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1900 BCE
Spirual Qualities
Olmec, Mayan and Aztec civilizations found chocolate to be an invigorating drink, mood enhancer and aphrodisiac, which led them to believe that it possessed mystical and spiritual qualities. -
1900 BCE
Sacrad ceremonies
The Mayans worshipped a god of cacao and reserved chocolate for rulers, warriors, priests and nobles at sacred ceremonies. -
1900 BCE
chocloate is made
The Ancient Mesoamericans who first cultivated co co plants found in rainforests. In central america fermented and roasted them. Then they ground co co beans into paste that they mixed with water, vanilla, honey, chili peppers and other spices to brew a frothy chocolate drink. -
1615 BCE
Spanish chocolate
Spain managed to keep chocolate a savory secret for nearly a century. But when the daughter of Spanish King Philip III wed French King Louis XIII . She brought her love of chocolate with her to France. The popularity of chocolate quickly spread to other European courts, and aristocrats consumed it as a magic elixir with salubrious benefits. To slake their growing thirst for chocolate, European powers established colonial plantations in equatorial regions around the world to grow coco and sugar -
1400 BCE
The evolution
When the Aztecs began to dominate Mesoamerica in the 14th century they craved co co beans which could not be grown in dry highlands of Central Mexico that were the heart of there civilization. The Aztecs traded with the Mayans for coco beans which were so coveted that they were used as currency. By some accounts Aztec emperor Montezuma drank three gallons of chocolate a day. -
1500
Mexico choclate
Spanish conquistadors such as Hernán Cortés who sought gold and silver in Mexico returned instead with chocolate. Although the Spanish sweetened the bitter drink with cane sugar and cinnamon, one thing remained unchanged: chocolate was still a delectable symbol of luxury, wealth and power. Chocolate was sipped by royal lips, and only Spanish elites could afford the expensive import. -
Chocolate boom
You don’t need to have a sweet tooth to recognize the familiar names of the family-owned companies such as Cadbury, Mars. Also Hershey that ushered in a chocolate boom in the late 1800 and early 1900s that has yet to abate. -
The coco press is made
Chocolate remained an aristocratic nectar until Dutch chemist Coenraad Johannes van Houten invented the cocoa press, which revolutionized chocolate-making. The cocoa press could squeeze the fatty cocoa butter from roasted cacao beans, leaving behind a dry cake that could be pulverized into a fine powder that could be mixed with liquids and other ingredients, poured into molds and solidified into edible, easily digestible chocolate. -
British chocolate company
The British chocolate company J.S. Fry & Sons created the first solid edible chocolate bar from cocoa butter. Cocoa powder and sugar.Rodolphe Lindt’s invention of the conching machine. Which produced chocolate with a velvety texture and superior taste. Other advances allowed for the mass production of smooth creamy milk chocolate on factory assembly lines. -
Todays choclate
Today the average human being cosumes 12 pounds. 12 pounds of choclate a year. More than $75 billion worldwide is spent on chocolate annually.
