[Louis Foxwell]

The chocolate we consume is heavily laced with sugars that are added to overcome its bitter taste. Is this a recent recipe or has sugar been used continuously with cocoa?

[antidisestablishment]

The earliest cultivation of cacao can be traced to ancient Mesoamerica, in which it served a religious, financial, and nutritional purpose.

The drink that was made with cacao, xocolātl, wasconsidered sacred by the Mesoamericans and used during initiation ceremonies, funerals, and marriages. Cacao beans were also used as currency. Because cacao was both currency and food, drinking chocolate was like sipping on cash — kind of like lighting your cigar with a hundred dollar bill – and for this reason was a privilege mainly limited to elites. More:

https://www.artofmanliness.com/articles/the-surprisingly-manly-history-of-hot-cocoa/

[null and void]

Bitter. It wasn’t sweetened until it got to Europe.

[nwrep]

Europeans added sugar to make the modern chocolate. Sugar is an old world entity. The ancient MesoAmericans did not have sugar, which was imported by the Portuguese to the Americas after Columbus.

[piasa]

Th honey and wax made by stingless bees was traded for cocoa beans in some societies...

https://www.thoughtco.com/ancient-maya-beekeeping-169364