The history of chocolate

A long road to the final product: a delicious bar of chocolate

The beginnings of the history of chocolate date back to the prime of the civilisation of the Maya people, who inhabited the area of today’s Mexico. The Maya favoured the aromatic, heavily spiced, bitter drink made from cacao seeds; it was drunk cold or hot and used during Mayan religious rituals. The Mayan custom of preparing and drinking chocolate was adopted by the Aztecs. Their recipes were enriched by a plethora of ingredients: paprika, vanilla, or flower petals. They valued cacao seeds immensely; so much so, that the seeds became Aztec currency.
The Aztecs, like their predecessors, used chocolate drinks during their religious practices, and among its avid enthusiasts was none other than Montezuma himself - the ruler of the Aztecs. He considered chocolate to be the “food and drink of gods,” energising, enlivening - an aphrodisiac, no less...

Seeds of the cacao tree were brought to Europe by the Spanish in the 16th c. The conquistadors, led by Hernán Cortés, took from the beaten Aztecs not only the “traditional” gold, but also the “brown” gold - cacao seeds. Initially the bitter chocolate drink gained little popularity in Europe, but with the addition of sugar it was transformed and well on its way to win the adoration of the continent. In the 17th c. chocolate came to France, where at first it was a delicacy known only at the court and among aristocracy, initially in the form of hot liquid and excellent pralines, which first graced the table of Louis XIV.

Chocolate in its solid form (a bar), instead of the satiating drink or pralines, was first made only in the 19th c.; the first bar was produced in Switzerland. It was also there that a new formula for chocolate was born, by adding powdered milk to the cocoa, thus producing milk chocolate, universally loved throughout the world. In turn the Italian innovations in the field of chocolate constituted of adding various delicacies, such as nuts, raisins, or almonds.

Chocolate – etymology of the word

The origin of the word “chocolate” is not entirely clear. According to some of the sources, the name comes from the words xococ, or sour, and átl – water (from the Náhuatl language, used in central Mexico).

Other sources trace the name back to the Maya language, where chokolhaa meant literally liquid or hot drink.

*Why is chocolate sometimes referred to as drink of the gods or food of the gods? The latin name given to the cacao tree is Theobroma cacao and, (apart from the word cacao), originates from the combination of the words theo (god) and broma (food).