2. The history of cacao

use of cacao by the Maya and the Aztecs

The area between the Orinoco and the Amazon river used to be the only place where the Cacao tree was growing. It was only used by small animals, who ate the tangy nutritious pulp inside the fruits. The Maya entered this area around 1000 B.C. It was probably Hunhpu, the third Maya King, who developed the cultivation of cacao. The beans were not only used to make cacao but also being used as a form of currency. Perhaps the cacao tax, which was levied on the towns by the last princess of the empire, was one of the causes of the mysterious collapse of the Maya cul­ture.

Also the Aztecs used cacao. The ‘chocolatl’ they made consisted of cacao and chili peppers. Sometimes they added medicinal plants or sweetened the drink with honey. They used the drink as a stimulant for mind and body. Not everybody used this chocolate drink, since cacao plantations were not very common. In fact, they were so rare that the beans were also used as currency and as gifts for gods and kings. “ A pump­kin cost four beans, a rabbit was worth ten, twelve were required for the services of a prostitute and one hundred for the purchase of a slave” (Bailleux et al., 1995).

Discovery of cacao by Columbus and Cortés

In 1502 Cristopher Columbus was the first who tasted some Aztec-chocolatl, but since he found the beverage very spicy and bitter, he wasn’t very interested in the sac with beans he got from the Aztecs. Hernán Cortés, who arrived in 1519, was very lucky to meet Montezuma. Montezuma believed that Cortés was a reincarnation of Quetzacoatl, who according to Aztec-legends was supposed to return from the land where the sun rises, to his native country. This was the reason why Montezuma imme­diately offered Cortés a vast plantation of cacao trees. Unlike Columbus, Cortés quickly became to understand the economic value of cacao. However, it took some years for chocolate became popular, since people still used the Aztec-recipe to prepare chocolatl.

In 1585 the first commercial cargo of cacao was unloaded in Spain. It was popular at the court and aristocratic households. It was also known in the Nether­lands and Flanders (which were part of the Spanish territories). In 1606 the chocolate was introduced in Italy, nine years later a Spanish princess brought cacao to France. In monasteries very fine chocolate-drinks recipes were developed. The chocolate drinks they made were sufficiently nourishing to provide lengthy relief from hunger pangs during the fasts. In 1657 the first English chocolate-house was opened, and many followed. In 1734 Linnaeus gave the chocolate tree the name Theobroma cacao, since it was said that chocolate, more than nectar or ambrosia, was the true food of the gods.

- back to index -

- chapter 1: The cacao tree; Theobroma cacao -
- chapter 3 : The Chocolate revolution -