Chocolate (Cocoa) Theobroma cacao. Cacoa is a small, broadleaf evergreen, native to the rainforests of southern America, originating in the Amazon and Orinoco basins of Ecuador and Brazil, which has been cultivated since prehistory. It is thought that the first people to realise the potential of chocolate were the Olmecs, the first highly developed civilisation in Mesoamerica, and the builders of colossal stone heads in southern Veracruz and Tabasco at the beginning of the 1st millennium BC. Cocoa beans were very important in the successive societies that inhabited Central and South America, being regarded by the Maya as ‘the food of the gods’, hence the botanical name, theobroma. The importance of cocoa and its role in the ritual-driven Maya society can be seen in the very detailed depictions left in the tombs of their nobility, excavated at Copán in the Honduran uplands. Archaeologists have found vessels containing carbonised cocoa remains in vessels which bear the glyph ka-ka-wa (cocoa), with directions on how to mix the foaming brew, spiced and tinted with red achiote, perhaps so it resembled more closely the blood which was central to their religious rites. Chocolate was also used in burial rites and in the chac ritual which they performed in the hope of appeasing their gods and be granted rainfall. Teams from Cornell University and the University of California at Berkeley have found evidence of a village which was continuously inhabited over a 3,000 year span, from 2,000BC - AD1,000, attributing chocolate as they key to the success and longevity of the community. Ironically, another researcher, Dr David Lentz of the New York Botanical Garden, may have found evidence that it was the over-cultivation of the crop, leading to a decline in rainfall and deforestation, which may have caused the sudden collapse of the Maya society at the turn of the 9th century. Much of the early history of cocoa, and of the everyday lives of the Maya, has been uncovered over the last twenty years at a site dubbed ‘the Pompeii of the Americas’, Cerén, a Maya village which was buried in ash and lava after a volcanic eruption in AD 590. Cocoa beans were also used as a form of currency, a fact which was revealed to Columbus and his crew in 1502, when they witnessed the panic-stricken efforts of Maya to recover spilt beans. Seventeen years later Cortes described a banquet held by the Aztec ruler, Montezuma II, at which he counted 50 great dishes made of cocoa. Montezuma was reputed to have loved chocolate and one story says that he would drink from a golden goblet of frothy and ‘invigorating’ chocolate before visiting one of his wives. Another story reports that he would drink up to 50 goblets in one day. This would lead one to assume that perhaps he had a lot of wives and hence needed a lot of invigoration! The Spanish mixed the ground, roasted beans and moulded them into cakes, much as the natives had shown them, opting for a sweeter combination of sugar and cinnamon, preferring it to the original spicy and savoury concoction. The cakes would then be exported and reconstituted with water to make a cold drink. They and the Portuguese managed to guard the secret of the chocolate for about a hundred years, so well in fact, that Dutch pirates, having captured a chocolate boat, were so disgusted by what they regarded as a spoiled cargo that they threw the whole shipment overboard. The rest of Europe finally got in on the act in the 17th century and in 1657 the first advertisements appeared for the sale of chocolate at London chocolate houses. It remained a very expensive luxury until the Industrial Revolution introduced the first machines and chocolate factories. A Dutch company, Van Houten revolutionised the chocolate industry, taking out a patent in 1828 for the method of extracting a large proportion of the fat - cocoa butter - from the ground beans, leaving a water soluble powder behind. This led to the production of cocoa powder, drinking chocolate and eating chocolate, which contains a large amount of cocoa butter. In 1876 a Swiss company produced the first milk chocolate, introducing the world to a new addictive substance. During the 19th century the Quakers exploited this, seeing chocolate as a better alternative to the evils of alcohol, setting up companies like Cadburys, founded in 1828, in order to process cocoa products and wean the masses away from the demon drink. Nutritionally, cocoa is rich in carbohydrates, vegetable oil, protein, vitamin E, magnesium, calcium, iron and phosphorous and has formed an essential part of survival kits for adventurers, ranging from boy scouts to astronauts. It also contains phenolic compounds which act as antioxidants which may help reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke. Chocolate also contains the stimulants theobromine and caffeine which help to sharpen the brain and body performance, as well as a natural antidepressant. The addiction to dessert chocolate is probably more to the sugar content than any naturally occurring component, mass produced confectionery chocolate bars being very high in saturated fats and sugars However, we may be preaching to the converted here, as recent figures show that we now spend £3 billion per year on chocolate. The most nutritious chocolate is the fine dark types which contain at least 50% cocoa solids. It is also lower in sugar and, unfortunately, more likely to trigger migraines in those prone to attacks. 100g of an average milk chocolate gives 529 kcalories energy, 8.4g protein, 59.4g carbohydrate, 30g fat and minimal amount of fibre. 100g unsweetened cocoa powder gives 391 kcalories energy, fats 12.7g, (of which 7.11g saturated) 50.20g carbohydrate, 5.20g fibre, 717mg sodium, 19.20g protein 20 IU vitamin A and 10.7mg iron.