After skating, skiing or shoveling snow, nothing warms you up better than a cup of hot cocoa. Though today it will be topped with marshmallows (棉花软糖) or stuff like that, you may not know that chocolate was first consumed in liquid form by the Olmec people of northwestern Central America around 1500 B.C.
However, the Olmec people didn’t serve their cocoa hot. And since sugar had not yet arrived from Europe back then, the drink was often flavoured with peppers and spices. After the Spanish arrived in the Americas in the 1500s, liquid chocolate made its way across the pond, where wealthy Europeans added sugar and drank it warm. According to Chocolate: History, Culture and Heritage, hot chocolate became “the drink of the aristocracy (贵族)”, as sugar was still a luxury.
Soon enough, though, hot chocolate caught on with the masses. Chocolate houses started springing up around 17th-century Europe. In these lively places, hot chocolate was poured from pots into elegant cups. But by the end of the 18th century, chocolate houses had mostly died off, because the input of chocolate was much dearer than that of coffee or tea.
Marshmallows first came into the picture in 1917, when the company Angelus Marshmallows published a recipe for hot cocoa topped with their product. Instant cocoa is another American invention, created in the late 1950s when dairy company owner Charles Sanna faced an oversupply of powdered coffee creamer. His solution was mixing the creamer sugar and cocoa powder together, thus creating a formula (配方) favored by many.
Taking a tour of international cups of cocoa, you can try cioccolata calda, a thick, pudding-like version in Italy. In Colombia and Ecuador, chocolate is served with a teaspoon of soft farmer cheese, and Filipino hot chocolate, sikwate, is served with mango chunks.
However, you choose to jazz up your own cup, the simple pleasure of drinking a warm, chocolaty drink is one that hasn’t gotten old for thousands of years.
【小题1】Which of the following is unlikely to happen in the 1500s?| A．Angie used sugar to add flavour to hot chocolate. |
| B．Eva enjoyed drinking hot cocoa during breakfast. |
| C．Barton consumed hot cocoa at a chocolate house. |
| D．Leo couldn’t afford to put much sugar in the cocoa. |
| A．Public health awareness. | B．High cost of material. |
| C．Policy reform of the time. | D．Changing drinks’ trend. |
| A．A man can do no more he can. |
| B．One good turn deserves another. |
| C．Constant dripping wears away a stone. |
| D．Innovation unlocks the door of success. |
| A．A Journey To A Cup Of Comfort |
| B．An Accidental Invention Of A Drink |
| C．Hot Cocoa: A Combination Of Global Cultures |
| D．Hot Cocoa: From The Aristocracy To The Public |
