| Did you know chocolate was originated in Central | | | | time, two hundred small cacao beans were worth |
| America? That it used to be a treat only to the rich? | | | | one Spanish real.The Spanish helped develop cacao |
| Chocolate has a fascinating history!The Olmecs | | | | plantations in Mexico, Ecuador, Venezuela, Peru, |
| occupied a small area south of Veracruz and were | | | | Jamaica and Hispaniola (Haiti and the Dominican |
| the first cultivators of the cacao pod. The Mayans | | | | Republic). Cacao production has since spread all over |
| were next, just south of present day Mexico, to | | | | the world but the cacao from these original regions |
| elevate chocolate to status of the Gods. They | | | | still produce the most highly prized variety of cacao |
| named the cacao tree Cacahuaquchtl (tree) as they | | | | bean. The first ever chocolate processing plant was |
| were concerned no other tree was worth naming. | | | | set up in Spain in 1580. From then on the popularity |
| They believed the tree belonged to the gods and | | | | of chocolate gradually spread to the other European |
| that the pods growing from the tree were an | | | | countries.The Dutch transplanted the tree to their |
| offering from the gods to man. They Mayans were | | | | East Indian states in the early seventeenth century |
| the originators of a bitter brew made from cacao | | | | and from there it spread to the Philippines, New |
| beans. It was a luxury drink enjoyed by kings and | | | | Guinea, Samoa and Indonesia with a large degree of |
| noblemen. Thankfully we can all enjoy chocolate | | | | success made possible by the exploitation of |
| now!Christopher Columbus, in 1502, reached the island | | | | hundreds of thousands of African slaves. In the early |
| of Guanaja off the coast of Honduras. As legend | | | | nineteenth century the Portuguese transplanted |
| goes he was greeted by natives that gave him a | | | | Brazilian cacao saplings to the island of Sao Tome off |
| sackful of cacao beans in exchange for some of his | | | | the African coast and later to West Africa. By the |
| own merchandise. When Cortes arrived seventeen | | | | end of the nineteenth century the Germans had |
| years later the cacao beans were being used as food | | | | settled it in Cameroon and British in Sri Lanka. |
| and a form of currency. It was reported that a slave | | | | Plantations have since spread to Southeast Asia and |
| could be bought for one hundred cacao beans. At the | | | | Malaysia is now one of the world's leading producers. |