This delightful and best-selling tale of one of the world�s favorite foods draws upon botany, archaeology, and culinary history to present a complete and accurate history of chocolate.
The story begins some 3,000 years ago in the jungles of Mexico and Central America with the chocolate tree, Theobroma Cacao, and the complex processes necessary to transform its bitter seeds into what is now known as chocolate. This was centuries before chocolate was consumed in generally unsweetened liquid form and used as currency by the Maya, and the Aztecs after them.The Spanish conquest of Central America introduced chocolate to Europe, where it first became the drink of kings and aristocrats and then was popularized in coffeehouses. Industrialization in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries made chocolate a food for the masses, and now, in our own time, it has become once again a luxury item.
The second edition draws on recent research and genetic analysis to update the information on the origins of the chocolate tree and early use by the Maya and others, and there is a new section on the medical and nutritional benefits of chocolate.

Preface
Introduction
Ch. 1 The Tree of the Food of the Gods
Ch. 2 The Birth of Cacao: Olmec-Maya Genesis
Ch. 3 The Aztecs: People of the Fifth Sun
Ch. 4 Encounter and Transformation
Ch. 5 Chocolate Conquers Europe
Ch. 6 The Source
Ch. 7 Chocolate in the Age of Reason (and Unreason)
Ch. 8 Chocolate for the Masses
Epilogue: Full Circle
Notes
Bibliography
Sources of Illustrations
Index