CHOCOLATE IN ITS MANY GUISES: A SHORT HISTORY

Yucatan: source of xocoatl

The Mayas were the first to cultivate the cocoa bean in the 17th century BC on the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico. The divine drink xocoatl made from cocoa was said to nourish man after death, and its life-giving and aphrodisiac properties were already well known. Beans were dried, ground, mixed with hot water and then flavoured with chilli, spices or vanilla.

Spaniard Hernan Cortés disembarked in Mexico in 1519, conquering the New World. He was received like a God. He discovered xocoatl.

When Cortés returned to Spain in 1528, he described the virtues of this new beverage to King Charles I of Spain: “One cup of this precious drink enables a man to walk for an entire day without eating.”

The first commercial cocoa cargos reached Spain in 1585 but it was not until the time of Anne of Austria, Queen of Louis XIII of France and daughter of the King of Spain, that the drink reached France. Courtesans in Versailles adored chocolate.

• The first chocolate shop opened in Paris in 1660.
• Chocolate was produced as bars in 1802.
• Cocoa powder was produced in 1828.
• Milk chocolate was invented in 1875.
• The cocoa trade intensified in the 19th century.

In 1896, the Belem, a legendary three-mast ship from Nantes, was entrusted with the task of transporting cocoa beans from Latin America to Nantes for the chocolatier Menier.