Cocoa And Chocolate
The Tree, The Bean The Beverage

CHAPTER III OUTLINE OF THE HISTORY OF COCOA AND CHOCOLATE i. BEFORE A.D. 1500 The Origin of Cacao Cultivation and Chocolate Preparation The early history of cacao is lost in antiquity. If we may believe the Mexican mythology (much virtue in an if), chocolate was consumed by the Gods in Paradise, and the seed of cacao was conveyed to man as a special blessing by the God of the Air. The problem of dis-covering the original home of the cacao tree is generally admitted by botanists to be beset with well-nigh insuper-able difficulties. Various writers state that they have seen cacao growing wild in Central America, in Martinique, in Trinidad and in Guiana, but the evidence that these trees were not descended from cultivated trees is considered inconclusive. On the whole, Von Humboldt’s belief that cacao was indigenous to the forests of the Amazon and Orinoco remains to this day the most acceptable theory. From this region it was probably taken by wandering tribes to other parts of tropical America. Thus it is well known that the Aztecs of Mexico and the Incas of Peru cultivated cacao. Cortes, that brave but callous conquistador, made in 1519 the discovery that cacao was widely cultivated in Mexico, and the drink prepared from it consumed in large quantities by Mexico’s ruler, Montezuma, and his court. Such was the knowledge of both cultivation and preparation displayed by the 11