Through research we now know that the first chocolate formats came in an ancient drink used by the Mesoamerican indigenous cultures. It was used in religious and social lives of those people as early as 250-900 AD, also known as the Classic Period. The Mayans frequently picked the beans from the rainforests around their city. The word for cocoa tree was “Cacahuaquchtl,” and the word for chocolate was “”xocoatl”, which literally means “bitter water”. The beans were fermented and then roasted to form a paste. The drink was completed through adding chili peppers, cornmeal, and other various substances.
The adoption of cocoa into the Aztec culture, once they began to play a dominant role in Mesoamerica, is an important one because it quickly became a type of currency. Eventually, chocolate became an integral part of the Aztec way of life. For the Mayans, the drink was typically reserved as royalty, while for the Aztecs, it was reserved for rulers, priests, honored merchants, and decorated soldiers.
The Aztecs believed that power and wisdom came from eating the fruit or beans. Originally, many people believed that cocoa beans had a high variety of aphrodisiac qualities, too. Amazingly, when Christopher Columbus returned to Europe and brought cocoa beans with him, it did not demand immediate attention. It was through repeated trips to the New World that the Europeans finally discovered that the beans had a usage as currency.
It was by this period that the Aztecs had changed the bitter liquid name of “xocoatl” to their name of “chocolatl,” which means “warm liquid”. In the year 1519, Hernando Cortex Begin stared up the first plantation of cocoa trees. The plantation, which was created in the name of Spain, gave the Spanish King Charles the Fifth his first experience of spicy chocolate. It was also Hernando who began combining chocolate with the bean, thereby beginning a long combination of a sweet dessert. In time, experimentation led to combining the item with nutmeg, vanilla, cloves, and cinnamon, along with sugar.
Neither other countries nor the working class were permitted access to the drink originally, as it was reserved for the nobility. Once the Spanish monks began to cultivate the beans, however, the rest of the world was given the opportunity to enjoy them. Some parts of Europe continued to use chocolate as a currency as it spread throughout Europe as a delicacy.
Today, decades and centuries of growth later, chocolate continues to enjoy immense popularity. Although the original sacred brew does not hold the same status as it once did as a religious drink or for royalty only, it has over time, improved in taste. While cocoa may not be a aphrodisiac, research has proved that dark chocolate is good for you and your continual health.
