When Girolamo Benzoni was first offered an early version of hot chocolate in 1575, he declared it wasn’t “a drink for humanity.” The Milanese merchant had traveled to Mexico after it had been colonized by the Spanish and had been presented with the drink by the Indigenous people. But after a while, amid a shortage of wine, he decided to try a sip, and he was converted. “It was satisfying and refreshing,” he recalled. “Even if it had a bitter taste.”
Benzoni was well behind the Spanish, who had already developed a love for the Mayan recipe. In true colonizer style, they took the concept and brought it back to Europe. They added sugar to combat the bitterness, and the drinking chocolate most of us are familiar with today was born. It would be a few centuries before anybody tried to take cocoa beans and form a chocolate bar. And we all know what happened after that (hey…