<P> Chocolate has become one of the most popular food types and flavors in the world, and a vast number of foodstuffs involving chocolate have been created, particularly desserts including cakes, pudding, mousse, chocolate brownies, and chocolate chip cookies . Many candies are filled with or coated with sweetened chocolate, and bars of solid chocolate and candy bars coated in chocolate are eaten as snacks . Gifts of chocolate molded into different shapes (e.g., eggs, hearts) have become traditional on certain Western holidays, such as Easter and Valentine's Day . Chocolate is also used in cold and hot beverages such as chocolate milk and hot chocolate and in some alcoholic drinks, such as creme de cacao . </P> <P> Although cocoa originated in the Americas, recent years have seen African nations assuming a leading role in producing cocoa . Since the 2000s, Western Africa produces almost two - thirds of the world's cocoa, with Ivory Coast growing almost half of that amount . </P> <P> The word "chocolate" entered the English language from Spanish in about 1600 . The word entered Spanish from Nahuatl word chocolātl, the language of the Aztecs, but the exact etymology of the Nahuatl word is debated . One proposed etymology derives it from the word chicolatl, meaning "beaten drink", which may derive from the word for the frothing stick, chicoli . The term "chocolate chip" was first used in 1940 . The term "chocolatier", for a chocolate confection maker, is attested from 1888 . </P> <P> Chocolate has been prepared as a drink for nearly all of its history . For example, one vessel found at an Olmec archaeological site on the Gulf Coast of Veracruz, Mexico, dates chocolate's preparation by pre-Olmec peoples as early as 1750 BCE . On the Pacific coast of Chiapas, Mexico, a Mokaya archaeological site provides evidence of cacao beverages dating even earlier, to 1900 BCE . The residues and the kind of vessel in which they were found indicate the initial use of cacao was not simply as a beverage, but the white pulp around the cacao beans was likely used as a source of fermentable sugars for an alcoholic drink . </P>

Where does the word chocolate come from and what does it mean
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