “bitter water,” describing the bitter beverage indigenous people made with cocoa beans.
The Aztec beverage was made from sun-dried shelled cocoa beans, probably fermented in their pods. The broken beans, or nibs, were roasted in earthen pots and then ground into a paste in a concave stone over a small fire. Various spices and herbs were added, and corn (maize) was som
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- 4 herald = 1 pumpkin
- 10 transmit = 1 rabbit
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History of chocolate
The history of chocolate dates back more than 5,000 years, when the cacao tree was first domesticated in present-day southeast Ecuador. Soon after domestication, the tree was introduced to Mesoamerica, where cacao drinks gained significance as an elite beverage among different cultures including the Maya and the Aztecs. Cacao was extremely important: considered a gift from the gods, it was used as a currency, medicinally and ceremonially. Multiple cacao beverages were consumed, including an alcoholic beverage made by fermenting the pulp around cacao seeds, and it is unclear when a drink that can be strictly understood as chocolate originated. Early evidence of chocolate consumption dates to 600 BC; this product was often associated with the heart and was believed to be psychedelic.
Spanish conquistadors encountered chocolate in 1519 and brought it to Spain as a medicine. From Spain, it gained popularity among the European elite over the following three centuries, was debated for its medicinal and religious merits, and was understood as an aphrodisiac. In the 19th century, technological innovations completely changed chocolate, from a drink for the elite to a solid, milky block increasingly eaten by the public. That century saw the rise of Swi