Sweet History Of Chocolate

Chocolate. We love it, you love it and every day, millions of people enjoy it in all its delicious forms. But where does it come from and how did it get to be so popular? In this short history of chocolate, we'll look at how a simple, rather bitter-tasting little bean was transformed into one of the best loved foods in the world.
Now, if you're sitting comfortably, preferably with a big bag of your favourite Thorntons, we'll begin...

The amazing Aztecs…
Our journey starts around 4,000 years ago in the Americas. Ancient tribes like the Aztecs and Mayans revered cacao (or cocoa) beans, eating them before going into battle because they were thought to give strength. The Aztecs also believed that cacao actually came from paradise itself and whoever ate the beans would be blessed with wisdom, energy and, ahem, enhanced sexual powers.

Hang on, we've got an idea!
The Aztecs are thought to have been the first people to turn the cacao beans into a more edible form. They roasted the beans, ground them into a paste and dissolved the paste in water with a few spices and chillies. It might not sound particularly yummy, but there it was, the very first drinking chocolate. They called it chocolate, which means bitter drink, and it was lapped up in sacred rituals and quaffed by elite tribesmen for the next few hundred years, until...

Invasion!
In the 1500s the Europeans decided to go exploring and stick their noses in. We're all familiar with Chris Columbus, the Spanish conquistadors' ‘discovery' of America and just how badly that turned out for the native people. But at first the Spanish didn't realise the potential for cacao, preferring other wonders like gold.

Welcome to Spain
In 1519, the Spanish conqueror Hernando Cortez visited the court of Emperor Montezuma in Mexico, where he was presented with a golden goblet of chocolate. Realising he'd stumbled across something pretty amazing, Cortez took some cacao beans back to Spain, where monks perfected a technique for roasting and grinding them. They also had the brilliant idea of replacing the chilli with cane sugar to improve the taste.

Source : articlesbase