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Comprehension Direction: Read the following passage carefully and answer the question given below.
By BYJU'S Exam Prep
Updated on: September 25th, 2023
Chocolate is a food product made from cocoa beans, consumed as candy, and used to make beverages and to flavor or coat various confections and bakery products. Chocolate is rich in carbohydrates. It’s An excellent source of quick energy, and it also contains minute amounts of the stimulating alkaloid theobromine and caffeine. The cacao tree was cultivated more than 3,000 years ago by the Mayan, Toltec, and Aztec peoples, who prepared a beverage from its fruit, (sometimes using it as a ceremonial drink) and also used the bean as a currency. The Mayans considered chocolate to be the food of the gods, held the cacao tree to be sacred, and even buried dignitaries with bowls of the substance (along with other items deemed useful in the afterlife).
In fact, the identification of the word ka-ka-w (“cacao”) inscribed on those containers was key to deciphering the Mayan’s phonetic manner of writing. Spain was the earliest European country to incorporate chocolate into its cuisine, but exactly how that happened is vague. It is known that Christopher Columbus took cocoa beans to Spain after his fourth voyage in 1502, though little was made of it at that time. It has been commonly thought that in 1519, Montezuma II, the Aztec ruler of Mexico, served a bitter cocoa-bean drink to the Spanish conquistador, Hernan Cortes, who subsequently introduced the drink to Spain.
Spain was the first one to add chocolate to their cooking. Spain was the first nation in Europe to use chocolate in its food. Spain was the first nation to use chocolate, claims the passage’s quoted statement.
History of Chocolate in Spain
The encounter between cocoa beans and European explorers first takes place in the years of the Age of Navigation. Fueled by the heavy taxes the Venetians imposed on all land voyages between Europe and wealthy China and India, Portugal and Spain launched fleets of scout ships with the main purpose of finding a route to the Orient. is created. Christopher Columbus, aided by Spain, chose to sail as far west as possible, although a few focused on finding the southern coast of Africa. This led to the discovery of the New World. It was, he believed, an Asian remote part, land held firmly by Portuguese merchants. During his fourth voyage to the New World, in 1502 a summer storm forced him to land in the Bay Islands, where he found a surprisingly huge merchant ship from Mayan lands. Observing an unexpected ship that was commanded by the natives, Columbus seized the ship and found a big amount of cocoa beans in the cargo. Deciding that these strange inedible beans meant nothing, he abandoned his ship and came back to Europe.
Summary:
The first country to include chocolate in its cuisine was Spain. In Spain, chocolate was strictly considered a soft drink and was rarely used otherwise. There are older Spanish dishes that use cacao.
