Chocolate Reaches Spain

1520

Hernan Cortes sent Moctezuma's cacao beans and a grinding stone back to Charles V along with the first samples of a dark, bitter drink the Mexica sipped cold and spiced with chile. Spanish monks would eventually sweeten it with cane sugar, and chocolate began its slow colonization of Europe. Spanish monks eventually sweetened it with cane sugar, and the transformation from Aztec ceremonial drink to European luxury took nearly a century.