HISTORY AND MYTH OF CHOCOLATE

If the etymology of the word "chocolate" remains imprecise and still subject to some doubts, the Aztecs are indisputably the origin of the beverage. Their god Quetzalcoatl was the gardener of heaven. They worshipped him as the guardian of cocoa, dispenser of strength and richness. In fact, the seeds of this tree were also used as currency, both to buy goods and as a tribute to the king.
The refined Aztec civilization gradually flavoured the cocoa paste with spices in order to prepare a nourishing and invigorating beverage.

When Christopher Columbus received some cocoa seeds from an Indian chief, he did not understand the value of the gift, as he did not know the local customs. It was only with the conquest of the "West Indies" by Hernan Cortes and his men that the importance of cocoa seeds was understood.
The conquistadors who had left in search of El Dorado instead discovered a "brown gold" which left them disconcerted. Initially they did not appreciate the fat structure nor the bitter taste of the very spicy beverage, but once they ran out of wine, they started to get accustomed to it. Sweetened with cane sugar, the chocolate beverage, thanks to its restorative properties and to its aphrodisiac reputation, became a daily habit. The importance of the cocoa tree and the symbolic strength of the cults which surrounded it then became evident.

Cortes had brought the first cocoa seeds to Charles V in 1528, however it was only around 1580 that the conquistadors, who had kept this treasure for themselves until then, resigned to send loads of cocoa seeds to Europe. From that moment on, the hot chocolate beverage from the Spanish peninsula rapidly spread all over Europe. Chocolate became popular in Italy towards the mid seventeenth century, but the production of chocolate generally remained a completely artisanal process. It was only in the eighteenth century, with the advent of steam engines, that the production process was streamlined and became "industrial". The reduction of the price of sugar and cocoa did the rest, contributing to the widespread diffusion of chocolate all over Europe and making it become the mass product we all know and appreciate today.