Chocolate

(1) chocolate - there's nothing quite like it, is there ? chocolate is simply delicious. what is chocolate ? where does it come from ?
(2) christopher colombus was probably the first to take cacao beans from the new world to europe in around 1502.but the history of chocolate goes back at least 4,000 years! the aztecs, who live in america, thought that their bitter cacao drink was divine gift from heaven. in fact, the scientist carolus linaeus named the plant theobroma, which means "food of the god".
(3) the spanish explorer  hernando cortez went to america in 1519. he visite mexican emperor montezuma. he saw that montezuma drank cacao mixed with vanilla and spices. cortez took
(4) some cacao home as gift to the spanish king charles. in spain, people began to drink cortez's is chocolate in a drink with chilli pepper. however, the natural taste of cacao was too bitter for most people. to sweeten the drink, europeans added sugar to the cacao drink. as a sweet drink, it became more popular. by the 17th century, rich people in europe were drinking it.
(5) later, people started using chocolate in pastries, like pie and cakes. in 1828, dutch chocolate makers started using a new process for removing the fat from cacao beans, and getting to the center of the cacao bean. the dutch chocolate maker conrad j van houten made a machine that pressed the fat the bean. the resulting powder mixed better with water than cacao did. now, some call van houten's chocolate "dutch chocolate".
(6) it was easyto mix dutch chocolate powder with sugar. so other chocolate makers started trying new recipes that use powder chocolate. people started mixing sweetened chocolate with cocoa butter to make solid chocolate bars. in 1849, an english chocolate maker made the first chocolate bar. in the 19th century, the swiss started making milk chocolate by mixingpowdered milk with sweetened chocolate. milk chocolate has not changed much since this process was invented.
(7) today, two countries - brazil and ivory coast- account for almost half the world's chocolate. the united states - import most of the chocolate in the wolrd, but the swiss eat the most chocolate per person. the most chocolate eaten today is sweet milk chocolate, but people also eat whilw chocolate and dark chocolate
(8) cocoa and dark chocolate are believed to help prevent heart attacks, or help keep them from hapening. they are supposed to be good for the circulatory system. on the other hand, the high fat content of chocolate can cause weight gain, which is not goog for people's health. other health claims for chocolate have not been proven, but some research shown that chocolate could be good for the brain.
(9)  chocolate is popular holiday gift. a popular valentine day's gift is a box of chocolate candies with a card and flowers. chocolate is sometimes given for christmas and birthday. chocolate eggs are sometimes given easter.
(10) chocolate is toxic to some animals. an ingredient in chocolate is poisonous to dog, cat, arrots,  small rodents, and some livestock. their bodies cannot process some of the chemical found in chocolate. therefore, they should never be fed chocolate.