"Kuchi chocoretto, kokoro kori (Your lips are chocolate, but your heart is ice)," say the Japanese in response to flattery. Perhaps it's because the sublime richness of slowly melting chocolate is the perfect metaphor for passion. One thing is certain: People are passionate about chocolate; some even claim to be addicted to it.
Our love affair with chocolate began with the Aztecs in what is now Mexico. They believed their native cacao tree was of divine origin and a bridge between heaven and earth. They roasted, ground, and mixed cacao beans with water, chili pepper, corn, and sometimes vanilla and honey, to make a drink they called choclatl, meaning "warm liquid." They thought drinking choclatl bestowed them with godly wisdom. They often gave sacrificial subjects choclatl to sanctify them before offering them to their gods. Cacao beans were also used as currency by Central and South American cultures, in some places up until the 19th century.
Christopher Columbus, presumably the first European to encounter cacao, was introduced to it in 1502 on his fourth and final visit to the Americas, near what is now Honduras. Upon his return to Spain, he presented the beans to the Spanish royal court, but their value was overlooked until they were presented again 20 years later by Hernando Cortez. For a time, Europeans made and enjoyed chocolate much as the Aztecs did, as a drink with a thick layer of oily fat -- the natural cocoa butter -- which floated to the top. During the 18th century, the demand for the chocolate drink steadily grew as it became more accessible and affordable.
Then, in 1828, Dutch chocolate maker Conrad J. Van Houten created the hydraulic cocoa press. The press enabled chocolate makers to crush the "nibs," or centers, of roasted cacao beans into a paste. (This paste, known as chocolate liquor, consists of cocoa solids and cocoa butter. Despite its name, it contains no alcohol.) After crushing, some of the cocoa butter was extracted. The remaining chocolate was made into a powder and treated with alkaline salts, resulting in a milder, more soluble cocoa known as Dutch cocoa. Twenty years later, English chocolate maker Joseph Storrs Fry created the first chocolate candy by further refining the cocoa, adding sugar, and mixing the cocoa butter back in.