That Indian Nectar
Henry Stubbs returned from Jamaica in 1662 and wrote a book about chocolate called The Indian Nectar. The cacao tree probably originated in the Amazon Basin and around 600AD was taken to Yucatan by the Mayans. Columbus brought the beans to Europe but no one seemed interested. Montezuma greeted the Spanish explorer Hernando Cortes with a bitter frothy chocolate drink. Once the Spaniards learned to soften its taste with vanilla and sugar it became quite the rage. Around 1606 Antonio Carletti managed to take the secrets of the drink to Italy and by 1700 the coffee houses of Venice and Florence were famous for it. Switzerland, now world famous as a chocolatier, learned of it by 1697. London coffee houses quickly served it to their rich customers. Samuel Pepys settled his stomach with it after the coronation feasting of Charles I. It wasn’t until 1828 that Conrad van Houten managed to extract the fat from the cocoa butter and make a powder we would recognize as Cocoa. Twenty years later Joseph Fry combined the fats with other parts of the bean and sugar to give us the first chocolate bar.
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