Christopher Columbus was spellbound by this new elixir, and he first presented cacao beans to the Spanish royal court in 1502. Explorer Hernan Cortés brought the Aztec cocoa drink back to Spain, and adapted it by heating and adding cane sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon to make it more agreeable to the European palate. Wealthy patrons grew a taste for this hot chocolate, which stoked demand and led Spanish colonizers to plant even more cacao trees in Ecuador, Venezuela, Peru, and Jamaica, in order to...