There aren't many foods that people completely adore, chocolate is one of them. It's so creamy and decadent, it's not hard to see why it's so adored! Although it seems like there isn't much to know about chocolate, there is a whole world out there about how this delicious treat is produced, its history, and its meaning to people the majority of us do not know. Read on to discover the enormous impact of chocolate on the human race itself. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essay Chocolate may be the “food of the gods,” but for most of its 4,000-year history, rather it was consumed as a bitter drink. rather than as an edible treat. Anthropologists have found evidence that chocolate was produced by pre-Olmec cultures living in present-day Mexico as early as 1900 BC! Ancient Mesoamericans who first cultivated cocoa beans found in the rainforests of Central America fermented, roasted and ground them into a paste that they mixed with water, vanilla, honey, chili peppers and other spices to prepare a chocolate drink. Olmec, Mayan and Aztec civilizations discovered chocolate to be an energy-boosting and mood-boosting drink, leading them to believe it possessed mysterious and magical qualities. The Mayans worshiped a cocoa god, EK-CHUAH, and reserved chocolate for rulers, warriors, priests and nobles in sacred ceremonies. When the Aztecs began to dominate Mesoamerica in the 14th century, they craved cocoa beans, which could not be grown there. the arid highlands of central Mexico, the heart of their civilization. The Aztecs traded with the Mayans for cocoa beans, so sought after that they were used as currency. In the 1500s, Spanish explorers searching for gold and silver in Mexico returned with chocolate. The Spanish modified the bitter drink with cane sugar and cinnamon to make it sweeter, but one thing remained the same: chocolate was still a delicious symbol of luxury, wealth and power. Chocolate was drunk by the royal family, and only the Spanish elites could afford this expensive drink. Spain managed to keep chocolate a secret for almost a century, but when the daughter of the Spanish king, Philip III, married the French king Louis XIII in 1615, she took her chocolate cravings with her to France . Chocolate's popularity quickly spread to other European countries and aristocrats consumed it as a magical elixir with far-reaching benefits. To satisfy their growing thirst for chocolate, European monarchies established plantations in equatorial regions around the world to grow cocoa and sugar. When diseases brought by European explorers reduced the native Mesoamerican population, slaves were imported to work on plantations and maintain chocolate production. Chocolate remained an aristocratic elixir until Dutch chemist Coenraad Johannes van Houten invented the cocoa press in 1828, which revolutionized chocolate making. The cocoa press could extract fatty cocoa butter from roasted cocoa beans, leaving behind dry clumps that could be pulverized into a fine powder that could be mixed with liquids and other ingredients, poured into molds and solidified into a delicious chocolate. Van Houten's innovation ushered in the modern era of chocolate in him..