Chocolate was first noted in 1519 when Spanish explorer Hernando
Cortez visited the
court of Emperor Montezuma of Mexico. American historian William
Hickling's
History of the Conquest of Mexico (1838) reports that Montezuma "took
no other
beverage than the chocolatl, a potation of chocolate, flavored with
vanilla and spices,
and so prepared as to be reduced to a froth of the consistency of
honey, which gradually
dissolved in the mouth and was taken cold." The fact that Montezuma
consumed his
"chocolatl" in goblets before entering his harem led to the belief
that it was an
aphrodisiac.