The Cacao Tree was worshipped by the Mayan civilisation who believed it to be of divine origin, Cacao is a Mayan word meaning "God Food" hence the tree's modern generic Latin name 'Theobrama Cacao' meaning ‘Food of the Gods’, Cacao was corrupted into the more familiar 'Cocoa' by Europeans. The Maya brewed a bitter sweet drink by roasting and pounding the seeds of the tree - cocoa beans - with maize and Capsicum peppers and letting the mixture ferment. This drink was reserved for use in ceremonies as well as for drinking by the wealthy and religious elite, they also ate a Cacao porridge.

The Aztecs who came later also prized the beans, but because the Aztec's lived at higher altitudes in the Andes, where the climate was not suitable for cultivation of the tree, they acquired the beans through trade and the spoils of war. The Aztecs prized the beans so highly they used them as currency - 100 beans bought a Turkey or a slave - and tribute or Taxes were paid in cocoa beans to Aztec emperors. The Aztecs, like the Mayans before them, also enjoyed Cacao only as a beverage made from the raw beans which also featured prominently in ritual and as a luxury available only to the very wealthy. The Aztecs called this drink Xocolatl, the Spanish conquistadors found this almost impossible to pronounce and so corrupted it, to the easier to pronounce 'Chocolat', the English further changed this to Chocolate.

The Aztec's regarded chocolate as an aphrodisiac and their Emperor, Montezuma - who is quoted as saying of Xocolatl: "The divine drink, which builds up resistance and fights fatigue. A cup of this precious drink permits a man to walk for a whole day without food" - reputedly drank it fifty times a day from a golden goblet.

In fact, the Aztec's prized Xocolatl well above Gold and Silver so much so, that when Montezuma was defeated by Cortez in 1519 and the victorious 'conquistadors' searched his palace for the Aztec treasury expecting to find Gold & Silver, all they found were huge quantities of cocoa beans. The Aztec Treasury consisted, not of precious metals, but Cocoa Beans.

CHOCOLATE IN EUROPE
Xocolatl! or Chocolat or Chocolate as it became known, was first brought to Europe by Cortez, by this time the conquistadors had learned to make the drink more palatable to European tastes by mixing the ground roasted beans with sugar and vanilla, thus offsetting the bitterness of the brew the Aztec's drank.

The first chocolate factories soon opened in Spain, where the dried fermented beans brought back from the new world by the Spanish treasure fleets were roasted and ground, and by the early 17th century chocolate powder - from which the European version of the drink was made - was being exported to other parts of Europe. The Spanish kept the source of the drink - the beans - a secret for many years, so successfully in fact, that when English buccaneers boarded what they thought was a Spanish 'Treasure Galleon' in 1579, only to find it loaded with what appeared to be 'dried sheep's droppings', they burned the whole ship in frustration. If only they had known, chocolate was so expensive at that time, it was worth it's weight in Silver (if not Gold), Chocolate was Treasure Indeed!

Within a few years, the Cocoa beverage made from the powder produced in Spain had become popular throughout Europe, in the Spanish Netherlands, Italy, France, Germany and - in about 1520 - it arrived in England.

The first Chocolate House in England opened in London in 1657 followed rapidly by many others. Like the already well established coffee houses they were used as clubs where the wealthy and business community met to smoke a clay pipe of tobacco, conduct business and socialise over a cup of chocolate.

BACK TO AMERICA
Event's went full circle when English colonists carried chocolate (and coffee) with them to England's colonies in North America. Destined to become the United States of America and Canada, they are now the worlds largest consumers - by far - of both Chocolate and Coffee, consuming over half of the words total production of chocolate alone.

THE QUAKERS
The Quakers were and still are an extreme pacifist religious sect, an offshoot of the Puritans of English Civil War and Pilgrim Fathers fame and a history of chocolate would not be complete without mentioning their part in it. Some of the most famous names in chocolate were Quakers, who for centuries held a virtual monopoly of chocolate making in the English speaking world - Cadbury, Fry, and Rowntree are probably the best known.

It's probably at around the time of the English civil war between Parliament and King Charles 1st, that the Quaker's first began their historic association with Chocolate. Because of their extreme pacifist religion, they were prohibited from most normal business activities, so as an industrious people with a strong belief in the work ethic (like the puritans), they involved themselves in food related businesses and did very well. Baking was a common occupation for them because bread was regarded as the biblical " Staff Of Life", and Bakers in England were the first to add chocolate to cakes so it would be a natural progression for them to start making chocolate. They also invented modern breakfast cereals but that's another story.

What is certain is that the Fry, Rowntree and Cadbury families in England among others, began chocolate making and in fact Joseph Fry of Fry & Sons (founded 1728 in Bristol, England) is credited with producing the worlds first chocolate bar. Fry's have now all but disappeared (taken over by Cadbury) and Rowntree have merged and diversified, largely moving away from chocolate making, but Cadbury have stayed with chocolate production and are now, if not quite the largest, probably one of the best known Chocolate makers in the world.

From their earliest beginnings in business the Quakers were noted for their enlightened treatment of their employees, providing not just employment but everything needed for workers to better themselves such as good housing etc. Cadbury built a whole large town for their employees - complete with libraries, schools, shops and Churches etc, - around their factory near Birmingham, England and called it Bourneville. So next time you see Cadbury's chocolate with the name Bournville on it you will know where it comes from.

CHOCOLATE AS WE KNOW IT
Chocolate was first eaten in solid form when bakers in England began adding cocoa powder to cakes in the mid 1600's. Then in 1828 a Dutch chemist, Johannes Van Houten, invented a method of extracting the bitter tasting fat or "cocoa butter" from the roasted ground beans, his aim was to make the drink smoother and more palatable, however he unknowingly paved the way for solid chocolate as we know it.

Chocolate as we know it today first appeared in 1847 when Fry & Sons - founded 1728 in Bristol, England - mixed Sugar with Cocoa Powder and Cocoa Butter (made by the Van Houten process) to produce the first solid chocolate bar then, in 1875 a Swiss manufacturer, Daniel Peters, found a way to combine (some would say improve) cocoa powder and cocoa butter with sugar and dried milk powder to produce the first milk chocolate.

and the rest, is history, Chocolate History....