2.

History of chocolate
If you can't imagine life without chocolate, you're lucky you weren't born before the 1__16
CENTURY_____. Until then, chocolate only existed in Mesoamerica in a form quite different from what we
know. As far back as 1900 BCE, the people of that region had learned to prepare the beans of the 2___NEAR
CACOA TREE____. The earliest records tell us the beans were ground and mixed with cornmeal and chili
peppers to 3_____CREATE A DRINK______- not a relaxing cup of hot cocoa, but a bitter, invigorating
concoction frothing with foam. And if you thought we make a big deal about chocolate today, the
Mesoamericans had us beat. They believed that cacao was a heavenly food gifted to humans by a feathered
serpent god, known to the Maya as Kukulkan and to the Aztecs as Quetzalcoatl. Aztecs used cacao beans as
currency and drank chocolate at royal feasts, gave it to 4_____XXX________in battle, and used it in
rituals. The first transatlantic chocolate encounter occurred in 1519 when Hernán Cortés visited the court of
Moctezuma at Tenochtitlan. As recorded by Cortés's lieutenant, the king had 50 jugs of the drink brought out
and poured into golden cups. When the colonists returned with shipments of the strange new
bean, missionaries' salacious accounts of native customs gave it a reputation as an aphrodisiac. At first, its bitter
taste made it suitable 5_____AS A MEDICIEN______for ailments, like upset stomachs, but sweetening it
with honey, sugar, or vanilla quickly made chocolate a popular delicacy in the Spanish court. And soon, no
aristocratic home was complete without dedicated chocolate ware. The fashionable drink was difficult and time
consuming to produce on a large scale. That involved using plantations and imported slave labor in the
Caribbean and on islands off the coast of Africa. The world of chocolate would 6____CHANGE
FOREVER_IN 1828_____with the introduction of the cocoa press by Coenraad van Houten of
Amsterdam. Van Houten's invention could separate the cocoa's natural fat, or cocoa butter. This left a powder
that could be mixed into a drinkable solution or recombined with the cocoa butter to create the solid chocolate
we know today. 7______XXX_____, a Swiss chocolatier named Daniel Peter added powdered milk to the
mix, thus inventing milk chocolate. By the 20th century, chocolate was no longer an elite luxury but had
become a treat for the public. 8_____MEATING THE MASS OF DEMAND__required more cultivation of
cocoa, which can only grow near the equator. Now, instead of African slaves being shipped to South American
cocoa plantations, cocoa production itself would shift to 9_______WEST AFRICA____with Cote d'Ivoire
providing two-fifths of the world's cocoa as of 2015. Yet along with the growth of the industry, there have been
horrific abuses of human rights. Many of the plantations throughout West Africa, which supply Western
companies, use 10____XXX______, with an estimation of more than 2 million children affected. This is a
complex problem that persists despite efforts from major chocolate companies to partner with African
nations to reduce child and indentured labor practices. Today, chocolate 11._____HASN’T STEP_____itself
in the rituals of our modern culture. Due to its colonial association with 12___NATURE___, combined with
the power of advertising, chocolate retains an aura of something sensual, decadent, and forbidden. Yet
knowing more about its 13________XXX_______, as well as its production today, tells us where these
associations originate and 14______WHAT THEY XXX______. So as you unwrap your next bar of
chocolate, 15_____TAKE A MOMENT______to consider that not everything about chocolate is sweet.