The earliest record of chocolate was over a thousand years ago in the South American rain forests, around the Amazon and Essequibo rivers, where the tropical mix of high rain fall combined with high year round temperatures and humidity provide the ideal climate for cultivation of the Cocoa Tree.
The tree was worshipped by the Mayan civilization who believed it to be of divine origin, hence it's generic Latin name meaning 'Food of the Gods'. Cocoa is a Mayan word meaning "God Food", Cocoa was later corrupted into the more familiar ' Cocoa ' by Europeans. The Maya brewed a bitter sweet drink by roasting and pounding cocoa beans with maize and Capsicum peppers and letting the mixture ferment, for use in ceremonies as well as for drinking by the wealthy and religious elite, they also ate a Cocoa porridge.
The Aztecs who came after the Mayan's also prized the beans highly, but because the Aztec civilization was at higher altitudes in the Andes , the climate was not suitable for cultivation of the tree, so they acquired the beans through trade and the spoils of war. The Aztecs used them as currency - 100 beans could buy a Turkey or a slave - and tribute or Taxes were paid in cocoa beans to the Aztec emperors.
