The ancient Maya discovered what we now call cacao beans within the fruit of the cacao tree thousands of years ago. They used the beans medicinally in a blended drink of fermented and roasted cocoa paste, water, chili peppers and cornmeal, among other ingredients. The bitter beverage was revered for its nourishing and restorative qualities. Highly valued and popular, cacao not only became a widely traded commodity for the Maya, but also a preferred method of payment for another Mesoamerican tribe, the Aztec. Eventually, the Aztec word,
xocolatl-meaning bitter water-transformed into the European word
xocolate and later into the modern English word
chocolate.
When Eureopean explorers introduced cacao to the world at large in the 1500's, chocolate became a delicacy exclusive to European aristocracy. It didn't find a mainstream audience until mass-produced candies appeared in the 19th centurey. Since then, chocolate has been sweetened, spiced, melted, sprinkled, shaved, chopped and molded into almost every conceivable shape.
But by all accounts, today's chocolate bears little resemblance to the bitter health tonic the Maya drank. In an effort to minimize chocolate's bitter taste, chocolatiers added refined white sugar and milk fats. Later, hydrogenated oils were folded into chocolate's mix, as were the modern manufacturing processes of fermentation and alkalization. "Modern chocolate manufacturers created a product that was more palatable but in the process were destroying what made it healthy," says Andrew brooks, Founder and Executive Vice President of MXI Corp. Which manufactures the Healthy Chocolate, Xocai."
Not All Chocolate is Created Equal
by Beth Douglass Silcox
