17. Hernán Cortés was probably the first European to try chocolate
For all his many faults – and, by thunder, there are many – the bloodthirsty conquistador Hernán Cortés (1485-1547) did at least manage one good thing in his lamentable career. For although Columbus encountered cacao beans on his travels and brought some back to Spain, he did not know what they were, beyond their evident value to the locals. Cortés, on the other hand, enjoyed chocolate at the court of Montezuma II (c.1466-1520) in 1519. His companion, Bernal Diaz, later recounted that ‘from time to time they served him [Montezuma] in cups of pure gold a certain drink made from cacao’.
According to legend, Cortés was so impressed by the drink, and the Aztecs’ reverence for the pods, that he took it back to Spain with him. However, according to chocolate historians (now there’s an idea for a Christmas gift!) Sophie D. Coe and Michael D. Coe, ‘there is no credible evidence to support the oft-repeated claim that it was the work of Hernán Cortés’. What is clearer, though, is that Cortés was probably the first European to try the delicious drink, and doubtless his experience with it inspired whoever hauled the beans back to Spain to do so.
