History

Have you ever wondered where chocolate originated? Would you believe the Aztecs were the first people to taste chocolate? How about where a Milky Way got its name? This page is filled with many interesting facts on where chocolate came from and how others around the world got their first taste of chocolate.

Chocolate was unknown to us until 1492. You see, when Columbus was over in the new world, the Aztecs were making chocolate drinks that tasted very bitter, from cacao beans. When Columbus came back from the world, he brought with him a chest full of strange things. Inside the chest were cacao beans that looked somewhat like almonds. Twenty-seven years passed before someone figured out what to do with the beans.

Hernando Cortez finally got the recipe from the Aztecs. The Spanish king and queen decided to improve the drink by adding sugar and heat, making hot chocolate. This secret was kept in Spain for about a hundred years until someone leaked and it was all over Europe. Rich Europeans everywhere were now drinking the tasty drink.

In 1756, a baker figured out how to make powdered cocoa by extracting some of the cocoa butter from the beans and grinding the beans up. For solid chocolate, they would just add fat to the ground up beans.

Chocolate has come a long way from being a tiny bean to being in the shape of flowers, animals, and candy bars. Did you know that the chocolate chip cookie is the number one selling cookie in America? This could be because chocolate is full of vitamins like vitamin A, protein, vitamin D, and iron. Perhaps it is because it stays fresh for at least