Chocolate in Europe
The amount of cocoa beans delivered to Europe was not enough to satisfy the increasing demand as Spanish were hiding the secret of cocoa beans. And only in 17th century the rest of population of Europe got to know the mystery of a tasty drink.
First it was considered to be male drink as it was very tonic and bitter. But Englishmen in 1700 added milk to it that made the drink less bitter and tastier. And from that time women and children liked the drink.
The Catholic religion prohibited drinking chocolate during fasting as everything that brought pleasure was forbidden. That is why there were a lot of discussions on this topic until the Pope solved the problem. He tasted the drink and said that the drink was so disgusting that it couldn't bring pleasure to anyone.
Italian people were the first one who received the licence to produce chocolate. In Netherlands cocoa beans were the first smuggler's good.
But Ann, the daughter of the Spanish king Philip III made the greatest contribution into the spread of chocolate. In 1616 she brought the box full of cocoa beans to Paris and soon it spread all over Europe. But despite its popularity it was still very expensive and only rich people were able to drink the chocolate.