Ancient Inventions

Chocolate

In Mexico chocolate, first drunk around A.D. 100, was so highly valued by the Maya that it became a form of currency. Unscrupulous merchants attempted to defraud the public by stripping off the husks of cacao beans, carefully filling them with sand and mixing these fakes in with the genuine article. Accordingly, wary consumers learned to squeeze each bean before paying up. The Cacao beans were roasted, ground and mixed with maise flour and occasionally dried flowers and a little sugar. Small cakes of this paste were shaken up with water in a gourd until a frothy drink was created, which was then drunk in one gulp. Rich people kept the drink in special screw-top pots until it was wanted.

The Aztecs demanded cacao beans as a tribute from the coastal regions of their empire. The Aztec rich drank, xocoatl, a mixture of chocolate, chili peppers, corn flour and water. Their Spanish conquerors thought xocoatl was disgusting, and made the sweet chocolate drink we know today by substituting sugar and cinnamon for the bitter chilis.

Read about other ancient inventions that shaped history and paved the way for modern inventions.