History of chocolate

 Chocolate's history began in Mesoamerica. Chocolate-based fermented beverages have been around since at least 1900 BC to 1500 BC. Cacao seeds were regarded by the Mexica as a gift from the god of wisdom Quetzalcoatl, and they had once been so valuable that they were used as money.  Chocolate was initially only made as a bitter liquid that was combined with spices or corn puree and served as a drink. It was thought to enhance arousal and give the drinker stamina. These beverages are now made by locals in the south of Mexico and the northern triangle of Central America and go by the name "Chilate" (El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras). When sugar was added to it after its arrival in Europe in the sixteenth century, it quickly gained popularity throughout society, first among the aristocracy and later among the working classes. In the 20th century, chocolate was thought to be a necessity for American soldiers' wartime rations. 

The word "chocolate" is derived from the uncertainly etymological Classical Nahuatl word xocoltl and was introduced to English via Spanish.

History in Europe

Early history

Christopher Columbus encountered the cacao bean on his fourth mission to the Americas on August 15, 1502, when he and his crew seized a large native canoe that proved to contain among other goods for trade, cacao beans. His son Ferdinand commented that the natives greatly valued the beans, which he termed almonds, "for when they were brought on board ship together with their goods, I observed that when any of these almonds fell, they all stooped to pick it up, as if an eye had fallen." But while Columbus took cacao beans with him back to Spain, it made no impact until Spanish friars introduced chocolate to the Spanish court.

Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés may have been the first European to encounter chocolate when he observed it in the court of Montezuma in 1519. In 1568, Bernal Díaz, who accompanied Cortés in the conquest of the Aztec Empire, wrote of this encounter which he witnessed:

From time to time, they served him [Montezuma] in cups of pure gold a certain drink made from cacao. It was said that it gave one power over women, but I never saw it. I did see them bring in more than fifty large pitchers of cacao with froth in it, and he drank some of it, the women serving with great reverence

Loathsome to such who are not acquainted with it, having a scum or froth that is a very unpleasant taste. Yet it is a drink very much esteemed among the Indians, wherewith they feast noble men who pass through their country. The Spaniards, both men, and women that are accustomed to the country are very greedy for this chocolate. They say they make diverse sorts of it, some hot, some cold, and some temperate, and put therein much of that "chili"; yea, they make paste thereof, the which they say is good for the stomach and against the catarrh.