The History of Chocolate

The Aztec Indians also held the cocoa bean in high regard. They also drank this unsweetened cocoa beverage in their sacred ceremonies, but they refered to it as "chocolatl," which means warm liquid. Montezuma II, a royal monarch of the Azteccs, reportedly drank 50 or more chocolatl drinks a day from a golden goblet.

Cocoa beans were used by both the Mayans and Aztecs as currency, and according to a 16th century Spanish writing, a rabbit was worth 4 to 10 cocoa beans and a mule was worth 50 cocoa beans.

Christopher Columbus is responsible for introducing cocoa beans to Europe, although they did not gain popularity until much later. Columbus reportedly brought back a small sample of the beans from his last voyage to the Caribbean Islands in 1502. He presented the beans among other treasures to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, but their future importance was not recogniezed at that time.

Hernando Cortes, a Spanish explorer, played a larger roll in introducing chocolate to Europe. When Cortes and his men arrived in what is now known as Mexico in 1519, he was believed by the Aztecs to be the reincarnation of a god-king who had been exiled from the land. Montezuma greeted Cortes with a large banquet and served the bitter drink "chocolatl."

Cortes experimented with the bitter drink by adding sugar cane to make it more pleasing to the palate. He also established cacao plantings in the Caribbean before his return to Spain.

When he returned to Spain, the new version of chocolatl was well received by the wealthy. Over time the chocolate drink underwent further changes when newly imported spices such as vanilla and cinnamon were added to the drink. At some point, someone decided to serve the drink hot, the first hot chocolate, and this was widely accepted by the Spanish aristocracy. Spain proceeded to plant cacao trees in its colonies in Ecuador, Venezuela, Peru and Jamaica to ensure an ample supply of cocoa beans. The cocoa drinks enjoyed by the Spanish were kept from the rest of Europe for almost 100 years.

It is thought that Spanish monks were ultimately responsible for the spread of cocoa to the rest of Europe when they discussed it with the French. In 1580 the first cocoa processing plant was built in Spain, and it did not take long before the chocolate drink was acclaimed throughtout Europe. From Europe, chocolate drinking spread across the English Channel to Great Britain.

The history of chocolate continued with the introduction of the steam machine. Mass production of cocoa became possible thus dropping the price so that it was within the financial reach of almost everyone.

Another step in the evolution of chocolate came with the invention of the cocoa press in 1828. This helped to further reduce the price of cocoa and, more importantly, it improved the quality of the chocolate beverage by allowing the removal of about half of the cocoa butter from the cocoa beans. This process left behind a residue that was processed into a fine powder allowing for a smoother consistency in the chocolate drink.

The 19th century brought two major developments in the history of chocolate. In 1847, an English company introduced the first solid eating chocolate. This chocolate was made by combining melted cocoa butter with sugar and cocoa powder, producing a smooth textured chocolate that quickly replaced the coarse-grained chocolate. The second development occurred in in 1876 when Daniel Peter in Vevey, Switzerland found a way to add milk to chocolate, thus creating what we know today as milk chocolate.

The first chocolate factory in American was established in 1765 in New England and the production of chocolate took off from there. Today there are many, many forms of chocolate used in cooking and the variety of recipes using chocolate goes on and on.