Herbert Roitblat, Age 10, Of Milwaukee, Wisc., for his question:

Who invented chocolate?

Our yummy candies are all gifts from the world of plants. Sugar comes from reedy canes and chubby beet roots. Chewing gum comes from a tree, and even the lime, lemon and spearmint used to give it flavor come from plants. And chocolate comes from a tree. It is made from the beans of the cacao tree, which grows in the steamy tropics.
Chocolate played a part in the conquest of the new world. After Columbus discovered America, the Spanish set out to explore and conquer the new lands. One of the most famous of these conquistadors was Hernando Cortez, who conquered Montezuma, Emperor of the Aztec Indians of Mexico.
Cortez received many gifts from the Indians, and he was, perhaps, the first European to taste a drink of chocolate. Naturally he was charmed with the delicious flavor. In fact, he demanded more chocolate. When Monteztma was defeated in battle, Cortez demanded tribute. Among other things, he demanded that the Aztecs should pay 300 loads of chocolate.
The peop1e of Europe had never tasted the delicious flavor of chocolate until Cortez shipped it back home from America. The cacao tree, which gives us chocolate, is a native of the new world. No one knows how long ago the Indians discovered haw to make chocolate from the beans of the cacao tree. If we knew who invented the delicious recipe, we would most certainly award this genius a prize as big as a lollypop tree.
Most experts think that the Indians of South and Central America had been enjoying their chocolate hundreds of years before Columbus discovered the new world. The large evergreen trees were grown in ancient times in the lush valleys of the Amazon and the Orinoco Rivers. Chocolate is made by roasting and grinding the cacao beans, and, evidently, the Indians thought very highly of their cacao beans. At one time they used them for money.
The cacao tree stands 20 to 40 feet high. It is an evergreen tree, and its shady boughs are covered with large oval leaves which are glossy green on top and red underneath. The little flowers cluster on the trunk and branches, and the tree is always in bloc. The pods are like fat cucumbers about a foot long, and they sprout right out frown the bark of the trunk and branches. Rows of the precious cacao beans are buried in a bed of pulp inside the pod.
The cacao tree was taken to other countries. It thrived in west Africa, which now supplies most of the world's chocolate. We also get chocolate from the West Indies. But history tells us that the cacao chocolate tree got its start in America. The Indians claim that one of their prophets brought the wonderful tree down frown heaven. But we cannot prove this, and we do not know who invented the recipe for making chocolate from cacao beans.