A lot of us love chocolates, and we very well know the different varieties of choclate, like dark, milky and white chocolates.
But besides knowing the variety of our sweet-tasting chocolate, do we really know about its history and how it came to be a cherished confectionary all over the world?
Well, it terms of its discovery, we have to thank the Latin Americans for that, especially the Mayans and the Aztecs. This is in part because these people discovered the cacao tree in South-east Mexico where they lived during the 1000BC.
However, there are still debates as to if they used it back then for anything worthwhile. Later on, around 300 AD, the Mayan folks decided to use the cacao beans for something tangible; and believe it; they didn’t choose to make chocolates that time. They however, used the cacao beans as a means of exchange of goods and services such as animals or even slaves.
Back then, the rate for a slave was about 100 cacao beans. The Mayans also used the cacao while having religious ceremonies. There was a cacao god; and marriages in which the bride and groom would give each other chocolate.
Owing to the fact that chocolate was a form of currency at the time, the rich were the ones able to afford it, eat it or drink it.
Several centuries later, Christopher Columbus and his crew who had sojourned to the Americas accidently found some cacao beans when large supplies were being hauled onto their ship. But it was Hernan Cortes who visited and conquered Mexico 17 years later that tasted the cacao beans while he was there. Hernan Cortes didn’t like it back then though.
Hernan Cortes went on to conquer the Aztecs, but decided against destroying the cacao beans completely. Instead he preferred using them as currency.
Several explorers discovered that the islands within the regions had sugar. It was then found out that adding sugar to the cacao beans transformed the chocolate into a relatively sweeter and desirable food substance.
Having discovered the sweet potential and medicinal tendencies of the cacao, people all over the world desired to try out the product. By the 17th century, cacao trees were now springing up and chocolate industries were shipping large quantities of the world over.
Further down the line, Richard Cadbury, the founder of the Cadbury’s chocolate company, decided to create a connection between chocolate and Valentine’s Day back in 1861. The idea of Richard Cadbury was to sell small chocolate selections in a heart-shaped box, to maximize profits.
The idea was genius; as consumers absolutely loved it, especially, as they could keep the red-boxes. The rest, they say, is history. Till date, heart-shaped boxes of chocolate are still being sold in shops and stores.
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