Chocolate

Chocolate comprises a number of raw and processed foods that originate from the bean of the tropical cacao tree. It is a common ingredient in many kinds of sweets such as chocolate bars, ice creams, cookies, cakes, pies, chocolate mousse, and other desserts. It is one of the more popular (or at least recognizable) flavours in the world.
Chocolate was created by the Mesoamerican civilization, from cacao beans, and cultivated by pre-Columbian civilizations such as the Maya and Aztec, who used it as a basic component in a variety of sauces and beverages. The cocoa beans were ground and mixed with water to produce a variety of beverages, both sweet and bitter, which were reserved for only the highest noblemen and clerics of the Mesoamerican world. Chocolate is made from the fermented, roasted, and ground beans taken from the pod of the tropical cacao tree, Theobroma cacao, which was native to Central America and Mexico, but is now cultivated throughout the tropics. The beans have an intensely flavoured bitter taste. The resulting products are known as "chocolate" or, in some parts of the world, cocoa.[1]
It is the solid and fat combination, sweetened with sugar and other ingredients, that is made into chocolate bars and which is today commonly referred to as chocolate. It can also be made into beverages (called cocoa and hot chocolate). The first chocolate beverages were made by the Aztecs and the Mayas and later the Europeans. Chocolate is often produced as small molded forms in the shape of animals, people, or inanimate objects to celebrate festivals worldwide. For example, there are moulds of rabbits or eggs for Easter, coins for Hanukkah, Saint Nicholas (Santa Claus) for Christmas, and hearts for Valentine's Day.
"What you see before you, my friend, is the result of a lifetime of chocolate."
- Katharine Hepburn