By: Gregg Hall

We usually think of chocolate as a sweet candy created during modern times. But actually, chocolate goes back to the ancient people of Mesoamerica who drank chocolate as a bitter beverage. For these people, chocolate wasn't just a favorite food--it also played an important role in their religious and social lives.

The ancient Mayans grew cacao and made it into a beverage. The first people clearly known to have discovered the secret of cacao were the Classic Period Mayans. The Maya and their ancestors in the Pre-Columbian Americas took the tree from the rainforest and grew it in their own backyards, where they harvested, fermented, roasted, and ground the seeds into a paste. When mixed with water, chile peppers, cornmeal, and other ingredients, this paste made a frothy, spicy chocolate drink.

By 1400, the Aztec empire dominated a sizeable segment of Central America. The Aztecs traded with Mayan and other peoples for cacao and often required that citizens and conquered peoples pay their tribute in cacao seeds--a form of Aztec money. Like the earlier Maya, the Aztecs also consumed their bitter chocolate drink seasoned with spices--sugar was an agricultural product unavailable to the ancient Mesoamericans.

The History Of Chocolate

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