Chocolate

Switzerland is famous for its chocolate industry.

Chocolate is a kind of food originating from the cocoa bean. Chocolate is often used in savory desserts.

Chocolate allegedly originated in Mexico and was used by the Aztecs. A chocolate beverage called xocolatl (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 Colombian 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.

Regardless of where chocolate originated, a key innovation in the development of chocolate took place in the Old World. French chefs were the first to add milk to chocolate, producing choc au lait — milk chocolate — which could be eaten raw in bars, without the overwhelmingly bitter taste of cocoa bean extract. This innovation quickly spread to the New World, fast enough for the French phrase to inform the etymology and pronunciation of the English word chocolate.

Nowadays, chocolate is most often eaten in the form of candy bars, hot cocoa, or chocolate ice cream. 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.