The History of Chocolate

So where and when did the magic begin? Thousands of years ago is the answer, in the ancient Maya and Aztec civilizations of Central America.

Cocoa trees grew wild in the jungle, and they used them to make a spicy, rather bitter drink for special occasions. Centuries later the Aztec Empire fell, and the Conquistador Hernan Cortés brought cocoa beans back across the ocean to Spain.

Gradually chocolate spread across Europe – it was the fashionable choice of Kings and Queens, the nobility and the rich, just like caviar or champagne today. At the end of the 19th Century milk was added, and at last someone devised a way of making chocolate to eat as well as to drink. But it wasn’t until the 20th century that chocolate became affordable for everyone.

So chocolate has been on an epic journey, but its popularity is enduring: prized once by Aztec warriors and today by millions of people around the world.