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Rebecca Steven
Rebecca Steven is president and owner of 5th Avenue Gifts located at 6425 E. Central Avenue. 5th Avenue Gifts specializes in gift baskets, corporate gifts and an array of chocolate products including Godiva and their famous Chocolate Fountain. Rebecca was awarded Gift Basket Review Magazine's top honor "Designer of the Year" for 2002 and was recently a speaker at the international Gift Basket Convention held in Jacksonville, Florida. Rebecca can be contacted at her office at (316) 612-3905, fax at (316) 612-7986, or you can e-mail her at info@5thavenuegifts.com
Food & Drink
2002-10-01 11:53:00
How long has chocolate been around?
Rebecca Steven Question:  What is the history of chocolate?Answer:  In 600 A.D. the Mayans migrated into the northern regions of South America, establishing the earliest known cocoa plantations in the Yucatan. It has been argued that the Mayans had been familiar with cocoa several centuries prior to this date. They considered it a valuable commodity, used both as a means of payment and as units of calculation. Mayans and Aztecs took beans from the "cacao" tree and made a drink they called "xocolatl." Aztec Indian legend held that cacao seeds had been brought from Paradise and that wisdom and power came from eating the fruit of the cacao tree.. The word "chocolate" is said to derive from the Mayan "xocolatl"; cacao from the Aztec "cacahuatl". The Mexican Indian word "chocolate" comes from a combination of the terms choco ("foam") and atl ("water"); early chocolate was only consumed in beverage form.Christopher Columbus is said to have brought back cacao beans to King Ferdinand from his fourth visit to the New World, but they were overlooked in favor of the many other treasures he had found. Chocolate was first noted in 1519 when Spanish explorer Hernando Cortez visited the court of Emperor Montezuma of Mexico. American historian William Hickling's History of the Conquest of Mexico (1838) reports that Montezuma "took no other beverage than the chocolatl, a potation of chocolate, flavored with vanilla and spices, and so prepared as to be reduced to a froth of the consistency of honey, which gradually dissolved in the mouth and was taken cold." The fact that Montezuma consumed his "chocolatl" in goblets before entering his harem led to the belief that it was an aphrodisiac. The first chocolate house was reputedly opened in London in 1657 by a Frenchman. Costing 10 to 15 shillings per pound, chocolate was considered a beverage for the elite class. Sixteenth-century Spanish historian Oviedo noted: "None but the rich and noble could afford to drink chocolatl as it was literally drinking money. Cocoa passed currency as money among all nations; thus a rabbit in Nicaragua sold for 10 cocoa nibs, and 100 of these seeds could buy a tolerably good slave."  Chocolate also appears to have been used as a medicinal remedy by leading physicians of the day. Christopher Ludwig Hoffmann's treatise Potus Chocolate recommends chocolate for many diseases, citing it as a cure for Cardinal Richelieu's ills. With the Industrial Revolution came the mass production of chocolate, spreading its popularity among the citizenry. Chocolate was introduced to the United States in 1765 when John Hanan brought cocoa beans from the West Indies into Dorchester, Massachusetts, to refine them with the help of Dr. James Baker. The first chocolate factory in the country was established there. Yet, chocolate wasn't really accepted by the American colonists until  fishermen from Gloucester, Massachusetts, accepted cocoa beans as payment for cargo in tropical America.  Where chocolate was mostly considered a beverage for centuries, and predominantly for men, it became recognized as an appropriate drink for children in the seventeenth century. It had many different additions: milk, wine, beer, sweeteners, and spices. Drinking chocolate was considered a very fashionable social event. Eating chocolate was introduced in 1674 in the form of rolls and cakes, served in the various chocolate emporiums.
 
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