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History of hot chocolate

This wonderful drink we call Hot Chocolate has been around for centuries.  The Mayan’s found that the Cacao tree produced the most amazing exotic fruit and when the contents of this fruit were ground up to a fine powder, it produced an intoxicating drink. This drink, with many revisions from the way the Mayans first formulated it, is what we know today as hot chocolate. 
Chocolate, which is the basis of hot chocolate, comes from the Cacao Tree which grows a melon-like pod called “food of the gods”.  These melons are about the size of a small pineapple.  Cacao trees have been growing for centuries. These trees grow in Central America, South America, Africa, and part of Indonesia.
The first hot chocolate was thought to consist of ground cocoa beans, water, wine, and peppers.  Originally, it was drunk cold and unsweetened. The Spaniards were the first to add sugar to it and then when it was introduced to England they added milk and it became an elegant after dinner drink. It was also first used medicinally to treat such things as stomach problems.  We now know that drinking hot chocolate satisfies our tastes buds and sooths our stomachs!
Today we use the terms hot chocolate and hot coco interchangeably.  They both mean the same thing and they both mean a hot, deliciously sweet, chocolaty drink.  It is considered a comfort food, and aren’t we glad it is!  Hot chocolate is an absolute pleasure drink. It contains more antioxidants then wine and tea therefore reducing the risk of heart disease.  And, we thought it just tasted good.
We have the Mayans to thank for this wonderful drink. You can make it by melting chocolate bars and then adding milk or you can even buy instant hot chocolate mix.  Either way nothing is better than watching a cozy fire burning while snuggling together on a cold winter’s night drinking a warm cup of delicious hot chocolate, and that is a very good thing.

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