The first European to taste chocolatl was Hernando Cortez, the legendary Spanish conquistador. He was permitted a special cup of the stuff at a banquet given by the equally legendary Montezuma II, last emperor of the Aztecs. Bernal Diaz del Castillo travelled with Cortez and reported on Montezuma’s banquets in his True History of the Conquest of New Spain published in 1582. He described a warmed drink made from ground cacao beans, maize, spices and water, which the Aztecs consumed at intervals during their feasting. From the moment he first tried this exotic beverage, Cortez was hooked. Writing to Charles V of Spain, he described this ‘divine drink which builds up resistance and fights fatigue’. He contended that a cup of it ‘permits man to walk for a whole day without food’.

From the time of chocolate’s arrival in Spain in the 1520s, then in France and Italy, it appears that anyone who was anyone immediately developed a taste, even a lust, for the magical bean. In its original Aztec composition, chocolatl was flavoured with vanilla or chillies in a very challenging combination. Remade as chocolata in Spain, it included the addition of sugar and spices (such as cinnamon). Spaniards were easily addicted. Their physicians recommended it and it was drunk all summer long and, for the fortunate few, at least twice a day. It was regarded as suitable for men and for women, whereas in the court of Montezuma it was only a man’s drink.