When you're enjoying your chocolate fountain you might like to ponder the
origins of chocolate and its place in colonial history.
To hire one of our fountains for events in Gloucestershire,
Worcesteshire, Gloucester or Bristol, please call our
Cheltenham office on: 07973 491289 or
email: info@chocfalls.com
For chocolate fountains in Cheshire and North West England enquiries
please call our Chester branch on 07815 144 502.
The History of Chocolate
The earliest record of chocolate was over fifteen hundred years ago in the South
American rain forests, where the tropical mix of high rain fall combined with
high year round temperatures and humidity provide the ideal climate for
cultivation of the plant from which chocolate is derived - the Cacao Tree.
The Cacao Tree was worshipped by the Mayan
civilisation who believed it to be of divine origin,
Cacao is a Mayan word meaning "God Food" hence the
tree's modern generic Latin name 'Theobrama Cacao'
meaning ‘Food of the Gods’. The Aztecs also prized
the beans, but because the Aztec's lived further
north in more arid regions, where the climate was
not suitable for cultivation of the tree, they
acquired the beans through trade and the spoils of
war.
The Aztecs prized the beans so highly they used them
as currency - 100 beans bought a Turkey or a slave -
and tribute or Taxes were paid in cocoa beans to
Aztec emperors. The Aztecs, like the Mayans, also
enjoyed Cacao only as a beverage made from the raw
beans which also featured prominently in ritual and
as a luxury available only to the very wealthy. The
Aztecs called this drink Xocolatl, the Spanish
conquistadors found this almost impossible to
pronounce and so corrupted it, to the easier to
pronounce 'Chocolat', the English further changed
this to Chocolate.The Aztec's regarded chocolate as
an aphrodisiac and their Emperor, Montezuma - who is
quoted as saying of Xocolatl: "The divine drink,
which builds up resistance and fights fatigue. A cup
of this precious drink permits a man to walk for a
whole day without food" - reputedly drank it fifty
times a day from a golden goblet. In fact, the
Aztec's prized Xocolatl well above Gold and Silver
so much so, that when Montezuma was defeated by
Cortez in 1519 and the victorious 'conquistadors'
searched his palace for the Aztec treasury expecting
to find Gold & Silver, all they found were huge
quantities of cocoa beans. The Aztec Treasury
consisted, not of precious metals, but Cocoa Beans.
Ideal for any event - weddings, birthdays, anniversaries, christenings,
children’s parties and balls. We cover many areas including Cheltenham,
Gloucester, Worcester, Tewkesbury, Bristol, Birmingham, Warwick, Stratford
upon Avon, Chester, The Wirral, Liverpool, Gloucestershire, Worcestershire,
West Midlands, Warwickshire, Wiltshire, Cheshire and Merseyside and
further afield!
