A Short History of Chocolate. Chocolate was first used by
ancient Mesoamerican peoples, probably beginning with the Maya.
They mixed cacao paste with water, chile peppers, cornmeal, and
other ingredients to make a bitter but spicy chocolate drink.
Europe came in contact with chocolate during the conquest of
Mexico in the early 1500s.. Spaniards adopted the Aztec practice
of drinking chocolate and began to ship cacao seeds to their
home country. In Spain, cooks sweetened the bitter beverage with
sugar and added other spices more appealing to the local palate.
After more than a century, the use of chocolate spread to other
European nations. Being in short supply, chocolate was an item
restricted to the wealty elite. In France, only members of the
royal court had access to chocolate. To increase the supply of
chocolate, many European nations established cacao plantations
in their colonies where the climate was appropriate and labor
was plentiful. Even after the supply of raw materials increased,
though, chocolat