Love That Chocolate!

Dare to discover more about chocolate. New research shows that the people of Central America were enjoying chocolate drinks more than 3,000 years ago, a half millennium earlier than previously thought. The ancient peoples of Mexico and Central America loved to drink chocolate. It was a bitter, frothy brew of fermented, roasted and ground cacao seeds. This brew or "Cacao Beer" was often spiced with chile peppers, and tasted more like mole poblano than a mug of Swiss Miss. It is believed, that it was served at ceremonies, like weddings, and births.

The word cacao comes from two Maya Indian words meaning "bitter juice." The word chocolate comes from two Maya words meaning "sour water." English importers made a mistake in the spelling of cacao and therefore the beans became cocoa beans (many people think the beans come from the coconut palm tree). The source of all chocolate, cocoa beans are in the fruit of the cacao tree (pods).The tree is an evergreen that grows primarily in the region 20 degrees north and south of the equator.