answers.input_text: short
answers.span_text: Americas
questions: where did chocolate originate the americas spain asia
name: History of chocolate in Spain
contexts: The history of chocolate in Spain is part of the culinary history of Spain as understood since the 16th century , when the colonization of the Americas began and the cocoa plant was discovered in regions of Mesoamerica , until the present . After the conquest of Mexico , cocoa as a commodity travelled by boat from the port of Nueva España to the Spanish coast . The first such voyage to Europe occurred at an unknown date in the 1520s . However it was only in the 17th century that regular trade began from the port of Veracruz , opening a maritime trade route that would supply the new demand from Spain , and later from other European countries .