Chocolate Origins

About 2000 years ago, the Mayan people was the first, so he believes, to create the chocolate, which he consumed as a beverage. It was also used by the Aztecs and later was introduced to Europe by Spanish conquistadors, where it became especially popular in the Spanish royal court.


The chocolate drink of the Mayans and Aztecs was not sweet, just as popular today. These drinkers earliest chocolate drink seasoned with chile peppers, vanilla and other ingredients, making a frothy beverage, spicy, bitter, which was served cold and thought to have medicinal properties. This was most likely due to mood enhancing features of Theobromine and caffeine in chocolate.

In 1528, Hernan Cortes conquered the Aztec warriors understanding of Montezuma, he returned to Spain, taking precious cocoa beans with him. The drink became immensely popular among the Spanish aristocracy. The people could not afford real chocolate, it was expensive to import it from South America where cacao beans grow.

The cocoa beans began to be commercially imported in the last 1500s. The European aristocracy began to change the drink, preferring to sweeten the brew with sugar, and leave out the cayenne pepper. Add vanilla and cinnamon to make it spicy and served hot. The first "chocolate house" opened in 1657, selling the beverage from the luxury of the rich and famous.

Towards the end of the 1600s, it was found that adding milk to hot chocolate made it more palatable. In the early 1800s it was discovered that cocoa powder could be separated from the cocoa butter in cacao beans, which led to the creation of the chocolate bar shape by combining the powder with small amounts of cocoa butter rich cocoa. Thus was born milk chocolate and chocolate was made in different flavor, such bittersweet dark or white.

Today, there are endless variations to suit any taste, and chocolate in all its many forms remains extremely popular. In fact, the less sweet the world would be without him.