If chocolate has not attained the universal popularity of coffee,
it is nevertheless its superior as a food product, at once hygienic
and agreeable. The place it should occupy in our regimen gives it an
importance, which is daily increasing; in place of poets it has its
historians, who are physicians, chemists, and famous gastronomists, and
whose eminent opinions, based on positive facts of science, have more
weight and authority than the fancies of the imagination or the whims
of fashion.
The use of chocolate was introduced into Spain from Mexico at the
beginning of the sixteenth century by the companions of Fernando
Cortez. Thence it crossed the Pyrenees in 1660, in the train of Maria
Theresa, spouse of Louis XIV. It was at first deemed a great luxury
to be enjoyed only at the tables of the kings, princes and wealthy
financiers of that period; but it gained popularity by degrees, and
to-day it has become an almost universal aliment known and praised by
every nation of Europe and America.
Chocolate can be used in various forms and generally agrees with all
palates. It figures at the feast as well as in the daily routine of
domestic life, in sickness as well as in health. It is taken with every
repast, at breakfast as well as supper, prepared either with water or
milk; at dinner in the form of _entremets_; at the soiree in ices,
bonbons and cakes; between meals, and especially while traveling, it is
eaten in the form of tablets, croquettes, sticks, wafers and cigarettes.
In England and the United States powdered cocoas are more extensively
used than chocolate in tablets. The best quality of the latter, in
which sugar has been incorporated through successive operations, should
be preferred and adopted in future for the use of families.