Where does chocolate come from?
From Latin America to you - chocolate has a long history behind it.
It all started in Latin America
The 4,000-year history of chocolate began in ancient Central America, now Mexico. It was there that the first cocoa plant was discovered. The Olmecs, one of Latin America's oldest civilizations, were the first to make drinking chocolate from a cocoa plant. They drank this chocolate during rituals and used it as medicine.
Centuries later, the Mayans appointed chocolate as a drink of the gods. Mayan chocolate was a drink made from roasted and ground cocoa beans mixed with chillies, water and cornmeal. The Mayans poured the mix from one pot into another to make a thick, foamy drink called “xocolatl” - which means “bitter water”.
In the 15th century, the Aztecs used cocoa beans as currency. They believed that chocolate was a gift from the god Quetzalcoatl and drank it as a refreshing drink, as an aphrodisiac, or in preparation for war.
The history of chocolate
Chocolate reaches Spain
Nobody knows exactly when chocolate came to Spain. Legend has it that Hernán Cortés brought them to his homeland in 1528.
It is believed that Cortés discovered chocolate during an expedition to America. Instead of gold and other riches, an Aztec emperor handed him a cup of drinking chocolate.
When Cortés returned home, he showed the Spanish the cocoa seeds. Previously only served as a drink, the Spanish mixed the chocolate with sugar and honey to make the naturally bitter taste a little sweeter.
Chocolate quickly became popular with the rich and affluent. The Catholic monks also loved the drink and drank it on religious occasions.
Chocolate conquers Europe
The Spanish kept chocolate to themselves for a long time. Only after almost a century did the delicacy reach neighboring France and the rest of Europe. In 1615 the French king married Louis XIII. Anne of Austria, daughter of the Spanish King Phillip III. To celebrate this union, she brought some chocolate to the royal courts of France.
Soon chocolate was also showing up in special “chocolate houses” in Great Britain. The trend spread more and more in the rest of Europe, which is why many nations even set up their own cocoa plantations in countries around the equator.
Grated chocolate
A chocolate revolution
Chocolate remained very popular among the European aristocracy. Royalty and the upper classes consumed chocolate for its beneficial health benefits and decadence. Chocolate was still made by hand - a slow and labor-intensive process. The industrial revolution promised change soon. In 1828, the invention of the chocolate press revolutionized the production of chocolate. The innovation was able to press cocoa butter from roasted cocoa beans so that only fine cocoa powder remained.The powder was then mixed with liquid and poured into a mold in which it became a solid chocolate bar.