io COCOA AND CHOCOLATE 



Thomas Gage suggests that choco, choco, choco is a 

 vocal representation of the sound made by stirring 

 chocolate. The suffix all means water. According to 

 Mr. W. J. Gordon, we owe the name of chocolate to a 

 misprint. He states that Joseph Acosta, who wrote as 

 early as 1604 of chocolatl, was made by the printer to 

 write chocolate, from which the English eliminated 

 the accent, and the French the final letter. 



First Cacao in Europe. 



The Spanish discoverers of the New 7 World brought 

 home to Spain quantities of cacao, which the curious 

 tasted. We may conclude that they drank the prepar- 

 ation cold, as Montezuma did, hot chocolate being a 

 later invention. The new drink, eagerly sought by 

 some, did not meet with universal approval, and, as 

 was natural, the most diverse opinions existed as to 

 the pleasantness and wholesomeness of the beverage 

 when it was first known. Thus Joseph Acosta (1604) 

 wrote : The chief use of this cocoa is in a drincke 

 which they call Chocholate, whereof they make great 

 account, foolishly and without reason ; for it is loath- 

 some to such as are not acquainted with it, having a 

 skumme or frothe that is very unpleasant to taste, if 

 they be not well conceited thereof. Yet it is a drincke 

 very much esteemed among the Indians, whereof they 

 feast noble men as they passe through their country. 

 The Spaniards, both men and women, that are accus- 

 tomed to the country are very greedy of this chocholate." 

 It is not impossible that the English, with the defeat 

 of the Armada fresh in memory, were at first con- 

 temptuous of this " Spanish ' :i drink. Certain it is, 

 that when British sea-rovers like Drake and Frobisher, 

 captured Spanish galleons on the high seas, and on 

 searching their holds for treasure, found bags of cacao, 

 they flung them overboard in scorn. In considering 

 this scorn of cacao, shown alike by British buccaneers 

 and Dutch corsairs, together with the critical air of 

 Joseph Acosta, we should remember that the original 



