Chocolate, the fermented, roasted, and ground beans of the tree Theobroma cacao, can be traced to the Mexican Olmec people, with evidence of cacao beverages dating back to 2000 BC. Chocolate played a special role in both Mayan and Aztec royal and religious events. It is said that the Aztec emperor Montezuma so craved xocolātl, the sacred beverage made from cacao beans, that he consumed fifty golden goblets of it a day. The first cacao trees probably grew in Central America. Priests presented cacao beans as offerings to the gods and served cacao drinks during sacred ceremonies. Chocolate was also used as a medicine and even as a currency! All of the areas that were conquered by the Aztecs that grew cacao beans were ordered to pay them as a « tribute » (tax).