This is my third in a series of articles on the happy health benefits of some of our favorite indulgences. Please read my related articles on coffee and tea, wine and beer.

When the Spanish explorer Hernan Cortes came home from Mexico in the early 1500s, he brought with him the sacred drink of the Aztecs. Made from the roasted seeds of Theobroma cacao, the drink was flavored with a blend of exotic ingredients, and although Cortes had come to like this concoction, the Spanish eventually added sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon for a sweeter drink more pleasing to European taste. The secret recipe was eventually leaked to Europe, and first appeared in London in the mid-1600s. By 1765 the American colonists were enjoying cocoa made from West Indian beans. Cocoa powder was developed by a Dutch chocolate maker, and his patented process for pressing cocoa butter from the roasted beans made possible the production of both instant cocoa and edible chocolate.

Theobroma means, appropriately,