Cocoa tree (Theobroma cacao), 1742. Until Columbus brought cacao beans back to Spain in the early 1500s, Europe was unfamiliar with the popular cocoa drink from the Central and South America. After the Spanish conquest of the Aztecs, chocolate began to be imported into Europe and quickly became a court favorite. Cacao plantations in the colonies spread, run on slave labor, while drinking cocoa was considered variously exotic, fashionable, medicinal, and dangerous. Chocolate production developed over the centuries, until modern-style chocolate bars were created in the mid 1800s. Chocolate is made from the dried and partially fermented seeds of the cacao tree (Theobroma cacao), a small evergreen native to the tropical Americas.