Chocolate history and production

_Elsa_

Now that they both have their bellies filled with food they continue their walk. Yeti continues his story about chocolate. He finds a picture of chocolate production and shows it to Penny.

‘The Olmecs undoubtedly passed their cacao knowledge on to the Central American Mayans who not only consumed chocolate, they revered it. The Mayan written history mentions chocolate drinks being used in celebrations and to finalize important transactions.

Despite chocolate’s importance in Mayan culture, it wasn’t reserved for the wealthy and powerful but readily available to almost everyone. In many Mayan households, chocolate was enjoyed with every meal. Mayan chocolate was thick and frothy and often combined with chili peppers, honey or water.

The Aztecs took chocolate admiration to another level. They believed cacao was given to them by their gods. Like the Mayans, they enjoyed the caffeinated kick of hot or cold, spiced chocolate beverages in ornate containers, but they also used cacao beans as currency to buy food and other goods. In Aztec culture, cacao beans were considered more valuable than gold.

Aztec chocolate was mostly an upper-class extravagance, although the lower classes enjoyed it occasionally at weddings or other celebrations. Perhaps the most notorious Aztec chocolate lover of all was the mighty Aztec ruler Montezuma II who supposedly drank gallons of chocolate each day for energy and as an aphrodisiac. It’s also said he reserved some of his cacao beans for his military.

There are conflicting reports about when chocolate arrived in Europe, although it’s agreed it first arrived in Spain. One story says Christopher Columbus discovered cacao beans after intercepting a trade ship on a journey to America and brought the beans back to Spain with him in 1502. ’ (Source)

“That’s very interesting Yeti,” Penny says. “But what does it taste like?”

That’s the best question to ask our friend Yeti since he loves chocolate so much.

“There are so many different types of chocolate so each has it’s own distinct taste,” Yeti says. “My favorite chocolate is milk chocolate. It has a mild velvety taste. It’s hard to describe but it surely is my favorite.”

Let’s continue - Time to rest and take a nap

Start at the beginning – Yeti travels in time