(phone ringing) - Hi, it's Doug. There's so many different
kinds of chocolate, chocolate chips, chocolate
coins, chocolate powder. There's even giant chocolate bars. And check this out, liquid chocolate that can flow, like in a fountain. I'm gonna turn it on, ready? And then once it starts flowing,
you can dip things in it. Mmm. (laughter) Someone named Miyuri has a
question for us about chocolate. Let's give her a call now. (phone ringing) - Hi Doug. - Hi Miyuri. - I have a question for you. Where does chocolate come from? - That's a great question. Today, everyone knows about chocolate. I mean, there's whole
aisles of chocolaty things that you can buy at the grocery store. But chocolate hasn't always been around. From reading about the
history of chocolate, we know that there was a
time when the only people who knew about chocolate were the people who lived here, in Central America. The people living here were some of the first people to discover chocolate. Now how do you think they did that? How do you think chocolate is made? Now would be a good time to
pause the video and discuss. Okay, you ready? So how is chocolate made? How was it discovered? I mean, it's not like
chocolate just grows on trees. Well, actually chocolate
does come from a tree. Not as candy bars growing on the branches, but from trees that have
these, really weird-looking fruits that grow on the
tree trunks like this. You can see that whatever
these fruits are, they're colorful and they're shaped
kind of like footballs. Here's one of these fruits up close. It's called a cacao fruit. And it grows in the
rainforests of Central America. One of the first groups of
people to use cacao fruits to make chocolate were a people
known as the ancient Aztecs. How did they make it? You might wonder, does
it have something to do with what's inside of that cacao fruit? Like, maybe if you cut open a cacao fruit, there's something chocolaty in there. But no, it's actually weirder than that. Inside of a cacao fruit
actually looks like this. You'll find, look at that, a whole bunch of white-colored slimy stuff. And then inside of that white slimy stuff, you'll find a brown seed. That's the part that's
needed for making chocolate. The ancient Aztecs knew that you could do something special
with those brown seeds. They would put them into piles and let them rot, but not for too long. Before the seeds could spoil, then they put them in the sun to dry. Then, they'd grind it
all up into a powder, like by mashing them with a stone. The Aztecs would make a
drink from this powder, a drink that they called xocoatl. Does that sound kinda familiar? I'll say it again, but a
little differently, xocoatl. It's where our word,
chocolate, comes from. Our word chocolate is borrowed from the ancient Aztec language. So the very first chocolate
wasn't a chocolate you eat. It was a chocolate you drink. Now here's the thing, you might think that this xocoatl drink
would maybe taste like hot chocolate, or maybe
like sweet chocolate syrup. But it doesn't. It actually tastes more
like dark chocolate, the kind of chocolate that
adults usually like the eat. Have you ever tried dark chocolate? This is from a commercial where kids tried really dark chocolate for the first time. (laughter) You see, dark
chocolate is not sweet. It's bitter. It might make you pucker
your lips and frown. You'd probably have the same
reaction to the Aztec drink. That's because the chocolate
you're used to eating, has a special ingredient
in it, one ingredient that the ancient Aztecs
didn't have, this, sugar. Sugar is the key ingredient for making chocolate taste sweet
instead of tasting bitter. The more sugar you add, the sweeter the chocolate will taste. After people started adding
sugar to chocolate, that's when chocolate started getting
traded all around the world. But not everyone wanted to
drink their chocolate, so chocolate makers invented a
new way of making chocolate, so that it was hard and
solid, rather than liquid. That way, people could eat their chocolate too, and not just drink it. So in summary, chocolate comes
from the fruits of a tree called cacao trees, that
grown in the rainforest. In ancient times, it was
people from Central America, like the ancient Aztecs,
who would turn the seeds of cacao fruit into a chocolaty drink. But it tasted very bitter. It was only later, once people added sugar to chocolate that it became a popular sweet treat, enjoyed all over the world. That's all for this week's question. Thanks Miyuri for asking it. Now for the next episode, I
reach into my question jar and found three questions submitted to me that I'm thinking about answering. When this video is done playing,
you'll get to vote on one. You can choose from: Why is snow white? Does maple syrup really
come out of a tree? Or How do coats keep us warm? So submit your vote
when the video is over. I wanna hear from all of you watching. There are mysteries all around us. Stay curious and see ya next week.
