On Feb 11, 8:22 am, wrote:
> Cortes reported that Montezuma drank 50 goblets of (non-sweetened)
> cocoa beverage before entering his harem.
>
> a goblet of cocoa was expensive to make in pre-mechanized society.
> Even if the laborers were nominally slaves, they had to be fed,
> clothed, housed, etc. In fact, the houseservants of a sovereign are
> normally well kept.
>
> Is it possible to estimate an equivelant 2007 value of a goblet of
> Monteuma's cocoa drink?


It seems that, at the time, 10 beans was enough to purchase the
services of a prostitute. If the nib of each bean is one gram and it
takes 25 grams per cup, then each cup would cost the equivalent of 2.5
times a prostitute. Taking a guess that prostitutes today cost $100
(feel free to correct me on this if you have better information) then
a cup of chocolate would be $250.

Hmm, this also gives us the equation that chocolate is two and a half
times better than sex!