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The power of cocoa
Snakes
The Mayas used the cocoa butter as healing ointment for burns and
as protection of the skin against the sun. The butter would also have a positive effect on
liver and lungs and the cocoa drink was an excellent precautionary remedy against
snake-bites.
Love potion
The Aztecs and the Mayas considered their chocolate as a sexual stimulant. Even the
Aztec emperor Moctezuma drank it to have a better “woman access”. In 1624,
the theologian Franciscus Rauch wrote : «that beverage drank in convents inflames passions.”
And what about our famous Casanova, a cocoa lover too.
The “Marquis de Sade”, well-known
for his illicit sexual interests had to deal with imprisonment and thus without passionate
love and found his consolation in chocolate. Also Madame du Barry, mistress of Louis XV,
knew how to use this delicacy. She gave it to her lovers to prolong satisfaction.
Make-up
The Indian men and criollas, white women born in Mexico, put cocoa on their face in order
to take care of their skin.
Means of exchange
Before the discovery of America, the cocoa was totally unknown in Europe. The Mexicans considered
it a valuable commodity and used it as food but also as a means of payment. Moreover, the
beans were a means of exchange in trade. This method was tradition in central America until
the 19th century.
Intestinal problems
The Spaniards of the New World used the chocolate drink as remedy against pains in the chest, stomach
and intestines and other diseases caused by a strange and unsafe environment. Chocolate stimulates
the contraction of the intestinal muscle and the digestion. As an ointment cocoa cured injuries at
nipples and lips.
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