Who’s Who in Chocolate

Montezuma

Montezuma was the Aztec emperor who had to face the invading Spanish in the 1500s. But the two civilizations had many chances to observe each other before their final confrontation, in which Montezuma died.

The Spanish were fascinated with this new—to them—civilization, of course. All sorts of legends have developed about the Aztecs and their ruler.

One is that he drank chocolate as an aphrodisiac before visiting his harem, having as much as fifty large jars of cocoa. And, so they say, he had hundreds of wives. But only two queens. To a nonhistorian such as JoAnna Carl, this sounds as if a lot of brides were presented to the emperor as a matter of state, perhaps similar to events in the Old Testament.

Historians also take the aphrodisiac tale with a grain of (Spanish) salt, since Montezuma didn’t leave written records, and the Spanish did. The invaders may have been having physical problems due to their diet of nothing but meat, and may have been the ones looking for a pick-me-up for all their bodily functions.