READ THIS AND ANSWER PLEASE !! THE QUESTIONS ARE IN THE COMMENTS The earliest record of chocolate being used was over fifteen hundred years ago in the Central American rainforests. It was here that the tropical mix of high rainfall, high year-round temperatures and humidity provided the ideal climate for cultivation of the plant from which chocolate is derived, the cacao tree.
The cacao tree was worshipped by the Maya civilisation of Central America, who believed it to be of divine origin. Cacao is actually a Maya word meaning ‘god food’. Cacao was corrupted into the more familiar ‘cocoa’ by early European explorers. The Maya brewed a spicy, bitter, sweet drink by roasting and pounding the seeds of the cacao tree (cocoa beans) with maize and capsicum (chilli peppers) and letting the mixture ferment. This drink was reserved for use in ceremonies as well as for drinking by the wealthy.
The beans were also popular with the Aztecs of central Mexico, but because the Aztecs lived further north in more arid regions at higher altitudes, where the climate was not suitable for cultivation of the tree, they had to acquire the beans through trade or the spoils of war. The Aztecs prized the beans so highly they used them as currency, and tribute or taxes were paid in cacao beans to Aztec emperors. Like the Maya, the Aztecs also enjoyed cacao as a drink. It featured prominently in their ceremonies and as a luxury available only to the very wealthy. The Aztecs called this drink ‘xocolatl’.
In 1519, the Aztec emperor Montezuma was defeated by Cortez, who led a group of Spanish soldiers known as ‘conquistadors’. When the conquistadors searched his palace for the Aztec treasury, expecting to find gold and silver, all they found were huge quantities of cocoa beans. Xocolatl, or chocolate as it became known, was brought to Europe by Cortez. By this time, the conquistadors had learned to make the drink more palatable to European tastes by mixing the ground roasted beans with sugar and vanilla, thus offsetting the spicy bitterness of the brew the Maya and Aztecs drank.