The Maya didn't only used cacao as currency, they also found a way to make a chocolate drink from it and used this chocolate beverage in rituals sometimes even to replace as blood, they used this drink in marriage ceremonies and even had a cacao God to worship.
Now the Maya only used cacao for drinking only, solid chocolate wasn't invented till after the 18th century.
The Maya prepared their chocolate beverage by harvesting the beans, fermenting them, drying them out, roasting, removed the outer layer and finely griding it to make it into a paste. With this paste they added hot water, chili, vanilla, annetto, allspice, honey and types of flowers. They then frothed the chocolate drink by pouring it back and forth between two containers. The Maya believed this was not only the best part, but the most important.
Later on the Aztecs came along and conquered the Maya and their land. The Aztecs continued using the chocolate traditions and even drank this chocolate drink cold. Around 1200 - 1500 AD the Aztecs figured out how to patten and sell, by trading their cacao beans. The trade started in Texas and moved on from there.
In 1502 Columbus was the first white man to see cacao plants, however blew his chance to be the first white man to discover the beans since he saw little important to the beans.
In 1518 Cortez 'discovered" the cacao beans and conquered the Aztecs for the beans and the land.
Later on the Spaniards realized that after adding sugar to the bitter chocolate drink that it became pleasant to drink, they kept the adding of the sugar a secret to themselves for some time.
Spanish doctors had all agreed that chocolate cured fevers, body pain, aiding in digestion and cooling the body, so doctors started to subscribe chocolate as medicine. The Church also approved chocolate to be a nutritional supplement for eating while fasting. However this did not last long, for people did not want chocolate for only a supplement and medicine they wanted to consume it more often and so they did.
Chocolate then spread throughout Europe, it was all the rage, and the first time caffeine has ever arrived in Europe. Even though caffeine is very low in chocolate, tea and coffee had not shown up in Europe just yet. After chocolate showed up in Europe there was a high demand for chocolate, so plantations sprung up and thousands of people were enslaved to produce cacao beans. The cacao beans were later moved from Central America and was planted in Venezuela, Java, Sumatra, West Indies and Africa. However the only difference was is that Central America used Criollo which is a higher quality cacao bean. Everyone else used Forastero for it was easier and cheaper to grow, even though the quality was not as good. To this day 90% of chocolate is made by the Forastero and not the Criollo.
After 1800's chocolate inventing began!
1850's and Englishman named Joseph Fry made the very first solid Chocolate Bar by adding more cacao butter to cacao powder and sugar and less water.
1875, Daniel Peter and Henri Nestle added condescend milk to solid chocolate and made the first Milk Chocolate Bar.
1879, Swiss Chap Rudolphe Lindt invented the Conch, a machine that rotated and mixed chocolate to a perfectly smooth consistency.
1907, Milton Hershey's factory was making 33 million kisses per day for consumers.
Its amazing how chocolate was made, discovered, fought for, reinvented and how we use it today. It is said that is you let chocolate melt slowly in your mouth that your heart and brain begin to race faster than is you were passionately kissing someone... Is it true... not sure... Maybe I'll try it...
Thanks for Reading!!
-Ioanna and Raven
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