Hot Chocolate! :) Yum!

    Although it hasn't snowed yet, we all know it is right around the corner.  Just think about a brisk and chilly winter morning when you wake up to find that the earth is covered in a fresh blanket of fluffy white snow.  You groggily get out of your warm bed and pull on your snow pants, boots, jacket, and mittens, grab the shovel and head out the door.  You shovel the drive way for a good half and hour, your nose turns red, your fingers feel as if they might fall off but yet you enjoy the beauty of the snow.  After the time in the chilly weather and all the hard work of hauling the snow off of the drive way you decide to head in and have a nice warm and delicious mug of hot chocolate topped with marshmallows and whipped cream before heading back out to enjoy the snow by sledding down the big hills covered in slick snow.  But where did this delicious drink that keeps you toasty warm in the winter come from?
    It is believed that beverages containing chocolate date all the way back to the Aztecs.  Cocoa beans were very valuable to the Aztec people and were used for cooking and currency as well as being given as gifts.  These cocoa beans could be used to make a chocolatey drink, but this drink was very unlike our modern hot chocolate.  For one, it was served cold and it was flavored with wine and peppers giving it a bitter and not sweet taste.  When chocolate was discovered by Spainsh explorers in the 1500's it was introduced to Europe. There hot chocolate was changed.  It was served hot and had a sweet flavor as it was no longer flavored with spicy chili peppers.  It wasn't until the 1700's that this drink reached Britain where they started to add milk for flavoring and it became a nice and popular after dinner treat.  Finally in the 1800's cocoa powder was invented.  This powder was a lot easier to mix in with the water or milk and most likely made hot chocolate a much quicker and easier treat to make and enjoy. 
    Although it has changed a lot from its origins hot chocolate is a great treat that keeps you nice and toasty during the chilly winter months and always puts a smile on your face when you are enjoying a nice sweet mug of it.

Information from:
http://coffeetea.about.com/cs/chocolate/a/chochistory.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_chocolate#History

Picture from:
http://www.sogoodblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/hot-chocolate.jpg