Chocolate - `the food of the Gods' - has had a long and eventful history. Its story is expertly told here by the doyen of Maya studies, Michael Coe, and his late wife, Sophie. The book begins 3,000 years ago in the Mexican jungles and goes on to draw on aspects of archaeology, botany and socio-economics. Used as currency and traded by the Aztecs, chocolate arrived in Europe via the conquistadors, and was soon a favourite drink with aristocrats. By the 19th century and industrialization, chocolate became a food for the masses - until its revival in our own time as a luxury item. The third edition of this classic book includes some tantalizing new data on the first cultivation of the cacao tree in the northwest Amazon, and the discovery of the chocolate process in southern Mesoamerica, long before the rise of the Olmecs. Chocolate has also been giving up some of its secrets to modern neuroscientists, who have been investigating how flavour perception is mediated by the human brain. And, finally, the book closes with two contemporary accounts of how chocolate manufacturers have (or have not) been dealing with the ethical side of the industry.

'A splendid treat' - New York Review of Books
'Begins with the origins of the cacao tree and follows the story up to today's mass-produced chocolate candy and its expensive boutique counterparts ... A pleasure, not just for chocoholics but for anyone who enjoys lively, thorough historical sleuthing via the printed page' - Gourmet
'Exceptionally interesting throughout' - Washington Post
'Anyone who loves chocolate ... will be riveted by its revelations' - Los Angeles Times
'A beautifully written, indexed, and illustrated history of the Food of the Gods, from the Olmecs to present-day developments' - Chocolatier

Sophie D. Coe, an anthropologist and food historian, was the author of America's First Cuisines.