One of the most beloved foods in the world, chocolate is not just a modern treat. In fact, chocolate – or rather, cacao seeds – has been part of our culinary history for thousands of years.
More than 2,000 years ago in Central America, the Mayan people began consuming a drink made from cacao seeds. There was no sugar in America in those days, and so they flavored the drink with chili peppers and other spices. It was called xocolatl, meaning bitter water. The Mayans used xocolatl for important rituals, such as religious ceremonies or weddings, and believed that consuming it would enhance their health and cure illnesses. Cacao seeds became highly valued throughout Central America, and were even used as currency by the Aztecs.
On his fourth voyage to America in 1502, the explorer Christopher Columbus landed in what is now called Nicaragua. He was the first European to discover cacao seeds being used as money, but he did not consider it very significant. It was only later, in the 16th century, that another explorer, Hernando Cortez, saw cacaos value, and brought the drink and the equipment used to make it back to Spain. The Spanish didnt quite take to the bitter taste, and added other ingredients such as sugar and vanilla, so that chocolate more closely resembled the sweet treat we know today.
As popular as chocolate was in Spain, it didnt spread to the rest of Europe until nearly a hundred years later, when a Spanish princess married the French king and made chocolate fashionable. By the 17th century, the chocolate drink had gained widespread popularity in France, and an ambitious Frenchman opened the first chocolate house in London. Soon, chocolate drinks were sold everywhere in London, and English bakers began using it in cakes – the first mention of chocolate being eaten and not drunk.
But the biggest development in modem chocolate consumption happened by accident in 1828. C. J. van Houten, a Dutch chemist, discovered a method for making powdered chocolate when he tried to extract oils from cacao to make the drink smoother. This product became known as cocoa powder. Not long after, in 1847, a British man named Joseph Fry developed eating chocolate, which were chocolate bars made of cocoa powder, cocoa butter, and sugar. This led to the first milk chocolate bars, sold by Nestle, a Swiss company. These were created by adding condensed milk to Frys chocolate bar recipe. Frys company, Fry & Sons, was later bought by Cadbury. Today, Nestle and Cadbury remain the worlds leading chocolate producers.
I, Choose the correct answer for the following question
1,Which is another possible title for the passage?
a, how chocolate moved around the world
b, Cooking with chocolate in diffrent cultures
c, Modern Ways of Making ang eating chocolate
2, which is NOT mentioned as a use for chocolate?
a, money
b, medicine
c, decoration
3, What is the purpose of talking about C.J.Van Houten?
a, to teach readers how to make cocoa powder
b, to explain why Europeans firts liked chocolate c, to show how modern chocolate developed
