The Maya were also the first to plant cocoa plantations in areas of cleared rain forest, and used the beans as a form of currency. Early explorers reported that four cocoa beans could buy you a pumpkin and one-hundred would buy you a slave. They also turned the beans into a drink called xocolatl by roasting the beans and mixing them with water and spices; which they used to tread coughs, fevers and discomfort during pregnancy. The Aztecs also held the cocoa been in high regard and used it as currency. They believed that their god of agriculture Questzalcoatl travelled to earth on a beam of light carrying a cocoa tree from Paradise, and that wisdom and power would be bestowed on whoever ate from the tree. The Aztecs also consumed xocolatl, but their version involved aromatic flowers, vanilla and wild bee honey.
Christopher Columbus was the first European to be introduced to the cocoa bean in 1502, but he dismissed it, being more interested in finding a sea route to India. He did however, take some back to Europe with him, but they took second place to the other goods he brought home such as potatoes, tomatoes and peppers.
It is Don Cortes whom we should thank for bringing cocoa to Europe in 1517. He was introduced to cocoa by the Aztec Emperor Montezuma, and although he did not particularly like xocolatl, he was fascinated by its use as a means of payment. Not surprisingly, he quickly established a cocoa plantation to grow 'money'.
The 16th century saw the colonialisation of Central and South America by Spain and Don Cortes was made Captain General and Governor of Mexico. When he finally returned to Spain in 1528 he took ship loads of cocoa beans with him, and so the drinking of chocolate in Europe began...
Drinking chocolate was reserved for the Spanish nobility, the beans being hidden away in Spanish monasteries. Because of this secrecy it took nearly a century for the cocoa bean to spread to other parts of Europe, for which we have the Italian traveller Antonio Carletti to thank. Soon other European nations established their own cocoa plantations.
Like all good things, chocolate has not been without controversy. At first the French believed it to be a dangerous drug, and it took a Spanish Princess who married into the French Court to introduce drinking chocolate as a fashionable activity. During the 17th century the Church tried to ban chocolate because it was thought to inflame lustful passions. In fact, Casanova remarked on its qualities as an aphrodisiac and drank chocolate at bedtime to sustain his libido.
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