history (1)

Year 600 - Using The Bean

Fourteen centuries before luxury chocolates was introduced to the market, the cocoa bean is considered the ultimate status symbol in the Mayan and Aztec cultures. They use the beans as currency and those wealthy enough to have an excess of beans use them to make a chocolate drink that gives them "wisdom and power."

Year 1502 - Money Grows On Trees

Columbus is the first European to discover cocoa beans and chocolate. But it is the Conquistadors that realize the value of "money that grows on trees." Hernando de Oviedo y Valdez writes home to tell of how he was able to purchase a slave for 100 cocoa beans. Later Hernando Cortez builds a cocoa plantation for the express purpose of growing money in the name of Spain.

Year 1519 - Falling In Love

Cortez soon discovers that Emperor Montezuma, who no doubt possesses more cocoa beans than anybody else at the time, is a "chocoholic." Montezuma, it is reported, drinks nothing but chocolate, particularly before entering his harem. He believes that the concoction is a powerful aphrodisiac. (It turns out that chocolate contains a natural substance that is reputed to stimulate the same reaction in the body as falling in love.) by. pralino.com