The history of chocolate, according to experts, began in Mexico three thousand years ago. About the fruits of cocoa was still known to the American Indians from the Olmec civilization, which existed 1000 years BC. And how did this happen?
The History of Chocolate: The Beginning
Even before such great and famous civilizations as the Mayans and Aztecs, the Olmec tribes lived in the Gulf of Mexico . It was just for the first time that they started making a drink from cocoa beans, they were the first to grow chocolate trees. By the way, the word "kakava" was found in the everyday life of this long-extinct tribe.
Later, Maya became addicted to cocoa drink, but they began to call it "chocolatl". Among the Aztecs, he bore the name "kakahuatl." By the way, it was noticed that all pagan peoples chose something unusual as objects of worship. Native American cultures have succeeded one another for centuries, but their attitude towards cocoa has always been more than reverent. The Mayans believed that there was even a cocoa god and consumed a chocolate drink during religious rituals, considering it sacred. The Aztecs also perceived the cocoa fruit as the food of the gods, believing that the "cacahuatl" gives them spiritual insight.
Today, the ancient history of chocolate is well traced thanks to an amazing find found in Belize. They managed to find a powder with petrified sediment, which, according to scientists, dates back to 600 BC. As a result of the chemical analysis, it was found that this is nothing more than crushed and then cooked cocoa beans, supplemented with aromatic impurities.
The history of chocolate was further developed when, in 1502, Columbus landed his ship on American soil. Then the Indians treated him with a cup of hot chocolate. The traveler, however, refused the gift, but took the recipe and cocoa fruit with him to present to the Spanish king. The monarch also did not appreciate the innovation. And only when in 1519 Cortes stepped on the Mexican coast and decided to sweeten too dark chocolate with cane sugar, and then bring it to the Spanish royal court, the civilized world appreciated this delicacy.
For a long time, chocolate was consumed only in liquid form. The tiled form first appeared somewhere in the middle of the 19th century, when the British thought of mixing cocoa powder with cocoa butter and sugar. Enormous demand for chocolate bars immediately appeared. Even later, milk began to be added to the new product - that is how milk chocolate was born , which today is noticeably ahead of the popularity of bitter chocolate .
Today, the whole world loves chocolate, which, thanks to the most advanced production technologies, can appear in completely different forms. Today, confectioners produce this product on the basis of cocoa with nut, milk, fondant, yogurt fillings, with roasting, dried fruits, candied fruit, puffed rice, and also add hot pepper to it. Chocolate icing traditionally decorates most cakes and pastries. And, of course, all children and adults love to drink a cocoa drink in the morning and receive a beautiful chocolate figurine for this or that holiday.
And the Chocolate Museum in Moscow is an amazing, fabulous place where every child wants to go on a river of chocolate (by the way, it is depicted on the floor of the restaurant) into the world of this delicacy, sweet and bitter at the same time. Adults, for sure, will also be interested in the rich thematic exposition presented here, which was made up of exhibits from the collections of legendary confectionery factories such as Rot Front, Red October, Babaevskaya, as well as an ethnographic collection of objects that were somehow related to Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico. cocoa.