Maiden Carrying a Chocolate Saucer/ Una doncella llevando una mancerina 1700-1800, Alcora, Spain Museu de Ceràmica, Barcelona

Among the exotic items that the Aztecs introduced to the Spanish was chocolate. The bean of the cacao plant had long been used in the Americas to make a beverage that was typically served unheated, unsweetened, and sometimes spiced with chile. The native Mexican Indians believed it to have spiritual qualities, and the valuable beans were also used as money.

Aristocratic Europeans initially rejected this bitter drink. In time, however, by heating the chocolate and mixing it with cinnamon, vanilla, and sugar cane, they created a beverage that, by the mid-1600s, became the rage throughout Europe. Its consumption conferred status on those who could afford to purchase, prepare and drink it properly. Drinking chocolate properly meant having the right equipment for storing, grinding, heating and serving the beverage.