10種擁有美妙歷史的現代食物(6):巧克力
5. Chocolate
5. 巧克力
When you take a bite out of a well-made chocolate bar, it feels like you’re eating the food of the gods. And, well, you’d be exactly right.
當你從一根做好的巧克力棒上咬下一口的時候，你會覺得自己是在吃神賜的食物。好吧，確實是如此。
The story begins as far back as 1500BC, when the Olmec managed to find and utilize cocoa beans. Of course, it was not called ‘cocoa’ then, but ‘kakawa’ – where we get the name from. They managed to turn it into a drink, but historians are hard-pressed to find any evidence that the Olmec did much else with it.
故事開始於公元前1500年，奧爾梅克人（墨西哥的古印第安人——譯者注）發現了可可豆，並研究其用法。當然，那時候它還不叫“可可（cocoa）”，而是“kakawa”——現在的名字由此演變而來。他們將其做成一種飲品，但歷史學家們很難找到證據證明奧爾梅克人用它製作了其他的東西。
The Mayans, however, loved the stuff. They identified it as a food of Kon, the god of rain and wind. They drank it, used the mixture as a substitute for blood in rituals, and even used the beans as currency. That’s right; once upon a time, you could buy things with chocolate.
但是瑪雅人很愛這種東西。他們確信它是風雨神Kon的一種食物。他們飲用這種飲品，在祭祀儀式上用它代替血，甚至用可可豆來當貨幣。沒錯，曾經有一段時間，你可以用巧克力來買東西。
As for the solid bars we all know and love? They didn’t pop up until around 1850AD. Even after all of these years, however, we still love to offer chocolate to people we praise highly.
那麼我們所認識且鍾愛的巧克力棒呢？它們直到公元1850年纔出現。然而，縱然過去了這麼多年，我們仍然喜歡爲我們珍愛的人贈送巧克力。
