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The wholesome nature of cocoa has been widely acclaimed in Europe, since the sixteenth century.

Have you ever wondered how chocolate came to the UK? Sir Hans Sloane, adventurer, collector, and President of the Royal College of Physicians 1719-35, noted on a voyage to Jamaica that West Indians drank a concoction made by boiling roasted cocoa beans. Convinced that it had therapeutic qualities, he made the bitter drink more to his taste by boiling the beans in milk and sugar instead of water – and 'Sir Hans Sloane’s Milk Chocolate' drink was born.

But the story of cocoa based food and drink goes back far further than Sir Sloane...The wholesome nature of cocoa has been widely acclaimed in Europe, since the sixteenth century. However, to understand where this image originated one has to go back to the folklore of the Indians of Central America, who regarded 'cacao' as an elixir.

Treasure

Gold, silver and precious stones were not the only treasures brought back by the Spanish conquistadors, led by Hernando Cortés in the early 1500s. They also discovered a small brown bean, which the Indians used to make a bitter but flavourful drink, known as 'xocoatl' or 'chocolatl', whence the words cacao, cocoa and the chocolate of today.

The preparation of a draught of cocoa often formed a part of the formal declaration of marriage in pre-conquest Mexico. To the Aztec emperor Montezuma, this chocolate drink was for warriors and the élite, and it had great sacred and ceremonial importance, as a drink fit for the gods. It was Swedish botanist Lin-naeus, who was aware of cacao's reputation, that assigned the plant species to a genus, which he named 'Theobroma Cacao' - the 'food of the gods'.

Medicinal

Cacao reached the Old World in 1544, when the beans were presented to the future Philip II of Spain. The Spanish nobility were so entranced that they kept cacao secret from outsiders for nearly 100 years. At that time, the drink must almost certainly have tasted like a medicine and it was consumed for its medicinal and even aphrodisiacal benefits! News of the drink, by now often flavoured with cinnamon and vanilla, gradually spread to the rest of Europe.

In 1615, when the Spanish princess Anne married King Louis XIII of France, she brought along the recipe for chocolate as part of her dowry, and the first recorded chocolate drinker in France was Cardinal Richelieu, who enjoyed it as a food and as an aid to digestion.

Cocoa UK

The English had to wait until around 1657 for cacao drinks to be sold in the London chocolate-drinking houses. Samuel Pepys, the famous diarist, frequented these fashionable meeting places, which became the precursors of many gentlemen's clubs, including the Garrick Club, which began life as 'The Cocoa Tree Chocolate House'.

In the 17th century, the Spaniards began growing cacao beans on the island of Fernando Po, off the coast of Africa. However, the major development of cocoa as a world commodity began around the 1880s, when the British introduced plantations in what is now Ghana.

Africa

The west coast of Africa is still the largest cocoa-producing area of the world. But cocoa is also a cash crop grown in Central America and the West Indies, and in parts of Asia such as Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines, where it is an important part of the national economies.

The history of cocoa and chocolate has seen them change from being expensive luxuries to products of mass consumption. Their wider availability reflects the changes in the nature and composition of the products, their move from being perceived as a bitter-tasting medicine to a delicious food, and the innovative technologies that make them more affordable. Today, chocolate, a divine product and a royal product, remains a world favourite.

More information available in Drink, Naughty But Nice, Deserts, Supermarkets, Africa, Central America, South America, Exotic Islands