History of Chocolate
The History of Chocolate Cacao, chocolat, cocoa, and xocoatl all mean just about the same thing, chocolate. The Maya Indians were the first to use chocolate followed by the Aztecs. The chocolate as we know it today was far different from the chocolate thousands of years ago. Then chocolate was more of a spice and was consumed as a cold spiced drink with other ingredients such as chili peppers and cornmeal which were all very bitter in taste. It wasn’t until the year nineteen hundred that Hershey’s made the first bar of milk chocolate that we know today. ... The Aztecs called chocolate xocolatl, but the Spanish had so much trouble saying this that they changed the name to chocolat. Finally when chocolat was brought back to the Americas, after being in Europe for so many years, it became known as chocolate (Athena Review). ... The Aztecs, like the Mayans before Page 2 them, also enjoyed Cacao only as a cold beverage, made from the raw beans of the cocoa tree and was also bitter in taste, called Xocolatl, and for reminder Xocolatl is another name for chocolate . Chocolate in those times was only drank by royalty or someone of great wealth. ... ” When he said this he was referring to chocolate. He drank up to fifty cups of chocolate each day out of golden goblets. ... On the top of these golden cups, around the lip, was engraved “The holder of chocolate” (Athena Review). ... However, when they set out they heard stories of all the gold in Central America, and that’s what they found, only a different kind of gold, chocolate. That just goes to show how highly regarded chocolate was to people all over the world. When they brought back the chocolate to Europe, the recipe for making the chocolate drink was kept secret so only the rich could buy it, and during that time it Page 3 meant only royalty could buy it, mainly because they were the only people who could afford it.