A Brief History of Chocolates

People all over the world love chocolates with deep passion. Chocolate is made from the seed of a tropical plant known as the Cocoa.  It was first cultivated in South America by the Aztecs and from there chocolate was introduced to Europe. The Europeans produced the solid modern day form of chocolates.

Chocolates are the wonders of the culinary world. They inspire deep passion in people and everybody in the world seems to have their own personal opinions on chocolates. They range from extreme dislike to passionate love for chocolates. Nobody seems to have a moderate opinion about them. But the fact that the number of chocolate lovers in the world exceeds far more the number of people who hate it is a testimony to the universal appeal of this wonderful food item.

Chocolate is made from cocoa-powder, which in turn comes from cocoa bean. It is the seed of a tropical plant known as the Cocoa. The cocoa plant was originally grown in South America. The Aztecs were the first culture to discover chocolates. They harvested the cocoa-pods and the beans inside were scooped out and dried.  After drying, the beans were then grinded or smashed up. Then they would mix water and other ingredients to make a chocolate elixir which was used in religious rites and ceremonies. The Aztecs believed that chocolate was a food of the gods and that it was a gift of Quetzalcoatl, the God of wisdom.  Europeans first came across chocolates when they invaded the continent. In fact it was the Spanish conquistador Cortez, who introduced chocolate to Europe in the sixteenth century. The Europeans experimented with the cocoa and they started adding cream, sugar, butter and milk to it. After that chocolates became popular in royal courts around Europe and the era show the opening of many “chocolate houses” where people went to experience this new sweet and delicious sensation. The first ‘chocolate house’ was opened in London in the year1657.

But the present day form of chocolates evolved somewhere only in the beginning of the 19^th century. In the year 1828, the Dutch chemist Coenraad Van Houten created a press to remove excess cacao butter from chocolate liquor which made chocolate production much cheaper. The end product was termed as “Dutch Cocoa” and it was also more consistent in quality. This development was instrumental in the transformation of chocolate from a liquid to its popular solid form. The cocoa liquor was transformed into chocolate moulds by adding back the melted cocoa butter. Nowadays this popular form of chocolates can be found in stores and counters all over the world.

With their universal popularity, chocolates have also carved their niche as essential gift items for a number of social occasions and festivals like Christmas, New Year and Diwali. It is an undisputed fact that everyone loves gifts in abundance and so the tremendous sales of chocolate gift sets and chocolate cookie gift boxes do not come as a surprise. The internet is also filled with a plethora of chocolate gift box ideas and one can also order chocolate gift boxes in India for any occasion or celebration.

For more chocolate gift shopping you may go through my website http://www.fnp.com/chocolate/

Author's Note

Read my article and if you want to share something good for our readers. Please feel free to write.

Thanks