CHOCOLATE
Chocolate is made from the cocoa bean, found in pods growing from the trunk and lower branches of the Cacao Tree It's Latin name is Theobroma Cacao meaning "food of the gods". The Cocoa Tree will grow only within a latitude of 10 degrees north or south of the equator at about 76m above s...
, CHOCOLATE
Chocolate is made from the cocoa bean, found in pods growing from
the trunk and lower branches of the Cacao Tree It\'s Latin name is
Theobroma Cacao meaning \"food of the gods\". The Cocoa Tree will
grow only within a latitude of 10 degrees north or south of the equator
at about 76m above sea level.
The earliest record of chocolate was over fifteen hundred years ago in
the Central American rain forests, where temperatures and humidity
provide the ideal climate for cultivation of the plant from which
chocolate is derived, the Cacao Tree.
The Cacao Tree was worshipped by the Mayan civilisation of Central
America and Southern Mexico, who believed it to be of divine origin,
Cacao is actually a Mayan word meaning \"God Food\". Cacao was
corrupted into the more familiar \'Cocoa\' by the early European
explorers. The Maya brewed a spicy, bittersweet drink by roasting and
pounding the seeds of the Cacao tree (cocoa beans) with maize and
Chili peppers and letting the mixture ferment. This drink was reserved
for use in ceremonies as well as for drinking by the wealthy and
religious elite. They also ate a Cacao porridge.
The Aztecs of central Mexico also prized the beans, but because the
Aztec\'s lived further north the climate was not suitable for cultivation
of the tree, they had to acquire the beans through trade. The Aztecs
prized the beans so highly they used them as currency - 100 beans
bought a turkey or a slave - and tribute or taxes were paid in cocoa
beans to Aztec emperors. The Aztecs, like the Mayans, also enjoyed
Cacao as a beverage fermented from the raw beans, which was also
used in rituals and as a luxury available only to the very wealthy. The
Aztecs called this drink Xocolatl, the Spanish conquistadors found
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