According to Madame de Sevigne (1626-1696), chocolate possessed some very outstanding powers. In a letter she wrote to her daughter she said that the Marquise of C. drank too much chocolate when she was pregnant the previous year, and so much so that she gave birth to a child that was as black as the devil.
It is said that a noble man from the court of Luis XIII had offended the honor of one of the ladies in waiting. This woman was so resentful that she poisoned a cup of chocolate that she had prepared for him, and right before he died, he held her in his arms and whispered to her that the chocolate would have been better if she had added a little more sugar; he said that the poison gave it a certain bitter taste and to think about that next time she offered a cup of chocolate to a gentleman.
The Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778), who dedicated his life to giving Greek and Latin names to each variety of flora and fauna, gave the cacao tree the official name of Theobroma, which means food of the gods.
Desserts Recipes Chocolate Legends
