European encounters On the
fourth voyage of Columbus, on 15 August 1502, the expedition came upon a
Mayan trading canoe near an island in the
Gulf of Honduras. A member of the Columbus expedition, while documenting the items on the canoe, noted the apparent value of cocoa beans based on the canoe crew's reaction when beans were dropped. However, they did not know what they were, nor that they could be used to make a drink. Spanish conquistador
Hernán Cortés may have been the first European to encounter chocolate when he observed it in the court of
Moctezuma II in 1520. By 1524, the Spanish had established control over central
Mexico, and expanded cacao production while increasing tribute requirements in "frenzied" efforts to profit from cacao. Cacao was produced using forced labor under the
encomienda labor system. During the 16th century Native Americans experienced a massive
population decline and production decreased. In response, more cacao was produced on the
Guayaquil coast of Ecuador, as well as in Venezuela, albeit of a lower quality and using slaves from Africa. This cacao was argued to be inferior as it was not the same variety as the Criollo type grown in Mesoamerica: this was the Forastero, which was native to South America and although it yielded more fruit and was more disease resistant, it tasted dry and bitter. As Guayaquil cacao flooded the Mexican market in the early 1600s, dropping prices, Guatemalan
officials among others worked to ban Guayaquil cacao from Guatemalan ports and those of
New Spain. Despite bans on importing this cacao around 1630, Guayaquil cacao continued to be exported by smugglers. The Spanish introduced cacao to the Caribbean around 1525, where it spread from
Trinidad to
Jamaica. Chocolate was an acquired taste for the Spaniards living in the Americas, widely disliked until the 1590s, and they found the foam particularly objectionable. The primarily male Spanish population was exposed to chocolate through the Aztec women they married or took as concubines. As Spanish women immigrated and the Spanish elite ceased marrying local women, Aztec women remained in households as domestic servants. Spaniards,
casta and Afro-Guatemalan women who couldn't afford domestic servants likely learned to make chocolate from their neighbors. To adapt chocolate to Spanish tastes, it was often sweetened, flavored with familiar spices and served warm, the last change an application of the principles of
humorism. The foam was created by just beating the liquid with a
molinillo (a wooden whisk) rather than by also pouring it from a height. This habit of serving chocolate spiced to mimic the Mesoamerican flavorings had declined by the 18th century. Women almost always prepared chocolate, and only in rare cases did a man prepare it. During the early colonial period, missionaries sold solid sweet chocolates as delicacies, produced by nuns. These chocolates were very profitable.
Spread , depicting the usual way of serving chocolate – from a cup or a bowl, c.1640. The exact date when chocolate was brought to Spain is unknown, and there is no evidence Cortés was responsible for its introduction. According to the earliest documented evidence, it was introduced to the Spanish court in 1544 by
Qʼeqchiʼ Mayan nobles brought to Spain by
Dominican friars, Tracing the spread of chocolate in Europe is complicated by the religious wars and shifting allegiances of the time, but it is understood that it was driven by
cosmopolitanism and missionaries. During the 17th century, drinking chocolate became very popular among the elite of Europe, and was believed to be an aphrodisiac. It was expensive due to the high transportation costs and import duties. From the late-16th century until the early 18th century, there was controversy about whether chocolate was both a food and a drink or just a drink; this distinction was important for determining if consumption violated
ecclesiastical fasts. This dispute continued despite popes including
Pope Pius V,
Clement VII and
Benedict XIV opining it did not break the fast. Most cacao imported to Europe in the 17th–18th centuries came from Venezuela. With the difficulty in tracing the spread of chocolate across Europe, it is difficult to pinpoint when chocolate was introduced to France. However, evidence suggests it was first introduced as medicine. The
silver chocolate pot, used to stir and beat chocolate, was thereafter invented by the French. By the 1670s, drinking chocolate was widespread among French aristocratic women, despite debate over whether chocolate was medically good or bad, and it would only be settled as beneficial by 1684 with the publication of a thesis defending chocolate by a Paris physician. Concerns about the health effects can be seen expressed in a 1671 letter by noblewoman
Marie de Rabutin-Chantal: "The Marquise de Coëtlogon took so much chocolate during her pregnancy last year that she produced a small boy as black as the devil, who died." Chocolate arrived in England from France around 1657, around the same time as tea and coffee, and encountered an initial backlash from those with medical concerns. Cocoa was supplied by Jamaican plantations, after the British
conquered the Spanish territory in 1655. While chocolate had begun being flavored with new, highly perfumed ingredients such as jasmine and
ambergris in Italy in the 17th century, in England chocolate was a commercial product and production was simpler and less careful. Chocolate was served in coffee houses to whoever could pay, and by the end of the 17th century it was compulsory to include it in
British Navy rations. From England, chocolate spread to the
North American colonies by the late-17th century. Chocolate was well established among the elite of the late-17th-century Philippines, brought over by the conquering Spanish.
Food of the elite (1744)|alt=Painting of a young woman sitting at a table, pouring chocolate into a cupIn the 18th century, chocolate was considered southern European, aristocratic, and Catholic. This was in contrast to bourgeois coffee and proletarian alcohol. Although the technique of producing chocolate was still very similar to that of Native Americans, chocolate was also consumed as bars, pastilles, in ices, desserts, main courses, and pasta. In 1753, Swedish biologist
Carl Linnaeus gave cacao its genus name:
Theobroma, meaning "food of the gods". Medical opinion of this time held that chocolate was medically beneficial if not consumed in excess. In Spain,
Jesuits were prominent in importing and drinking chocolate until
Charles III expelled them in 1767. The upper and middle class consumed chocolate for breakfast and after dinner, after drinking a glass of cold water. Guilds of chocolate grinders formed across cities. Recipes featured egg yolks. In Italy chocolate preparation varied. Following a historic use of conveying poisons,
Pope Clement XIV was rumored to have been killed by poison put in his chocolate, after he suppressed the Jesuits. Chocolate was commonly used
in savory recipes in Italy during the 18th century, particularly in northern Italy. In France, chocolate was mainly used in desserts and confectionery. The French began heating working areas of the table-mill to assist extraction in 1732.
Chocolaterie Lombart was founded in 1760, and is claimed to have been the first chocolate company in France. In Northern Europe, chocolate was made from boiling milk rather than water. In Central America, particularly Mexico, chocolate was still commonly consumed, including by the poor. Consumption habits differed between ethnic groups. Developments in the technique of producing chocolate began in the 18th century. In 1729, British
apothecary Walter Churchman received a patent for a water engine that powered cocoa milling, purchased by
Joseph Storrs Fry II of
J. S. Fry & Sons in 1789. In the American colonies, water-powered milling began in 1765. In 1776 in France, a
hydraulic mill was invented, which spread to other European countries. == Late modern era ==