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Chocolate: The Sweetest Drug

The emperor was Moctezuma II, last ruler of the Aztec Empire of Mexico, and his addiction to chocolate like a drug, was revealed to us by Bernal Díaz, a Spanish soldier under the conquistador Hernando Cortés who destroyed Moctezuma’s empire in 1521. The beverage that so captivated Moctezuma was actually called cacahuatl by the Aztecs, which Díaz corrupted to chocolatl, from which chocolate and other modern names derive.