The Mayan civilization

cultivated it in the Yucatan peninsula as early as 600 CE. and drank it with chili. Hernandez Cortez introduced it to Spain in 1528, and for almost 100 years Spain guarded it as a secret. It has been used as a currency, as precious as gold, and though in France many people considered it a “barbarous product and noxious drug.” there were others who considered it an aphrodisiac.

What is it? It’s cocoa- and its beans are roasted and ground to produce cacao powder.

Cacao trees

are native to tropical America. The French, Dutch, and English all cultivate it in their colonies, and so cacao has started to reach a wider audience, though it has so far been relatively expensive to produce.

That is, until this year.

Dutch chemist Coenraad van Houten has invented an effective method of extracting the cocoa oil and leaving a cake to be ground into powder. His innovative and inexpensive process uses a hydraulic press to extract much of the cocoa butter from the center of the bean. The residue is then mixed together with alkaline salts, which ensure that the cocoa powder can be easily mixed with water or milk. (The alkali neutralizes the acidic chocolate.) This new process is being called dutching or Dutch processing.   No longer reserved for the aristocracy and the upper classes, cocoa powder is now set to become a firm favorite with people everywhere.