:: Chocolate Information Center ::



Cocoa and chocolate, are a precious gift we inherited from early Spanish encounters

with the "new world": the pre-Colombian culture. Latin America - to be more specific:

the rain forests in Honduras, Mexico and Venezuela - is the real cradle of the cocoa

tree. For years now, anthropologists and historians have studied the importance of

cocoa in the Latin-American cultures. Their conclusion: cocoa first started to play an
important role about 4000 years ago. So, let's take a closer look at the history of

cocoa and chocolate.

600 : Culture and Cocoa
	A.D. 600 the Mayas undertook a massive migration which led this highly civilised people from Central America deep into the northern regions of South America. In Yucatan they established the earliest known cocoa plantations. There is no doubt, however, that the Mayas must have been familiar with cocoa several centuries earlier.

1000 Beans and Figures
	From the very early days of cocoa the peoples of Central America used beans as a form of payment. The use of cocoa beans as units of calculation must also have become established before A.D. 1000. One Zontli equalled 400 cocoa beans, while 8000 beans equalled one Xiquipilli. In Mexican picture scripts a basket with 8000 beans represents the figure 8000.

1200 Chocolate War
	By subjugating the Chimimeken and the Mayas, the Aztecs strengthened their supremacy in Mexico. Records dating from this period include details of deliveries of cocoa which were imposed as tributes on conquered tribes.

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