Archeological studies suggest chocolate was first used in the year 1,500 BC. The cocoa tree (theobroma cacao) hails from the tropical lands of South America, more exactly in the basin of either the Orinoco or the Amazon, from where it stretched out to the rest of tropical America. It seems that Olmecs took it beyond Mesoamerica in fermented grains.

Later on, the Mayans and Mexics started consuming chocolate mixed with chili to form a semi-liquid paste that was served in earthenware pots. It’s precisely the Mayan mythology the one that explains how god Kukulkan gave cacao to the Mayans following the creation of mankind, a universe of corn called Ixim that had been whipped into shape by goddess Xmucane. A few centuries later, the Mexics continued consuming cocoa and word had it that Emperor Montezuma used to drink a cup of chocolate diluted in water. Another mythical recount says that god Quetzalcoatl (same in rank to the Mayans’ Kukulkan) gave men the first seeds of cocoa. Aztecs and Mayans used to toast the seeds and make a paste that was then mixed with water, chili, vanilla and honey. This blend had the ability to turn that drink into a bitter, spicy energetic beverage. The passage of chocolate across Europe was probably started by Christopher Columbus, who eventually brought a few samples to the Catholic Monarchs after his fourth voyage. Chocolate didn’t catch on at the onset because of its sour flavor, but Hernan Cortes, who had witnessed how important chocolate used to be for Aztecs as a currency and due to its nutritional facts, took to Spain in 1528. That marked the beginning of its extended use. What probably nobody knows is how sugar was first added, making chocolate as we know it now.

In the late 16th century, cinnamon landed in Mexico following a long sailing from Sri Lanka, while Spaniards were growing sugarcane in America. These two elements came together to produce a fundamental change. It was in the monasteries or convents of Mexico’s Oaxaca and Spain’s Saragossa were sugar was added to chocolate for the first time. Jesuit missionaries began spreading chocolate all across Europe through their mesh of monasteries. In the 17th century, the produce was still considered a medication or a foodstuff. One of the milestones worth mentioning is when Antonio Carletti made the first references to how cocoa could be solidified in cubes for long travel supply, In Spain back in 1660, all spices were eliminated. It showed up in England in the form of small pies circa 1674, and in 1746 cocoa was mixed with milk instead of water. It was then in the mid 17th century when the very first chocolate stores popped up. In 1765, the first of such stores was opened in America; the first one in Europe had been set up in Switzerland in 1819.

Other details that have marked the evolution of chocolate to date were the making of the first bar in England, back in 1847, by Fry & Sons, the making of ground cocoa by Coenrad Van houten in 1828 in Netherlands, the making of chocolates in Italy and the appearance of chocolate and milk in Switzerland around 1875 by Daniel Peter.

Chocolate is inevitably bound to some worldclass names like Nestle, Lindt, Hershey, Suchard and Tobler that made contributions of their own and came up with formulas that have now turned chocolate into a one-and-only product, taking its flavor to every nook and cranny of the earth and making it a pleasure, a gift and an enjoyment for everyone, in a variety of forms and presentations too hard to imagine.