About 2000 years ago, the Mayan people were the first, so it is believed, to create chocolate, which they consumed as a beverage. It was also used by the Aztecs and later, was introduced to Europe by the Spanish conquistadors, where it became especially popular at the Spanish royal court.
The chocolate drink of the Mayans and Aztecs was not sweet, as is popular today. These early chocolate drinkers seasoned their beverage with chili peppers, vanilla and various other ingredients, making a frothy, spicy, bitter drink, which was served cold and was thought to have medicinal properties. This was most likely due to the mood enhancing properties of the theobromine and caffeine in the chocolate.
In 1528, Hernan Cortes, having comprehensively conquered Montezuma's Aztec warriors, returned to Spain, taking precious cocoa beans with him. The beverage became immensely popular among the Spanish aristocracy. The common people could not really afford the chocolate, as it was expensive to import it from South America, where the cocoa beans grew.
The cocoa beans began to be commercially imported in the late 1500s. The European aristocracy began to modify the drink, preferring to sweeten the brew with sugar, and leave out the chili pepper. They added vanilla and cinnamon to make it spicy, and they served it hot. The first "Chocolate House" opened in 1657, selling this luxury beverage to the rich and famous.
Towards the end of the 1600s, it was found that adding milk to the hot chocolate made it more palatable. In the early 1800s it was discovered that the cocoa powder could be separated from the cocoa butter in the cocoa beans, which led to the creation of chocolate in bar form by the combining of cocoa powder with small amounts of the rich cocoa butter. Thus, milk chocolate was born, and was made in varying flavours, such as dark bitter-sweet, or white chocolate.
Today, there are endless variations to suit any taste, and chocolate in all its many forms remains extremely popular. Indeed, how much less sweet the world would be without it
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