Chocolate
Chocolate is a foodstuff, originating from the cocoa bean. Chocolate is often used in savory desserts.
Chocolate originated in Mexico and was used by the Aztecs. A chocolate beverage called cacahuatl (the Nahuatl source of the word cocoa) that was the precursor to hot chocolate, but bitter and stronger, was a popular drink among them. Montezuma drank around 50 cups of this beverage a day, according to legend. Chocolate was spread to the Old World after Hernan Cortes conquered Mexico and traded cocoa beans to Europe in exchange for European goods as part of the Columbian exchange. The Spanish made it into the drink we know today, heating the drink and adding sugar. Soon, chocolate was extensively used in desserts and drinks.
Nowadays, chocolate is most often eaten in the form of candy bars or hot cocoa. There is a common belief that chocolate is bad for people's health and that it causes acne. In actuality, however, chocolate contains large amounts of healthy antioxidants, and food is not a cause of acne.[1]
Origins
Chocolate originates from the Aztec civilisation of south america. In its original form it was consumed as the a sharp tasting drinking chocolate, called xocolati, which means bitter water. It was mellowed by passing the cocoa bean through the digestive tract of the kapibarra, a large south american rodent. Kapibarra chocolate is considered one of the very best chocolates available. The only other foodstuff produced this way is Civet coffee (Kopi Luwak), in which the coffee bean is digesed by an asian civet cat.