Who invented chocolate?

Who was the original inventor of chocolate? Whether we sip hot cocoa or bite into a bar, chocolate is delightful.

Chocolate's origins are not as well known as candy. The person who discovered how to make chocolate was probably from South America.

The earliest evidence for the use of cacao was found at the Santa Ana-La Florida archaeological site in southeastern Ecuador. The tree was outside of its natural range by 5,300 years ago, so it's likely that it was used by people throughout South America.

The chocolate that the Indigenous South Americans created is very different from the chocolate that most people like.

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In order to make chocolate, the large seeds of the fruitpods of the cacao tree are put into the white fruit pulp. The skin of the seed is removed to make a very rough form of the final product. Chocolate liquor is a liquid that can be mixed with other ingredients to make commercial chocolate. Cocoa butter and cocoa powder can be made from chocolate liquor.

It is thought that the sugars in the fruit could be used to make an alcoholic drink. The elites of ancient societies were very fond of the frothy mix that resulted, and it was highly coveted. The Olmecs, who lived in the south of Mexico between 1500 B.C. and 400 B.C., considered a gift from their gods and offered it.

By the time the Spanish conquistadors arrived in the early 16th century A.D., it was grown in almost every part of Central and South America. According to an archaeobotanist who has tasted cacao throughout the region, the point of origin is the Amazon basin.

The southern tip of South America was reached by about 14,500 years ago, but it is not known when the first people arrived in the Amazon.

The first cacao drinks might not have been as hot as today's, but they were stilllukewarm. She said they're warm, but not hot. The Maya and Aztec drink xocolatl, which is where the English word "chocolate" comes from, is one of several recipes that use chilies.

Fruits and vegetables conduct electricity.

Coffee and cacao are not related; the coffee plant is native to the Old World, possibly Africa, and not to the Americas, and that's one of the reasons why cacao is popular. The stimulation from cacao may have been subtle, but it was still effective. She said that while other stimulants were available in South America, cacao was the only one that could be found in the Americas.

The introduction of chocolate as a drink from the New World to Europe in the 16th century made it a symbol of luxury. The chocolate bar was invented in 1847 by the British company J.S. Fry and Sons.

A method for grinding cocoa beans with a steam engine was patented by Fry in 1795 and his sons later combined cocoa powder, cocoa butter and sugar to make a solid chocolate bar. The first chocolate Easter egg was sold by the company in 1873, as well as several other chocolate products. The Swiss were particularly taken with the new chocolate and in the 1870s the first milk chocolate bar was produced.

The first mass-produced milk chocolate bar was sold in the US in 1900 by Hershey, who had previously sold caramels.

There's a wide variety of chocolate to choose from, from sweet and smooth milk chocolate to brittle and bitter 80% to 90% dark chocolate. Think of the buzz that ancient Indigenous Americans enjoyed thousands of years ago.

It was originally published on Live Science