Quiz answers

1. (a). Christopher Columbus sailed back from the Americas with a cargo that included cocoa beans and presented them to the King of Spain.

2. It is a wooden swizzle stick, used to whip the drink into a froth. The Aztecs poured the liquid from one container to another.

3. Was this product a food to nourish the body or a drink to quench the thirst? The Jesuits, who traded in chocolate, argued it did not break the ecclesiastical fast but the Dominicans spoke against this view.

4. Considered a luxury, cocoa beans were often smuggled into the country. Gladstone lowered taxes, so prices of chocolate-based products fell.

5. The plantations are always sited within 20º of the equator. It is essential that the altitude is not too high and the temperature does not drop below 16ºC.

6. (c). This bean produces a better flavour and is often blended with forastero to improve the flavour of the higher-yielding variety.

7. (b). Lindt invented the machine in the late 1800s. Paddles rotate the heated liquid in large vats which increases the blending. Additional cocoa butter was also added to the mixture.

8. Probably the most famous of the fruit brandies and known as Kirsch in the French language, the spirit is made from cherries. In Germany the word wasser is added to indicated a spirit distilled from fermented fruit.

9. This cake was created by the renowned Austrian chef Franz Sacher for Prince Metternich in 1832. The original recipe is still a closely guarded secret.

10. The word mole comes from the Mexican Indian word molli, meaning a sauce which must include chillies.

11. Créme de cacao is mixed with double cream and brandy to produce brandy Alexander, traditionally drunk as an afternoon tipple.

12. "Mud, mud glorious mud, nothing quite like it for cooling the blood…" The Mississippi mud pie is a worldwide favourite.

13. (c). This dish, sometimes known as mousse antillaise, is thought to have gained its name from the seepage of natural asphalt at the lake.

14. This is a recipe of half chocolate and half vanilla. Each mixture must be gently placed in the mould, side by side.