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Seeds in the Americas
As long ago as 600 AD, Ancient Maya and Aztec civilizations in Central America first discovered how to eat the football shaped fruit of the Theobroma cazcao tree. They used the ground and roasted seeds or beans to make a drink revered for its spiritual and health giving properties. This drink was quite spicy, with added flavours such as cinnamon and crushed chiles. So valued were these cocoa beans that they were used as currency. An early Spanish explorer recorded that 4 could buy a pumpkin, 10 a rabbit, and 100 a slave.
A European Affair
Christopher Columbus brought the first cocoa beans to from 'the New World' to Europe in 1503, but failed to impress the English court with their value and potential. It is therefore a Spanish explorer, Don Hernan Cortes who is credited with bringing the beans and their usage to Europe via Spain in 1528. Within a century the drink was fashionable and popular around Europe, made sweeter with sugar and vanilla, served warm and minus the chiles. In the 1650s the drink became popular at the court of Charles II, with the first of many London Chocolate houses opening in 1657. These houses became famous centres for gossip, intrigue and business affairs.
Around 1700 the English improved the chocolate drink by adding milk, and in 1828 a Dutch manufacturer, Van Houten, made the first solid eating chocolate by reincorporating some of the cocoa butter with the powder. Since then, many people have experimented with different flavourings and additions. In 1876 a Swiss man, MD.Peter, devised the first milk chocolate by adding dried milk powder, and in 1912 Jean Neuhaus from Brussels created the first bite sized filled chocolate, naming it a "praline". A delicacy was truly born.
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