Read the text “The History of Chocolate”
One of the most popular foods of all times is chocolate. People nowadays eat chocolate in many different dorms. We eat chocolate candy, and we drink hot and cold chocolate drinks. The chocolate we eat today is made from a lot of different ingredients, but the most important ingredient is a cacao bean.
The story of cacao bean and its long journey to stores and supermarkets all over the world started hundreds of years ago in Mexico. Cacao trees need hot and humid weather, and they originally grew in the Yucanat Pinunsula.
The Maya were the first people to eat cacao beans. They picked cacao beans from wild trees and cleared land to cultivate their own trees. They made a drink from cacao beans and exchanged the beans for other goods. They also used cacao beans for religious ceremonies.
Mayan merchants traveled north and introduced cacao beans to the Aztec people. Soon the cacao bean was part of the Aztecs lives. They used it as a drink and even as money. With 10 beans you could buy a rabbit. With 100 beans you could buy a slave. The Aztecs could not grow cacao trees because of the dry climate. When the Aztecs conquered the Maya they asked for cacao beans as a tribute.


1. What is the most important ingredient in chocolate?
2. Where did cacao beans originally grow?
3. Who were the first people to eat cacao beans?
4. Who introduced the cacao beans to the Aztecs?
5. What did the Aztecs use the cacao beans for?
6. What did the Maya give the Aztecs as a tribute?​