The earliest history of chocolate should begin with the discovery of America.

Before 1492, people knew nothing about this food that would fascinate millions of people.

After Columbus returned triumphantly from America, he presented a collection of marvelous treasures to the King of Spain.

Among those rare treasures are some dark brown almond-shaped cocoa beans.

This was the first time that the court of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella saw cocoa beans - the raw material for making chocolate and cocoa powder.

The king and queen never dreamed that cocoa beans would be so important, so the commercial opportunities offered by the New World were left to the great Spanish explorer Hernando Cortez.

The History of Chocolate and the Food of the Gods During the conquest of Mexico, Cortez discovered that the Aztec Indians used cocoa beans to prepare the royal drink of their kingdom, "Chocolatl" (Chocolatl), which means hot drink.

In 1519, Emperor Montezuma served chocolate truffles to his Spanish guests.

The drinks were served in gold goblets, as if they were served to the gods.

The emperor was said to drink fifty or more servings of chocolate a day.

Despite its royal appearance, Montezuma's chocolatier was very bitter and not to the Spanish taste.

To make the mixed drink more European-friendly, Cortez and his compatriots came up with the idea of ??sweetening it with cane sugar.

When they brought chocolatl back to Spain, the idea of ??sweetening it was confirmed, and the drink went through several more changes with the addition of several newly discovered spices, such as cinnamon and vanillin.

Finally, some believe the drink tastes better heated.

The new drink quickly gained acclaim among the Spanish nobility.

Spain wisely set out to grow cocoa in its overseas colonies, and a profitable business was born.

Amazingly, the Spanish managed to hide the cocoa craft from the rest of Europe for nearly a hundred years.

Chocolate spread to Europe Spanish monks commissioned to process the cocoa beans eventually revealed the secret.

Soon chocolate was gaining acclaim across Europe as a delicious, healthful food.

It once outshone the fashionable French court drink.

The chocolate drink soon spread across the Channel to Great Britain.

In 1657, the first famous English chocolate houses appeared.

The artisanal production methods of small workshops in time gave way to the mass production of chocolate.

And an improved steam engine accelerated the transformation of production.

This engine mechanized the cocoa grinding process.

By 1730, the price of chocolate had dropped from over $3 per pound to a price that everyone could afford.

The invention of the cocoa press in 1828 further reduced the price of chocolate and helped improve the quality of the drink by squeezing out some of the cocoa butter - the naturally occurring fat in the cocoa beans.

Since then, drinking chocolate has had more of the smooth consistency and pleasant aroma it has today.

In the nineteenth century, another revolutionary development occurred in the history of chocolate.

In 1847, a British company introduced solid "chocolate" by developing fudge chocolate.

This is a velvety smooth variety that has almost completely replaced the coarse chocolate that once dominated the world market.

Chocolate Comes to America In the United States of America, the production of chocolate is progressing more rapidly than anywhere else in the world.

In pre-Revolutionary New England - in 1765 to be exact, the country's first chocolate factory was established.

Chocolate was also taken into space as part of the food for American astronauts.

(Chocolate Information Center Network) Fun Facts about Chocolate Chocolate: A Noble Heritage The fruits of the cacao tree were eaten by the Olmec Indians of South and Central America for a long time before they were introduced to Europe.

The word "cacao" was first used by the Olmec Indians.

Mayan Indians further cultivated cacao trees for agriculture and produced the first cocoa beverage.

The Aztecs believed that their god Quetzalcoatl gave cocoa beans to humans.

The Aztecs revered the cocoa bean, using it in religious rituals and as a gift from the gods.

Cacao was an integral part of daily life for the Aztecs, and it was used as currency.

But only nobles and warriors can eat it.

The first chocolate consumed by humans was a spicy and bitter drink.

The ancient Aztecs roasted and ground cocoa beans into powder, mixed them with water and cornmeal, added chili peppers, and beat them into bubbles.

This drink is called "Chocolatl".

The Aztec ruler Montezuma and his court officials drank 50 cans of chocolate every day.

The precious drink, known as the elixir, was served in gold goblets that were used only once and then thrown into the lake.

The first European to discover chocolate is believed to be Christopher Columbus.

After returning from the "New World" in 1502, he introduced chocolate to King Ferdinand's court.

Decades later, Spanish explorer Hernando Cortez discovered cocoa beans from Aztec nobles during his conquest of Mexico.

It was Columbus and Cortez who expanded the influence of chocolate among Spanish aristocrats in the sixteenth century, but it was Princess Maria Salsa of Spain who started chocolate craze in Europe.

She presented cocoa beans to Louis XIV as an engagement gift.