From 1200 BCE to 400 BCE, chocolate was prepared from cocoa beans by the mysterious Olmec civilization, the forerunner of all subsequent Mesoamerican cultures such as the Maya and Aztecs. In those days, chocolate was reserved exclusively to satisfy the taste buds of kings and rulers.

The Europeans first became acquainted with cocoa beans in the second half of the 16th century. It was Hernán Cortés, a Spanish Conquistador who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire in the early 16th century, who brought with him the main ingredient for what would later become a popular drink among the European nobility.

Less known is the story of how chocolate enchanted people living in the Czech lands, which, since 1 January 1993, form the Czech Republic. It’s a bitter-sweet story with as many twists and turns as there are kinds of chocolate.