Who Invented Chocolate and Where Does Chocolate Come From?

Who Invented Chocolate and Where Does Chocolate Come From?
Chocolate comes from the cacao tree which has been cultivated since
1100 BC in Mexico, Central and South America.
We now know that the Aztecs made chocolate beverages called xocolātl,
which means "bitter water" in Nahuatl. Chocolate was used in Maya and
Aztec royal and religious rituals, and the oldest known cultivation
ofcacao was discovered at a site in Puerto Escondido, Honduras.
Chocolate was an important luxury good throughout the Aztec empire,
and cocoa beans were even used as currencybecause cacao could not
begrown locally.
Eventually, Chocolate drinks were introduced in Europe in the 16th
century,and the Europeans added cane sugar to counteract the natural
bitterness. It was served cold and became very popular in Spain after
the Spanish conquest of the Aztecs.
In the 1800s, chocolate in solid form was invented, and the British
family Fry claims to have marketed the first ever solid chocolate bar
in 1846.
During the Industrial Revolution, mechanical mills were created that
squeezed out cocoa butter, which helped simply mass production of
chocolate. Many people contributed to the modern Chocolate making
process including van Houten, Henri Nestlé, and Daniel Peter who first
used milk powder to createthe first milk chocolate in 1875./

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