Guide Note

Hot Chocolate is a popular warm beverage served year round. Derived from dark, semisweet, or bittersweet chocolate, the drink is extremely popular around the world. While it is sometimes confused with hot cocoa the two are quite different. Hot Cocoa is a beverage derived from cocoa powder, while hot chocolate is made from chocolate bars melted into cream.

Fast Facts

1. Main ingredients: chocolate, milk and sugar
2. Earliest version of a chocolate drink was discovered by the Mayans
3. The heated beverage became popular amongst the Spanish in the 1500s
4. Sometimes flavored with cinnamon, chili peppers or marshmallows
5. Also available as white hot chocolate made with white chocolate
6. Chocolate is made from cocoa which is the dried fermented seed of the cacao tree
7. Cocoa powder is pressed chocolate free of the cocoa butter fat

Chocolate as Medicine

Throughout centuries chocolate has been examined for its medicinal qualities. According to Francisco Hernandez in 1577, using cacao paste as a beverage was found to treat liver disease and dysentery. Soon after Agustin Farfan discovered that mixing chili peppers and rhubarb into a chocolate beverage could aid in digestion and become a powerful laxative. Also in 1662, Henry Stubbe believed that drinking chocolate beverages twice a day relieved fatigue and strengthened the heart.