History Of The Word

The word "chocolate" comes from the Aztecs of Mexico, and is derived from the Nahuatl word xocolatl  which is a combination of the words, xocolli, meaning "bitter", and atl, which is "water". The Aztecs associated chocolate with Xochiquetzal, the goddess of fertility. Chocolate is also associated with the Mayan god of fertility

However, it is more likely that the Aztecs themselves coined the term,having long adopted into Nahuatl the Mayan word for the "cacao" bean; the Spanish had little contact with the Mayans before Cortés's early reports to the Spanish King of the beverage known as xocolatl.  William Bright (personal communication cited in a 1977 article by Lyle Campbell ) noted that the word xocoatl does not occur in early Spanish or Nahuatl colonial sources

Chocolate has been used as a drink for nearly all of its history. The earliest record of using chocolate pre-dates the Maya. In November, 2007, archeologists reported finding evidence of the oldest known cultivation and use of cacao at a site in Puerto Escondido, Honduras dating from about 1100 to 1400 BC