History of chocolate in Spain

The history of chocolate in Spain is part of the culinary history of Spain as understood since the 16th century, when the colonisation of the Americas began and the cocoa plant was discovered in regions of Mesoamerica, until the present. After the conquest of Mexico, cocoa as a commodity travelled by boat from the port of Nueva España to the Spanish coast. The first such voyage to Europe occurred at an unknown date in the 1520s. However it was only in the 17th century that regular trade began from the port of Veracruz, opening a maritime trade route that would supply the new demand from Spain, and later from other European countries.

The introduction of this ingredient in Spanish culinary traditions was immediate, compared with other ingredients brought from Latin America, and its popularity and acceptance in all sectors of Spanish society reached very high levels by the end of the 16th century. Since its inception, chocolate was considered by Spaniards as a drink and retained that perception until the beginning of the 20th century.

From the early stages, the cocoa was sweetened with sugar cane, which the Spanish were the first to popularise in Europe. In pre-Columbus America chocolate was flavored with peppers and was a mixture of both bitter and spicy flavours. This made it an acquired taste and limited its appeal to the Spanish conquistadors, who were soon encouraged to sweeten it with sugar brought from the Iberian Peninsula in addition to heating it.

Over a 100-year period since its first appearance in the ports of Andalusia, chocolate became popular as a drink in Spain, where it was served to the Spanish monarchy. However, for a time the formula was unknown in the rest of Europe. Later chocolate spread from Spain to the rest of Europe, with the first countries to adopt it being Italy and France.

The great popularity of the drink in Spanish society from that time until the 19th century is attested to in various reports written by travellers who visited the Iberian peninsula. It was said that "chocolate is to the Spanish what tea is to the English". In this way chocolate was converted into a national symbol. The unusual fondness for this drink meant that coffee remained relatively unpopular in Spain compared to other European countries.

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Wikipedia