For thousands of years the cocoa bean has been held in high regard. Theobroma cacao literally means "food of the gods" and it is also the Latin name for the tree which bears the precious cocoa bean, valued, even worshipped more than 2000 years ago, by the Maya in the Amazon and Orinoco river basins where the high rain fall provided an ideal climate for the small tree. The Aztec civilization was further North where climatic conditions did not favor cultivation of the tree but the cocoa bean was so important to them that they acquired it through trade and it was enjoyed as a drink by the wealthy in their many rituals. The Aztec Emperor, Montezuma, reputedly drank the concoction from a golden goblet fifty times a day! It remained a wealthy privilege even when it was brought to Europe by the Spanish.

Without question Chocolate is worthy of the title, “food of the gods.” And that’s not just an opinion of chocolate lovers, it’s the meaning of the official scientific name, Theobroma Cacao, given the cacao tree (the tree that bears the fruit that produces chocolate). Named in 1753 by the Swedish naturalist Carolus Linnaeus, theobroma means “food of the gods. We think Linnaeus got it absolutely right.

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