The history of chocolate, and its creation from the beans of the cacao tree, can be chocolate chantilly to the ancient Maya, and even earlier to the ancient Olmecs of southern Mexico. Throughout much of its history, chocolate was a bitter beverage, not a sweet, rich-tasting treat.

Chocolate is made from the fruit of cacao trees, which are native to Central and South America. The fruits are called pods and each pod contains around 40 cacao beans. The beans are dried and roasted to create cocoa beans. It’s unclear exactly when cacao came on the scene or who invented it. According to Hayes Lavis, cultural arts curator for the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, ancient Olmec pots and vessels from around 1500 B. It’s thought the Olmecs used cacao to create a ceremonial drink. However, since they kept no written history, opinions differ on if they used cacao beans in their concoctions or just the pulp of the cacao pod.

The Mayan written history mentions chocolate drinks being used in celebrations and to finalize important transactions and ceremonies. Despite chocolate’s importance in Mayan culture, it wasn’t reserved for the wealthy and powerful, but was readily available to almost everyone. In many Mayan households, chocolate was enjoyed with every meal. Mayan chocolate was thick and frothy and often combined with chili peppers, honey or water. They believed cacao was given to them by their gods. Like the Maya, they enjoyed the caffeinated kick of hot or cold, spiced chocolate beverages in ornate containers, but they also used cacao beans as currency to buy food and other goods.

In Aztec culture, cacao beans were considered more valuable than gold. Aztec chocolate, which they called xocolatl, was mostly an upper-class extravagance, although the lower classes enjoyed it occasionally at weddings or other celebrations. Perhaps the most notorious Aztec chocolate lover of all was the Aztec ruler Montezuma II who allegedly drank gallons of xocolatl each day for energy and as an aphrodisiac. It’s also said he reserved some of his cacao beans for his military.

One story says Christopher Columbus discovered cacao beans after intercepting a trade ship on a journey to America and brought the beans back to Spain with him in 1502. Another tale states Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes was introduced to chocolate by the Aztecs of Montezuma’s court. After returning to Spain, cacao beans in tow, he supposedly kept his chocolate knowledge a well-guarded secret. No matter how chocolate got to Spain, by the late 1500s it was a much-loved indulgence by the Spanish court, and Spain began importing chocolate in 1585. As other European countries such as Italy and France visited parts of Central America, they also learned about cacao and brought chocolate back to their respective countries.

Soon, chocolate mania spread throughout Europe. With the high demand for chocolate came chocolate plantations, which were worked by thousands of enslaved people. But European palates weren’t satisfied with the traditional Aztec chocolate drink recipe. They made their own varieties of hot chocolate with cane sugar, cinnamon and other common spices and flavorings. Soon, fashionable chocolate houses for the wealthy cropped up throughout London, Amsterdam and other European cities. By 1773, cocoa beans were a major American colony import and chocolate was enjoyed by people of all classes. During the Revolutionary War, chocolate was provided to the military as rations and sometimes given to soldiers as payment instead of money.

Chocolate was also provided as rations to soldiers during World War II. But in 1828, Dutch chemist Coenraad van Houten discovered a way to treat cacao beans with alkaline salts to make a powdered chocolate that was easier to mix with water. Van Houten supposedly also invented the cocoa press, although some reports state his father invented the machine. The cocoa press separated cocoa butter from roasted cocoa beans to inexpensively and easily make cocoa powder, which was used to create a wide variety of delicious chocolate products. Both Dutch processing and the chocolate press helped make chocolate affordable for everyone. It also opened the door for chocolate to be mass-produced.

Fry and Sons created the first chocolate bar molded from a paste made of sugar, chocolate liquor and cocoa butter. Swiss chocolatier Daniel Peter is generally credited for adding dried milk powder to chocolate to create milk chocolate in 1876. But it wasn’t until several years later that he worked with his friend Henri Nestlé—together they created the Nestlé Company and brought milk chocolate to the mass market. Chocolate had come a long way during the 19th century, but it was still hard and difficult to chew.

In 1879, another Swiss chocolatier, Rudolf Lindt, invented the chocolate conch machine which mixed and aerated chocolate, giving it a smooth, melt-in-your-mouth consistency that blended well with other ingredients. Chocolate is available to drink, but is more often enjoyed as an edible confection or in desserts and baked goods. While your average chocolate bar isn’t considered healthy, dark chocolate has earned its place as a heart-healthy, antioxidant-rich treat. To expand cacao plantations, many companies are destroying rainforests, particularly in West Africa. This has prompted grassroots efforts for large chocolate companies to reconsider how they get their cocoa supply and its environmental impact.