The sweetness came from the Spanish nuns who added honey and sugar to it. And everyone has loved it ever since (well, almost everyone, although it’s hard to comprehend)
The drink, called the ‘drink of the gods’, was originally reserved only for royalty, aristocracy or warriors. Later, merchants of high social standing joined this elite group.
Cocoa beans, due to their uniqueness, were used as currency – e.g. for 30 beans one could buy a rabbit and for 100 beans even a slave.
Although the first traces of the use of cocoa beans were found in Ecuador as early as ca. 3 000 BC, they were brought to Europe by the Spanish coloniser Hernan Cortez, who was given them by King Montezuma II himself (he secretly revealed that he drank a portion of tcoccoatl before going to his harem).
Until the mid-19th century, the beverage made from cocoa beans was considered a medicinal agent that was bought in pharmacies to treat apathy, fatigue, digestive problems, anaemia, malaria and even mental illness.
