Who Made Chocolates?

Do you know that ‘chocolatic’, a drink prepared from cocoa beans, was considered so esteemed that it was served in goblets made of gold, which were disposed off after use?

This was thousand of years ago, when Aztecs prepared this cold, thick, and unsweetened drink from cocoa beans. The drinks were famous until the Victorian era, when people invented a method to solidify the chocolate for eating it.

The Story Begins!
..with cocoa trees! For thousands of years, they grew wildly in the dense tropical rainforests of Amazon, Central, and South America. Cocoa was valued by the Aztecs and the Maya Indians for hundreds of years before it was introduced in Europe. It was so precious to Aztecs that they used it as currency!

Cocoa beans enchanted Aztecs up to the extent that they attributed its existence to their God Quetzalcoatl. According to legend, God Quetzalcoatl had come down from heaven on a ray of a morning star and brought a cocoa tree with Him. This tree was stolen from paradise. This explained the extraordinary attachment of Aztecs to cocoa beans!

The Making Of Cocoa Powder And Chocolate Bars
It was 1828, when a Dutch chemist named Johannes Van Houten, was struck with an idea of separating cocoa butter (fat) from ground cocoa beans. Thus, cocoa powder was born! It was tastier than the whole cocoa bean. Cocoa powder fast gained popularity. People started conjuring up ways to blend the powder with milk and creating chocolate bars. The first chocolate bar, which was Swiss, was sold in 1875.

The â€œaccidentalâ€ Invention Of Chocolate Chip
If you are thankful to the person who invented the scrumptious chocolate chip cookies, think again before thanking! This is because nobody actually thought of a way to make this treat. It was created accidentally!

It all happened in 1930. Wakefield, who owned the Toll House Inn located in Whitman Massachusetts, used to bake meals for her guests on her own. She was famous for her cookies. One day, while baking cookies, she missed an ingredient. This compelled her to use bits of semi sweet chocolate bars instead of the usual bakers chocolate. The final product was chocolate chip cookies!

The more intriguing part of this event was that the chocolate bar, which Wakefield substituted for bakers chocolate, was from Andrew Nestle. He made a deal with Wakefield to print the recipe on the package of cookies in return for a lifelong supply of chocolate bars!!

The next time you bit into the delicious chocolate chip cookie, thank Wakefieldâ€™s lucky stars!