History of Chocolate - Page 2
The Olmecs crushed the beans, added water, spices, and chillies, and drank the liquid. It was most definitely not a candy or a sweet. It was, however, a highly valued drink. Later Central American civilizations would inherit this practice of drinking this bitter chocolate. The drink was used in major religious ceremonies and at the funerals of nobles and kings. It was a symbol of abundance and great wealth. Cocoa beans were even used by the Mayans as a form of money, traded for goods and services. Both the Aztecs and the Maya had gods that were specifically responsible for bringing humans chocolate (Quetxalcaotl was the Aztec god who brought the cocoa tree to people, Chak ek Chuah was the Mayan saint of cocoa).
This is basically where things stood when Spain began its invasion of the Aztec Empire in the 16th century. The first documented contact between Europeans and cocoa was in 1521. The Spanish immediately recognized the value that the Aztecs placed on the plant and immediately began shipping the seeds back to Spain. The history of chocolate was irretrievably changed with the first shipments of the seeds back to Spain. It was the Spanish who began taking out the more bitter and spicy herbs, adding sugar and cinnamon instead and chocolate began its evolution into the form we recognize today. The drink was highly valued in the Spanish royal court. So prized, in fact, that the Spaniards kept chocolate a secret from the rest of Europe for 100 years! Even after other European countries discovered chocolate, the drink was still reserved for the rich and powerful aristocracy. In France, for example, the state held a monopoly on chocolate production and the only people who were allowed to drink it were members of the royal court.
It would remain that way until the mid 1700’s. By this time, people had already begun mixing their chocolate with milk to make a smoother drink. In the mid 1700’s the industrial revolution would began to alter the history of chocolate again. The process of growing and manufacturing chocolate became more and more automated as the industrial revolution progressed. The price of chocolate dropped significantly over the years. Soon, solid chocolate was mass produced and made available to the general public at significantly lowered prices.
