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The origins of chocolate can be traced back to the ancient Maya and Aztec civilisations in Central America who first enjoyed a much prized spicy drink 'chocolatl', made from roasted cocoa beans. Chocolate was exclusively for drinking until the early Victorian tim ....

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.... on board his galleons were far more exciting so the humble cocoa beans were neglected. It was his fellow explorer, the Spanish Conquistador Don Hernan Cortes, who first realised the commercial value of the beans. He brought cocoa beans back to Spain in 1528 and very gradually the custom of drinking chocolate spread across Europe reaching England in the 1650s. The London Chocolate Houses became the fashionable meeting places for the elite of London society to savour this new luxury beverage. The heavy import duties which had made chocolate a luxury that only the wealthy could enjoy were reduced in 1853. Chocolate and cocoa became within the r ....