COCOA : ALL ABOUT IT. 



Josephus Acosta (1604). writing of its use in Mexico and 

 Peru, says : " 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 loathsome to such as are not 

 acquainted with it, having a skumme or frothe that is very 

 unpleasant to taste, if they be not w^ell conceited thereof Yet it 

 is a drincke vjsry: much esteemed among the Indians, whereof they 

 feast noble men as they passe through their country. The 

 Spaniards, both men and women, that are accustomed to the 

 country are very greedy of this Chocholate. They say they make 

 diverse sortes of it, some bote, some colde, and put therein much 

 of that Chili ; yea, they make paste thereof, the which they say 

 is good for the stomacke, and against the catarre." 



A quarto of 39 pages, of very early date, "printed at London 

 for Christopher Wilkinson, at the Black Boy over against 

 St. Dunstan's Church, in Fleet Street, condemns Chocolate on 

 account of the sugar with which it is mixed " : "As for the great 

 quantity of sugar which is commonly put in (Chocolate), it may 

 destroy the native and genuine temper of the Chocolate, sugar 

 being such a corrosive salt, and such an hypocritical enemy of the^ 

 body. Simeon Pauli (a learned Dane) thinks sugar to be one 

 cause of our English consumption, and Dr. Willis blames it as 

 one of our universal scurvies ; therefore when Chocolate produces 

 any ill effect, they may be often imputed to the great superfluity 

 of its sugar." 



On the other hand, the writer says: "All the American 

 Travellers have written such panegyricks, that I should degrade 

 this royal liquor if I should offer any ; yet several of these curious 



