Theobromine is prevalent in nature but is in it's largest quantities in the cocoa tree. Theobromine found in the shell and beans of the cacao plant. It was formally discovered by Woskresensky in cacao seeds in 1841. Theobromine is extracted from the husks of the bean and is used in the synthesis of caffeine.
Humans have been aware of chocolate, and theobromine, for thousands of years, dating back to the indigenous peoples of south and central America. The Mayans, Aztecs and even the Loltecs viewed the products of the cocoa tree as divine. These people each gave it the name "food of the gods" and the Aztecs assigned cacao an alternate name meaning "bitter water."
Chocolate was used to produce a beverage reserved for the higher classes of Aztecs, such as clergy, warriors, and the wealthy due to the belief that it would revitalize and endow the drinker with wisdom. Chocolate was also involved in religious ceremonies and associated with one of the most important deities in the Aztec culture, the goddess of fertility, Xochiquetzal.
The cocoa plant was so valued in Aztec culture that it was designated as the means to pay taxes because Emperor Montezuma II cared so strongly for it. He is reported to have said, "The divine drink, which builds up resistance and fights fatigue. A cup of this precious drink [cocoa] permits a man to walk for a whole day without food" (Maya Ethnobotanicals). Aztec legend even states that Montezuma was the one to discover chocolate ice, a large block of ice and snow covered with chocolate sauce which is then crushed and whipped to be served as a cool drink. He also had members of his court bring him a hot drink, very similar to chocolate ice called cacahuatl. This particular beverage was so highly valued that it was used as a type of currency in Mexico, so valuable to the people that only the extremely wealthy were able to attain it.
In the 1700's, chocolate manufacturing began widespread. 1765 marked the opening of the first American chocolate factory in Massachusetts. Later, in 1805 cocoa butter and sugar confections became popular when Conrad Van Houten invented the cacao press. 1876 marked the last major chocolate discovery when milk chocolate was invented by Daniel Peter in Switzerland. Milk chocolate was invented by adding condensed milk to the regular dark chocolate mixture. Chocolate was even issued to British troops as part of their rations during both World Wars and the Boar War in South Africa.
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This site was created by Whitney Hill in Mr. Rushin's chemistry 1 class.
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