Near the beginning of the 16th century, the Aztecs were believed to first make chocolate, although it goes back much farther.  The ones who certainly consumed chocolate was the ancient Mayans, who lived in present Mexico and Central America.  Even the word "cacao" is Mayan.  The Mayans wrote about cacao on their pottery as early as 500 A.D., but some believe chocolate dates back to a much older time during Olmec civilization, which preceded the Mayans.  The Mesoamerican civilization's chocolate a bitter drink made from a variety of local ingredients mixed with ground cacao beans.

An officer serving with Cortez observed Motecuhzoma, who was the ruler of the Aztecs.  They found that Motecuhzoma was drinking 50 flagons of chocolate every day.  This beverage, which was sometimes made with wine or water, could be seasoned with chili pepper, vanilla, and pimiento.  It was known to cure diarrhea and dysentery.  It also was believed to be an aphrodisiac.  Cortez is known to have tried the beverage, but he found it too bitter.  However he did write to King Carlos the first of Spain, calling "xocoatl" a "beverage that builds up resistance and fights fatigue."

Drinking chocolate (especially before it was sweetened) was an acquired taste for many Europeans.  A Spanish missionary named Jose de Acosta, who lived in Peru in the late 1500’s, described this taste this way:

“Loathsome to such as are not acquainted with it, having a scum or froth that is very unpleasant taste.  Yet it is a drink very much esteemed among the Indians, where with they feast noble men who pass through their country.  The Spaniards, both men and women, that are accustomed to the country, are very greedy of this Chocolate.  They say they make diverse sorts of it, some hot, some cold, and some temperate, and put therein much of that ‘chili’; yea, they make paste thereof, the which they say is good for the stomach and against the catarrh."

Chocolate would soon make its way across the Atlantic—first to Spain, and, eventually, to the rest of Europe.  The first official shipment of chocolate was made in 1585 from Veracruz to Seville.