The history of chocolate is as rich and compelling as its subject matter, full of drama and intrigue, heroes and villains, secret plots, inexplicable miracles and the eventual victory of good over evil.
The story begins early in the 1500's, when the great Spanish explorer, Hernán Cortés, driven by a pioneering penchant and a lust for wealth and power, arrived in Mexico and was mistaken by the local inhabitants to be the descendant of the Quetzalcoatl, the patron god of cocoa crops. To honour the deity, the Aztec Emperor offered the weary Cortes a golden goblet of xocolatl - a bitter, thick drink made from ground cocoa beans and infused with spices and chilli. Recognising something unique and precious in the drink, Cortes returned to Spain and took with him a ship laden with cocoa beans and the secret knowledge of how to prepare the exotic and intoxicating cocoa drink of the Aztecs.
The Spanish court was enamoured, the King so moved by the drink that he immediately decreed it was to be reserved exclusively for the enjoyment of the nobility. Only the Spanish monks were entrusted with the secret, and they sweetened and refined the Aztec's cocoa recipe to create an exotic new hot chocolate drink that was better suited to Spanish sensibilities.
For the next 100 years, chocolate remained a guarded secret of the Spanish aristocracy until one fateful day, when the Queen of Spain became gravely ill with an unexplained malady and was placed in what was thought would be her deathbed. One of the caring monks comforted the Queen with a drink of hot chocolate. Mysteriously, before their very eyes, the Queen was reinvigorated, brought back to life by the magical potion. Upon witnessing this miracle, the monk declared chocolate was a gift from God and one that deserved to be shared and enjoyed by all. This heroic monk was San Churro, and he therein made it his life's work to share the secret of chocolate with the masses.
And so the joy of chocolate spread throughout the world... and the legend of San Churro was born.
