For millennia, chocolate has been known as an important medicine wherever – South America, Africa, Asia – the cocoa bean grows. It has been used to vanquish fatigue and against angina pain, diarrhoea and constipation. It has been considered an aphrodisiac and has been used to treat gout, outbreaks of the skin, fever and cramps. The Aztec Emperor Montezuma thought that chocolate was “the drink of the gods, which gives fortitude and overcomes fatigue. One cup of the praiseworthy drink enables a person to walk all day long without requiring food”. At first, medicines and delicacies made from the cocoa beans were drunk only – there is evidence that the aristocratic ladies of the Spanish royal court even sipped it during mass. Solid chocolate, according to chocolate history, was first made in the 1700s, when the nuns of a Mexican convent attempted to raise money for their parish by preparing chocolate slices and selling them. Originally, chocolate was dark and somewhat bitter, but  a Swiss confectioner – perhaps we could call him a “chocfectioner” – created milk chocolate, which today is much more popular than plain chocolate, although it can scarcely be called healthy. Later came white chocolate, which is only chocolate in that its base ingredient is also the cocoa bean.     

Budapest, 25 August 2006

Dr Lajos Matos – Dr Margit Lengyel