Fewer foodstuffs in the world today seem to have more fans than xocolātl, the cacao-based infusion the Spanish conquistadors found quaffed by the elites of Aztec, Mayan, and other Mesoamerica societies they conquered. Back then, it was not necessarily always sweetened but also confected in varieties included fermented and chili-pepper-spiced. But of course once chocolate made its way back to the aristocrats of Spain, then and onward to the rest of Europe and the world, it was transformed into ever more elaborate, refined, and eventually... keep reading