Liquid and solid satisfaction

Cocoa beans were ‘found’ by Europeans on Columbus’s fourth, final and failed voyage (1502). The beans were sufficiently rare to be used as currency and the beverage made from them was called ‘Food of the Gods’ and only served to Amerindian grandees like Montezuma – in his case, in gold cups. The liquid was laced, not with sugar, then unknown in the New World, but with capsicum and vanilla, both unknown in Europe, but Europeans soon preferred to make the drink with sugar, and, after a century, with Eastern spices, including cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg. In the early White’s, then a Whig club, the drink was made with milk and eggs, beaten into a froth. Dr (later a baronet) Hans Sloane was a collector whose treasures were left to the nation and became the British Museum. He was the first physician to recommend chocolate, in a full-fat form, for young children.