The history of chocolate dates back over 5,000 years. The cacao tree is native to the tropics of the Americas. The cocoa bean was first domesticated at least 5,300 years ago in what is present-day southeast Ecuador by the Mayo-Chinchipe culture, before being introduced in Mesoamerica.

Chocolate was originally prepared as a bitter drink mixed with spices or corn puree.

After its arrival to Europe in the sixteenth century, sugar was added to it and it became popular throughout society, first among the ruling classes and then among the common people. In the 20th century, chocolate was considered essential in the rations of United States soldiers during war.

Cocoa is a variant of cacao, likely due to confusion with the word coco. ^[1] It is ultimately derived from kakaw(a), but whether that word originates in Nahuatl or a Mixe-Zoquean language is the subject of substantial linguistic debate. ^{[1] [2]} The Mayan glyph for kakaw(a) consists of a comb sign, a fish, which is a substitute for the comb, and the sign for 'w'. ^[3] the Chocolate is a Spanish loanword, first recorded in English in 1604, ^[4] and first recorded in Spanish in 1579. ^[5] The word for chocolate drink in early Nahuatl texts is cacahuatl meaning "cacao water", which chocolate does not immediately derive from. ^[6]

Despite theories that chocolate is derived from xocoatl meaning "bitter drink" or chocolatl meaning "hot water" ^{[6] [7]} (the word xocolatl is not attested; there is a different word xocoatl referring to a drink made of maize) ^[8] and uncertainty around the Nahuatl origin, there is a consensus that it likely derives from chicolatl. ^[9] Whether chicolatl means "cacao beater", however, is contested, due to difficulty knowing what chico means. ^[10]

The cacao tree is native to the Amazon rainforest. ^[11] Evidence for domestication exists as early as 5300  BP in the Amazon in southeast Ecuador by the Mayo-Chinchipe culture, before it was introduced to Mesoamerica. ^[12] This emerged from research looking at the presence of starch grains specific to the cacao tree inside ceramics and pottery, residue of theobromine, a chemical compound found in unusually high levels in the cacao tree, and fragments of ancient DNA with sequences unique to the cacao tree. ^{[13] [14]} The domesticated cacao tree was then spread along the Pacific coast of South America. ^[15] When chocolate was first produced, rather than cacao just being consumed, is unclear. ^[16] The pulp around the cacao seed was eaten as a sweet food, and there is also evidence that it was fermented into an alcoholic beverage by the Olmec. ^[17]

Cultivation, consumption, and cultural use of cacao was extensive in Mesoamerica. ^[18]

The earliest evidence of a cacao drink consumption in Mesoamerica originates in the Early Formative Period period (1900–900 BC). On the Pacific coast of Chiapas, Mexico the Mokayan people consumed cacao drinks as early as 1900 BC. Archaeological evidence from the Gulf Coast of Veracruz, Mexico demonstrates preparation by pre-Olmec peoples as early as 1750 BC. ^[19] Cacao traces has been found in bowls and jars dated between 1800–1000 BC in the city of Puerto Escondido, Mexico. The decorations on these high-quality ceramics has led researchers to believe cocoa at this time was a centerpiece to social gatherings between people of high social status. ^[20]

While there is evidence cacao was consumed in a beverage among the Olmec, little evidence remains of how it was processed. Historians have found evidence suggesting cacao consumption in the Olmec regions of San Lorenzo, Tenochtitlan. Large vases found suggest that the Olmec used cacao for mass gathering events such as sacrificial rituals. ^[21] Linguists Kaufman and Justeson have identified kakaw(a), the root of the word cacao to the Olmec civilization in 1000 BC. ^[22]

The first evidence for chocolate consumption is found among the Mayans, in 600 BC. ^[23] Chocolate was used in official ceremonies and religious rituals, at feasts, weddings and festivals, as funerary offerings and for medicinal purposes. ^{[24] [25]} Both cocoa itself and vessels and instruments used for the preparation and serving of chocolate were used for important gifts and tributes. ^[24] It is unknown how or if commoners consumed cacao. ^[26] Consumption was limited to adult men, as the stimulating effects were considered unsuitable for women and children. ^[23] Cacao beans were also used as a currency. ^[25] Difficulties growing cacao in Yucatán were overcome due to social and religious significance by rich hobbyist gardeners, although the majority of cocoa consumed was imported. ^[25]

Cacao paste was flavored with additives like the flowers of the earflower and vanilla. ^[27] Before serving, chocolate was poured between vessels to generate brown foam, an effect believed to be highly desirable. ^[26] To determine if a drink was high-quality, the darkness of the foam, the colour of bubbles and aroma were observed, along with flavour and the origin of beans. ^[28] Chocolate was only one of several drinks made at this time out of cacao, including a drink including maize and sapote seeds called tzune and a gruel called saca. There is uncertainty over how fresh cacao and their pulp were used in drinks. ^[27]

The Mayans produced writings about cacao that identified chocolate with the gods, with Ek Chuah the patron god of cacao. ^{[29] [30]} There is controversy among historians whether the mythological figure Hunahpu was believed to have invented cacao processing. ^[31] Across eras, cacao was considered a gift from the gods. ^[32] In the late Mayan and the Aztec periods, there was a strong symbolic connection between cacao and blood. ^[26]

Following the collapse of the Mayan Empire, control over cocoa-producing regions was a source of fighting between the Toltec and rival tribes. ^[33] Chocolate was consumed as far north as the southern US by the elite of the Anasazi. Cocoa was imported as part of a cacao- turquoise exchange in a Toltec-run trade network in the 9th–12th centuries. ^[34] The Mayan people introduced chocolate to the Aztecs. ^[23]

Chocolate was one of the two most important drinks to the Aztecs. It was particularly important considering the other most important drink, octli, was alcoholic, and drunkenness was stigmatized. Chocolate was considered a luxurious, sensual product, to be celebrated, but also at odds with an imagined austere ideal past, being overly decadent and weakening consumers. ^{[35] [36]} It was incorrectly believed to be hallucinogenic. The Aztecs believed cacao was a gift from the god Quetzalcōātl. ^[37] The bean was used as a symbol for the human heart removed in human sacrifice, possibly because they were both repositories of precious liquids (blood and chocolate). ^[38] The association with blood was furthered by adding annatto, a food coloring, to turn the drink red. ^[37]

The Aztecs used chocolate in tributes to rulers and offerings to the gods. Chocolate was drunk exclusively by the Aztec elites, such as the royal house, lords, nobility, and long-distance traders called pochteca. ^[39] When drunk by the elites at banquets, chocolate was served at the end as a digestif. ^[40] Soldiers in battle were the only exception, as cacao was considered a stimulant. ^[39] Chocolate was included in their rations, eaten as pellets or wafers formed from ground cocoa. ^[40] The use of chocolate in food commonly associated with the Aztecs, mole poblano, originated in territory that was never occupied by Aztecs after the Spanish invasion. ^[41] Commoners who consumed chocolate could face execution. It was served to human sacrifice victims before their execution. ^[37] Chocolate was also served to the sick, to treat a variety of illnesses including coughs, stomach issues and fever. ^[42]

Cacao was imported into central Aztec territory, as frost stopped cacao trees from growing. Most beans were imported from Soconusco, which the Aztecs had conquered for its cacao. ^[43] They required the conquered inhabitants pay the Aztecs cacao as tribute. ^[44] At the time of the Spanish conquest, 1.5 million trees were tended in Soconusco. Cacao was transported across Aztec territory by the pochteca, carrying 24,000 beans weighing 50–60 pounds (23–27 kg) on their backs. ^[37]

While primarily drunk, chocolate was sometimes eaten. ^[45] Chocolate was made by grinding seeds into a powder, mixing them with water, and then pouring the liquid between vessels to generate foam, and served both hot and cold. An inferior gruel was made by adding maize. ^{[46] [47]} While the highest quality chocolate was pure, additions were often made, requiring the removal of foam and then replacement. The most popular addition throughout Mesoamerica was dried and ground chilli, but honey, dried and ground vanilla or flowers, and likely annatto among many other ingredients were added. ^[48] While Aztec chocolate drinks are popularly expected to contain cinnamon, the spice was only introduced to Mesoamerica through the Spanish conquest. ^[49] Some chocolate recipes have been claimed by Spanish observers to have been considered an aphrodisiac, although these reports are not considered reliable. ^[50] Women were responsible for processing cacao into a beverage. ^[37]

The Spanish conquistadors recorded the currency exchange value of the cacao bean, noting in 1545 that that thirty could buy a small rabbit, one could buy a large tomato, and a hundred beans could purchase a turkey hen. ^[51] Royal stores were claimed to hold massive amounts of cocoa beans. ^[52] Cacao beans were often counterfeited, with dough made of amaranth, wax or broken avocado pits. ^[53]

On the fourth voyage of Columbus, on August 15, 1502, the expedition came upon a Mayan trading canoe near an island in the Gulf of Honduras. Chronicling the objects on the canoe, a member of the Columbus expedition noted the apparent value of cacao, inferred from how the canoe crew reacted when they were dropped, ^[54] although they did not know what they were or that you could make a drink of them. Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés may have been the first European to encounter chocolate when he observed it in the court of Moctezuma II in 1520. ^{[55] [56]} Missionaries early in the conquest began to sell solid sweet chocolate as delicacies, produced by nuns. These chocolates were very profitable. ^[57]

By 1524, the Spanish ruled central Mexico, and expanded cacao production while increasing tribute requirements. ^[58] Cacao was produced using forced labour under the encomienda labor system, and during the 16th century native Americans experienced a massive population decline and production decreased. ^[59] In response, more cacao was produced on the Guayaquil coast of Ecuador, and Venezuela, although of a lower quality and using slaves from Africa. ^{[60] [61]} The Spanish brought cacao to the Caribbean around 1525, where it spread from Trinidad to Jamaica. ^[62]

Chocolate was an acquired taste for the Spanish living in the Americas, and the foam was particularly objectionable. ^{[47] [58]} However, the primarily male Spanish population was systematically exposed to chocolate via the Aztec women they married and took as concubines. As Spanish women immigrated and the Spanish elite no longer married the local population, Aztec women remained in the household as domestic servants. ^{[58] [63]} To accommodate chocolate to their tastes, chocolate was served warm, often sweetened, and with familiar spices. The foam was created by beating with a stick rather than pouring from a height. ^[63] This habit of serving chocolate spiced to emulate the Mesoamerican flavoring had decline by the eighteenth century. ^[64]

Through the sixteenth century after colonization, the Spanish were interested in the medical qualities of Mesoamerican flora. ^[65] Writers such as Bernal Díaz and Francisco Hernández, the royal physician to Phillip II of Spain, claimed chocolate was an aphrodisiac, ^[39] and Hernández reported back to Spain a range of conditions he believed chocolate and its additives could treat. ^[66] As a result, Spain at this time viewed chocolate primarily as medicinal. ^[67]

It is unknown when chocolate was first brought to Spain, and there is no evidence it was Cortés who introduced it. ^[57] The first evidence of its introduction to the Spanish court was in 1544 by Qʼeqchiʼ Mayan nobles, brought to Spain by Dominican friars, ^[55] but it took until 1585 before the first official shipment of cacao to Europe was recorded. ^[57]

From Spain, chocolate spread to other European nations; to Portugal, to Italy in the 17th century, and then outwards. Tracing the spread of chocolate in Europe is complicated by the religious wars and shifting allegiances of the time, but it was driven by cosmopolitanism and missionaries. ^{[64] [68]} During the 17th-century, chocolate-drinking became very popular among the elite of Europe, and was considered an aphrodisiac. ^{[69] [59]} It was expensive due to the high transportation costs and import duties. ^[70] From the late-16th century until the early 18th, it was controversial whether chocolate was both a food and a drink, or just a drink. This distinction was needed to determine if consumption broke the ecclesiastical fast. ^[71] Most cacao in the 17th–18th centuries was imported to Europe from Venezuela. ^[61]

The introduction to France is therefore difficult to ascertain, but there is most evidence that it was introduced as a medicine. ^[72] Historians believe the silver chocolate-pot, used to stir and beat chocolate, was invented by the French after its introduction. ^[72] By the 1670s, drinking chocolate was widespread among French aristocratic women, despite disagreement over if chocolate was medically good or bad, and it would only be settled as good by 1684. Concerns about the health effects can be seen expressed in a 1671 letter by noblewoman Marie de Rabutin-Chantal: ^[72]

"The Marquise de Coëtlogon took so much chocolate during her pregnancy last year that she produced a small boy as black as the devil, who died."

Chocolate arrived in England in the mid-17th century, around the same time as tea and coffee, and encountered an initial backlash from those with medical concerns. ^{[69] [73]} Cocoa was supplied by Jamaican plantations, taken from the Spaniards in 1655. ^[69] While chocolate had begun being flavored with new, highly-perfumed ingredients, such as jasmine and ambergris in Italy in the seventeenth century, ^[74] in England chocolate was a commercial product and production was simpler and less careful. ^[69] Chocolate was served in coffee houses to whoever could pay. ^[75] From England, chocolate spread to the North American colonies by the late-17th century. ^[69]

In the 18th century, chocolate was considered southern European, aristocratic and Catholic. This was in contrast to the bourgeois coffee and proletarian alcohol. While the technique of producing chocolate was still very similar to that of native Americans, chocolate was also consumed as bars, pastilles, in ices, desserts, main courses and pasta. ^{[76] [77]} Medical opinion of this time held that chocolate was medically beneficial if not consumed in excess. ^[78] Vanilla was a popular addition, but was considered unhealthy under humorism, the dominant system of medical thought. ^[77]

In Spain, Jesuits were prominent in importing and drinking chocolate until Charles III expelled them in 1767. The upper and middle class consumed chocolate for breakfast and after dinner, after drinking a glass of cold water. Guilds of chocolate grinders were formed across cities. ^[79] In Italy chocolate preparation varied. Following a historic use of conveying poisons, Pope Benedict XIV was rumored to have been killed by poison put in his chocolate, after he suppressed the Jesuits. ^[80] Chocolate was commonly used in recipes in Italy during the 18th century, particularly in northern Italy. ^[41] In France, chocolate was mainly used in desserts and confectionary. ^[81] The French began heating working areas of the table-mill to assist extraction in 1732. ^[82] Chocolaterie Lombart was founded in 1760, and is claimed to have been the first chocolate company in France. ^[83]

Developments to the technique of producing chocolate began in the 18th century. In 1729, a patent was granted to British apothecary Walter Churchman for a water engine that powered cocoa milling, purchased by Joseph Storrs Fry of J. S. Fry & Sons in 1789. ^{[84] [85]} In the American colonies, water-powered milling began in 1765. In 1776 in France, a hydraulic mill was invented, which spread to other European countries. ^[86]

In 1828, Coenraad Johannes van Houten received a patent for the manufacturing process for making Dutch cocoa. The process removed cacao butter from chocolate liquor, the result of milling, by enough to create a cake that could be pulverized into a powder. This would later permit large-scale, cheap chocolate production, in powdered and solid forms, opening up mass consumption. ^[87] At the time however, there was no market for cocoa butter, and it took until the 1860s to be widely used. ^[88] Chocolate was often adulterated, including by firms such as Cadbury, which resulted in the creation of food standards laws. ^{[89] [90]} With improvements in production, a worker in 1890 could produce fifty times more chocolate paste than before the Industrial Revolution. ^[91]

Quakers were active in chocolate entrepreneurship in the Industrial Revolution, setting up J. S. Fry & Sons, Cadbury and Rowntree's. In 1847, Fry's invented a method of mixing cocoa butter with cocoa powder and sugar to invent a non-brittle and dry eating chocolate, ^[85] commonly considered the first chocolate bar. ^[89] A corresponding increase in cocoa butter prices made this, for a time, a food of the elite. Competition between Cadbury and Fry's in the 19th century created the chocolate box and the chocolate Easter egg. ^{[85] [89]} Quaker firms built model villages, such as Bournville, to promote worker morality and living conditions. ^[85] This paternalistic concern was shared by other, irreligious chocolate manufacturers. ^[92]

In 1819, the first chocolate factory in Switzerland was opened by François-Louis Cailler. The factory featured the first mixing machine, and was more bitter than contemporary chocolate. ^{[93] [94]} In the 1860s, the van Houten company alkalized cocoa powder, which improved taste and darkened appearance. ^{[95] [96]} Modern milk chocolate was invented in 1875 when Swiss chocolate manufacturer Daniel Peter combined the recently invented powdered milk with chocolate, and achieved public acceptance after 1900. ^{[93] [97]} While milk had previously been added to chocolate, it was expensive and difficult to keep fresh. ^[98] In 1879, the conching process was invented by the Swiss Rudolphe Lindt, which heats and agitates liquid chocolate for days to change flavour and increase smoothness. Before conching was invented, chocolate had been gritty. ^[93] Conching was maintained by Lindt as a trade secret for more than 20 years. ^[99]

The price of chocolate began to drop dramatically in the 1890s and 1900s as the production of chocolate began to shift away from the Americas to Asia and Africa. ^[83] From 1880–1914, the mass market for chocolate experienced huge growth. ^[96] Between 1896 and 1909, chocolate consumption in the United States increased 414%, ^[73] and similarly quadrupled between 1880 and 1902 in England. ^[89] Eating chocolate overtook drinking chocolate in market share in the early 1900s. ^[100] This growth was largely restricted to Western nations. ^[96]

In the early 19th century, the Portuguese began commercial cacao growing in West Africa. ^[101] Introducing the crop to São Tomé from Brazil in 1824, ^[102] widespread cultivation soon spread across Africa. In bringing cacao to Africa from Brazil, the Portuguese also recreated the slave plantation system. ^[101] When Portugal made slavery illegal in 1869 after large international pressure, production was maintained by creating a captive workforce through "legal trickery." ^[103] São Tomé and Príncipe became the largest producer in 1905, until Ghana overtook them in 1911. ^[104] While cacao had historically been grown on a mix of estates and smallholdings, by 1914 the latter was becoming dominant. ^[105]

Cadbury began inquiring into labor practices in the Portuguese cacao industry in the first decade of the 20th century. A 1908 report by Cadbury agent Joseph Burtt described the system as "de facto slavery". ^[106] In 1909, Fry's, Cadbury and Rowntree's boycotted plantations in Portuguese territories which generally improved working conditions. ^[85]

After Cadbury bought Fry's in 1918, competition in the chocolate market was between Swiss chocolatiers, Cadbury, and American firms The Hershey Company and Mars. ^[107]

Tempering was developed by 1931 to produce a snap when breaking chocolate and glossy appearance. ^[108]

Drinks are still made from cacao seeds across Mesoamerica. ^[109]

Bean-to-bar

• Food history
• History of yerba mate

• Mara P. Squicciarini and Johan Swinnen. 2016. The Economics of Chocolate. Oxford University Press.