Those heart-shaped boxes of chocolates lining the shelves of stores leading up to Valentine’s Day are an unchanged marketing success story dreamed up in the 1860s by British chocolatier Richard Cadbury. But chocolate itself started out as a sacred hot drink enjoyed by Aztec elites and later brought to Europe in the 16th century, a Northeastern University food historian says.
Malcolm Purinton, an assistant teaching professor of history at Northeastern University, says it took centuries for the bitter taste of drinking chocolate to catch on in Europe — even after the Spanish had tasted it during gatherings with Mesoamerican leaders. And it took even longer for anyone to put edible chocolate confections in a heart-shaped box.
