The History Of Chocolate
The Theobroma Cacao tree provides us with one of the world's mest delicious foods—chocolate. The tree originally comes from the Amazon region of South America. Hand-sized pods（菜）that grow on the tree contain cacao seeds-often "cocoa heans. "
The earliest use of cacao beans dates back to around 1000 B. C. when the Mayan people used cocoa as a drink. It is believed that drinking cups of cocoa was important on occasions such as wedding ceremonies. In Peru, for example, eating or drinking a mixture of chocolate and chili was said to be good for the stomach.
Christopher Columbus, the famous Spanish explorer, made his fourth voyage across the Atlantic in the early 1500s and arrived in-Central America. Cocoa beans were used as money in many parts of Central America.
In the sixteenth century, chocolate was taken back to Spain by Hernando Cortez, another explorer. It later spread to France in the seventeenth century. The popularity of chocolate continued to spread further across Europe and the Americas. The only Asian country to accept it at that time, though, was the Philippines, which the Spanish invaded in the sixteenth century.
Slaves' were brought to the Americas from Africa to farm the cocoa. Eventually, the cacao tree was taken to Africa. Today. Africa provides almost seventy percent of the world's cacao, compared with one and a half percent from Mexico. Who would have thought that chocolate bars had so much history?
A. Spain was a great country at that time.
B. These seeds are used to make chocolate.
C. These seeds are originally from South America.
D. It was at this time that he first discovered the value of cocoa beans.
E. Drinking cocoa was also believed to have positive effects on health.
F. The people there added other things such as sugar to make it sweet.
G. As chocolate became more popular, more people are needed to plant coco.
