Five thousand years from the cocoa tree Theobroma cacao. Based on linguistic and archaeological evidence, researchers were convinced that chocolate originated in Mexico or Central America 4,000 years ago.
However, last October, as reported in Discovery, a study of environmental debris brought to light evidence that chocolate existed 5,500 years ago in present-day Ecuador, in the Maya-Chinchip culture.
As it spread to the north of South America, it became a luxury commodity worthy of offering to the gods of Aztec and Maya.
A thick beverage
This original chocolate has little in common with today's treat. It was a mixture of ground cocoa beans with water, corn, fruit, peppers, and honey, like porridge or a thick beverage.
When it first arrived in Europe in the 16th century, it was used as a hot drink made of "chocolate alcohol". "A dangerous aperitif, a junk food, only valid for Native American stomachs," remained the recorded opinion of an English doctor a century and a half after chocolate arrived on the European continent, but already received more and more fans.
Meeting with milk
In the mid-19th century, European confectioners used sugar and extra butter to create black chocolate, and then one Swiss also mixed milk powder, got milk chocolate, and this is how the love that continues to this day is formed.
White chocolate is a 1930s invention, it does not contain cocoa solids, so technically it is not chocolate.
The new one is pink
Then in late 2017, the world rocked - pink chocolate: chocolate giant Barry Callebaut presented ruby, a treat of vibrant color.
Although the "recipe" for new chocolate is kept a secret, experts speculate that it is made from unfermented cocoa beans that have been acidified by a process patented in 2009.
If so, the insiders claim that this lack of fermentation for gourmets is an argument for claiming that this is not real chocolate, because it is this process that gives it a unique taste, but this is part of the answer to why chocolates can be so different.
This ruby chocolate is not for vegans, and true chocolate lovers are not thrilled with its sour-sweet taste.
The right one is rare
Small cocoa producers, which provide 90 percent of the raw material to the market, use different fermentation techniques. Last September, scientists published in the Royal Society Open Science magazine the first quantitative model for this complicated process, saying that only one percent of chocolate was marketed in "fair trade".
The inequality between large companies and growers is increasing, and this is compounded by deforestation due to the production of this famous tree.
The myth is that it makes us happy
If you're in the "minus phase", don't expect chocolate to cheer you up. In 2018, Planta Mexica published a paper analyzing previous studies of its effect on mood, all of which were poorly performed, based on the chemical substances contained in chocolate, which vary greatly due to the temperature and time of baking of cocoa.
Also, the brain itself produces a neurotransmitter, the so-called "bliss molecule", the compound anandamide, which causes chocolate to have such potent properties to cheer us up. True, it is also present in chocolate, but in minimal quantities, and it comes down and quickly breaks down.
It keeps the heart
It may not make us happy, but it has a beneficial effect on the heart: in 2015, Heart published a paper that found that people who ate more chocolate had a lower risk of coronary heart disease, stroke, and other cardiovascular problems.
