This delightful and best-selling tale of one of the world's favorite foods draws upon botany, archaeology, and culinary history to present a complete and accurate history of chocolate. The story begins some 3,000 years ago in the jungles of Mexico and Central America with the chocolate tree, Theobroma Cacao, and the complex processes necessary to transform its bitter seeds into what is now known as chocolate. This was centuries before chocolate was consumed in generally unsweetened liquid form and used as currency by the Maya, and the Aztecs after them. The Spanish conquest of Central America introduced chocolate to Europe, where it first became the drink of kings and aristocrats and then was popularized in coffeehouses. Industrialization in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries made chocolate a food for the masses, and now, in our own time, it has become once again a luxury item. The second edition draws on recent research and genetic analysis to update the information on the origins of the chocolate tree and early use by the Maya and others, and there is a new section on the medical and nutritional benefits of chocolate.

索菲·D. 科（Sophie D. Coe），美國人類學傢、食物曆史學傢。 她的書《美國第一美食》1994 年齣版，受到普遍好評。

麥剋·D. 科（Michael D. Coe），美國耶魯大學人類學名譽教授。主要著作有《瑪雅》《墨西哥》《打破瑪雅守則》《吳哥和高棉文明》《解讀瑪雅銘文》等。