HIST 190 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Theobromine
Document Summary
Native peoples also introduced europeans to chocolate, made from cacao seeds and used by the. Mesoamerican indians consumed unsweetened chocolate in a drink with chili peppers, vanilla, and a spice called achiote. Chocolate contains theobromine, a stimulant, which may be why native people believed it brought them closer to the sacred world. Spaniards in the new world considered drinking chocolate a vile practice; one called chocolate. In time they introduced the beverage to spain. At first, chocolate was available only in the spanish court, where the elite mixed it with sugar and other spices. Later, as its availability spread, chocolate gained a reputation as a love potion. The crossing of the atlantic by plants like cacao and tobacco illustrates the ways in which the discovery of the new world changed the habits and behaviors of europeans. Europeans changed the new world in turn, not least by bringing old world animals to the.
