Chocolate Holiday Treats Have Rich History
Reporting by Jobim Zeichner, 826LA student
Originally published in The Venice Wave, Volume III, Issue no. V

Chocolate has been around for a long time. In fact, chocolate has been around for more than 5,500 years. So many people love chocolate, that many people act in ways that seem crazy. If people stopped making chocolate, an angry mob might show up on the front door of every chocolate factory in the state. This newspaper took a survey of ten people in a room, and nine said that they loved chocolate while one said no, meaning that in every ten people nine like chocolate (90% of the world likes chocolate, and that's a lot of people).

A long time ago, chocolate (cocoa beans) was used as money. In fact, at that time some people had never even tasted chocolate because it was only meant for royalty, not just anybody.

Chocolate started out as a drink, although not many people know it. It didn't start out like chocolate milk, but started out as a drink called xocoatl (show-co-lot) which was basically like a really thick version of chocolate syrup that was made in Mexico by the Aztecs. Europeans took this and added sugar and a couple other ingredients to make their own version, which they thought was much better. In 1674 A.D. chocolate started being used in cakes and rolls, and then in 1847 A.D. chocolate really hit its peak when the chocolate bar was invented. Its popularity continued to grow and the chocolate bar just got bigger and bigger until chocolate became one of the biggest flavors in the world.

<<< Back to Sent Through the Wormhole: Stories from 826LA

Home