Xocoatl is a traditional Mesoamerican beverage made from cacao beans, often flavored with spices like chili and vanilla. The drink was consumed by ancient civilizations such as the Aztecs and Maya, typically served cold and unsweetened. It is considered a precursor to modern chocolate and was valued for its stimulating properties and cultural significance. Xocoatl translates to "bitter water," reflecting its original taste before the addition of sugar.
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Xocoati led to the discovery of chocolate. Xocoati was pure cacao, and had no sugar in it. When the Spaniards tried it, they thought the drink was too biter. So they added sugar to it.
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The Aztecs called chocolate xocolatl (shoh-koh-lah-till). However, what they referred to as chocolate was a warm beverage (similar to hot chocolate) without milk or sugar. The Aztecs also referred to the seed pod and the unprocessed seeds as cacao (kah-cow).
The commercial value of cocoa beans was first recognized by the ancient Mesoamerican civilizations, particularly the Olmecs around 1500 BCE, and later by the Maya and Aztec cultures. They used cocoa beans to make a beverage called "xocoatl," which had both ritualistic and economic significance. The Aztecs even used cocoa beans as a form of currency and for trade, highlighting their value in society. This recognition laid the groundwork for cocoa's eventual global commercialization.
The word "chocolate" comes from the Mayan word "xocoatl" and the Aztec word "cacahuatl". The Mexican Indian word for "chocolate" comes from two terms put together meaning:"choco" -(foam)"atl" -(water)
Chocolate comes from the Aztec word chocolatl. This word comes from the Mayan word xocoatl meaning "bitter water". Chocolate was drunk bitter by the Aztecs (as sugar was not yet added by the Spanish). It is said the Aztecs even added ingredients such as hot chillies to their chocolate drinks!
The Ancient Aztecs used the cocoa plant to please their god Quetzalcoatl who, descended from heaven on a beam of a morning star carrying a cocoa tree stolen from paradise.In both the Mayan and Aztec cultures cocoa was the basis for a thick, cold, unsweetened drink called xocoatl… believed to be a health elixir.Since sugar was unknown to the Aztecs, different spices were used to add flavor, even hot chili peppers and corn meal were used!Aztecs believed that wisdom and power came from eating the fruit of the cocoa tree, and also that it had nourishing, fortifying, and even aphrodisiac qualities.The cocoa beans were used for currency… records show that 400 cocoa beans equaled one Zontli, while 8000 beans equaled one Xiquipilli. When the Aztecs conquered tribes, they demanded their payment in cocoa! Records dating from 1200.BC show details of cocoa deliveries, imposed on all conquered tribes.
Chocolate - dark chocolate, milk chocolate, chocolate chock full of nuts, raisins or honey crisps,chocolate cream pies, chocolate sprinkles, chocolate drops,chocolate dipped ice-cream cones, chocolate swirls and peppermint stick twirls - chocolate! The world's favorite treat comes in many shapes, forms, consistencies and flavours. It shouldn't take long now before someone, probably a woman, lobbies to have chocolate proclaimed a major food group. Chocolate does, after all, work a tiny miracle on those annoying PMS days. It's also a delicious way to celebrate Valentines and Mother's Day. And in those busy times leading up to any major holiday, chocolate displays seems to ambush harried shoppers wherever they go. Special celebrations always include a myriad of chocolate treats - Santas and angels, bunnies and candy covered chocolate eggs, Halloween witches, warlocks and pumpkins all made out of chocolate! What in the world would we do without it? And where in the world did chocolate come from in the first place? The Mayans and Aztecs harvested cocoa pods from cacao trees3000 years ago, fermented them, then prepared a bitter, chocolatety drink called xocoatl, meaning "bitter water". Sometimes they added vanilla or maize to dilute the strong flavour. They also sipped the drink during religious ceremonies and used the beans as a source of currency. Christopher Columbus brought cocoabeans back to Spain in 1502. But it wasn't until 1519 that anyone took any real notice of chocolate. Spanish conquistador, Hernan Cortez, who had sampled the bitter Aztec drink in the New World, brought the recipe back to Spain. Most Spaniards found the drink much too bitter and added sugar to make it more palatable. When princess Maria Therese married Loius XIV of France, she took her fondness for the xocoatl beverage with her to Paris and by 1657 a London shop was selling solid chocolate. Soon chocolate houses were flourishing all over Europe, catering mostly to the rich, since they were the only people who could afford to enjoy the treat. Over the next few decades more and more refinements occurred like mixing chocolate with milk instead of water and patenting a process where most of the cocoa butter was pressed from the bean, producing a cocoa powder. Dorchester, Massachusetts was the location of the first North American chocolate manufacturer in 1765. In 1847 Fry and Sons of England took cocoa butter and mixed it with chocolate liquor and sugar and produced the firsteating chocolate. By 1876 a Swiss process added dry milk to the normally dark chocolate to create milk chocolate, a treat that became immensely popular. Continuing manufacturing innovations soon helped the price of chocolate to drop. By the end of the 1800's chocolate was available to everyone, not just the rich.
Chocolate derives its name from the Mayan word "xocoatl". The Mayans first cultivated cacao for processing into what we now know as chocolate - around 600 A.D., somewhere in the Yucatan peninsula (in the southeastern portion of what is now Mexico).the earliest documented use of chocolate was around 1100 B.C. Back then chocolate was usually served as a drink, thoughchocolate was invented about 3100 years agoChocolate comes from a country in AfricaAt first it was very not sweet, and mostly very un delicioushowever, the Europeans put some milk and some other things in them which makes them sweeter and not sour or un sweetjohn cadbury invented Cadbury chocolate. The founding of the buisness started in 1831 when john first made cocoa products on a factory scale in an old malthouse in Crooked Lane,Birmingham in England.Chocolate was never "invented". It comes from a plant (the cocoa bean) that is grown, harvested, and then turned into chocolate.
Humans have consumed caffeine since the Stone Age. Early peoples found that chewing the seeds, bark, or leaves of certain plants had the effects of easing fatigue, stimulating awareness, and elevating one's mood. Only much later was it found that the effect of caffeine was increased by steeping such plants in hot water. Many cultures have legends that attribute the discovery of such plants to people living many thousands of years ago.According to one popular Chinese legend, the Emperor of China Shennong, reputed to have reigned in about 3000 BC, accidentally discovered that when some leaves fell into boiling water, a fragrant and restorative drink resulted. Shennong is also mentioned in Lu Yu's Cha Jing, a famous early work on the subject of tea. The history of coffee has been recorded as far back as the ninth century. During that time, coffee beans were available only in their native habitat, Ethiopia. A popular legend traces its discovery to a goatherder named Kaldi, who apparently observed goats that became elated and sleepless at night after grazing on coffee shrubs and, upon trying the berries that the goats had been eating, experienced the same vitality. The earliest literary mention of coffee may be a reference to Bunchum in the works of the 9th-century Persian physician al-Razi. In 1587, Malaye Jaziri compiled a work tracing the history and legal controversies of coffee, entitled "Undat al safwa fi hill al-qahwa". In this work, Jaziri recorded that one Sheikh, Jamal-al-Din al-Dhabhani, mufti of Aden, was the first to adopt the use of coffee in 1454, and that in the 15th century the Sufis of Yemen routinely used coffee to stay awake during prayers.Towards the close of the 16th century, the use of coffee was recorded by a European resident in Egypt, and about this time it came into general use in the Near East. The appreciation of coffee as a beverage in Europe, where it was first known as "Arabian wine," dates from the 17th century. A legend states that, after the Ottoman Turks retreated from the walls of Vienna after losing a battle for the city, many sacks of coffee beans were found among their baggage. Europeans did not know what to do with all the coffee beans, being unfamiliar with them. So Franz George Kolschitzky, a Pole who had actually worked for the Turks, offered to take them. He subsequently taught the Viennese how to make coffee, and the first coffee house in the Western world was opened in Vienna, thus starting a long tradition of coffee appreciation. In Britain, the first coffee houses were opened in London in 1652, at St Michael's Alley, Cornhill. They soon became popular throughout Western Europe, and played a significant role in social relations in the 17th and 18th centuries.The kola nut, like the coffee berry and tea leaf, appears to have ancient origins. It is chewed in many West African cultures, individually or in a social setting, to restore vitality and ease hunger pangs. In 1911, kola became the focus of one of the earliest documented health scares when the US government seized 40 barrels and 20 kegs of Coca-Cola syrup in Chattanooga, Tennessee, alleging that the caffeine in its drink was "injurious to health". On March 13, 1911, the government initiated United States v. Forty Barrels and Twenty Kegs of Coca-Cola, hoping to force Coca-Cola to remove caffeine from its formula by making claims, such as that the excessive use of Coca-Cola at one girls' school led to "wild nocturnal freaks, violations of college rules and female proprieties, and even immoralities." Although the judge ruled in favor of Coca-Cola, two bills were introduced to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1912 to amend the Pure Food and Drug Act, adding caffeine to the list of "habit-forming" and "deleterious" substances, which must be listed on a product's label.The earliest evidence of cocoa bean use comes from residue found in an ancient Mayan pot dated to 600 BC. In the New World, chocolate was consumed in a bitter and spicy drink called xocoatl, often seasoned with vanilla, Chile pepper, and achiote. Xocoatl was believed to fight fatigue, a belief that is probably attributable to the theobromine and caffeine content. Chocolate was an important luxury good throughout pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, and cocoa beans were often used as currency.Xocoatl was introduced to Europe by the Spaniards and became a popular beverage by 1700. They also introduced the cacao tree into the West Indies and the Philippines. It was used in alchemical processes, where it was known as Black Bean.The leaves and stems of the Yaupon Holly (Ilex vomitoria) were used by Native Americans to brew a tea called Asi or the "black drink". Archaeologists have found evidence of this use stretch back far into antiquity, possibly dating to Late Archaic times.Source: Wikipedia