subject: The History Of Chocolates [print this page] Do you know the drama behind the festively wrapped chocolates we have today? It has been more than thousands of years that chocolates are consumed by many of the world's citizens. But only a few know the History of Chocolates 101. European chocolates evolve not only in Europe itself but surprisingly encompasses all the cultures and civilizations worldwide. Chocolates started in Latin America and not in the known chocolate countries of Europe.
Flashback to the First Civilizations
The first cocoa product consumed had been a liquid beverage. It was bitter and was spiced with chilli. It had been an elite drink for the Mayans and Aztecs of the Americas as only those with high ranks could drink it. It was also used for many of their sacred rites and practices. The cocoa is believed to have started from the Amazon and was used as a currency of some sort.
Way back then, the worth of the plant is important, for this reason the Mayans tended large cacao plantations. The earliest record of such plantation had been supposedly in 600 AD in Yucatan, but the knowledge of the plant and its product had been discovered years and years before.
For the Aztecs, cacao was accepted sacred as according to their legends, the plant was brought to them from paradise and might and knowledge would be by those who would eat its fruit. They have believed that Quetzalcoatl gave it to them and taught them how to process it into drink.
Bean Transportation to Europe
At the time when explorers came, they introduced a new way of consuming the drink - with sugar. Even if it had been bitter when they first partook of it, many of the first Europeans who tasted it agreed that it was certainly a food for the gods. So they transported it to Europe.
The most popular account of its crossing the seas is through Cortez who learned of the beverage from Montezuma, the emperor of Mexico. And according to some accounts of the chocolate history, King Charles, who had been presented with the cocoa beans secretly had them processed in Spanish monasteries. Because of the wide reception for the goods, Spanish colonies were then arranged to set up plantations of the cacao. Indeed, it had been a very advantage business for the Europeans as they were using slaves to grow the plant. This form of practice was carried on when the new world in the Americans was set up.
Slavery was only then abolished in the 19th century and it was not after many years that plantations adhered to this law. Only when boycotts of plantations mistreating their workers were staged did plantation owners begin reforming their policies.
Nowadays, the chocolate history is still evolving as the cocoa expands production to various parts of the world and through various methods of growing. The powerful bean of the Mayans and Aztecs has been part of organic gift baskets or a sweet valentine chocolate.
