Theobroma cacao beans, along with other agricultural products, were brought back to Spain at that time, but it seems the beverage made from cacao was introduced to the Spanish court in 1544 by Kekchi Maya nobles brought from the New World to Spain by Dominican friars to meet Prince Philip. Within a century, chocolate had spread to France, England and elsewhere in Western Europe. Demand for this beverage led the French to establish cacao plantations in the Caribbean, while Spain subsequently developed their cacao plantations in their Venezuelan and Philippine colonies (Bloom 1998, Coe 1996). A painting by Dutch Golden Age artist
Theobroma bicolor Theobroma bicolor Theobroma bicolor, known commonly as the Mocambo tree, jaguar tree, balamte, or pataxte, among various other common names, is a tree in the genus "Theobroma" (family Malvaceae), which also contains the better-known "Theobroma cacao" (cocoa tree). It is known from Central and South America, including stretches of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. "T. bicolor" is the only species in the "Rhytidocarpus" section of "Theobroma". It was described by Alexander von Humboldt and Aimé Bonpland in 1808. "T. bicolor" can reach a height of 3–8 metres in open fields, although in the understories of forests