In Spain the word 'chocolate' is likely to be a cup of hot chocolate, commonly drunk at breakfast. Otherwise, it is a product of cocoa beans which are fermented, roasted, shelled and ground to produce chocolate liquor. Cocoa butter may be removed from this to make cocoa. After refining for high quality chocolate, the various remaining types are 1) unsweetened chocolate containing only chocolate liquor and cocoa butter, used for cooking; 2) bittersweet chocolate with a small amount of added sugar; 3) semisweet chocolate, with just a little more sugar than bittersweet chocolate; 4) milk chocolate, with milk solids added to soften the intense chocolate flavour. If other fats are added besides cocoa butter, this decreases the quality of the chocolate.

In the 16th Century when Hernan Cortes visited the palace of Montezuma, the Aztec emperor and tasted chocolate for the first time, he wrote to Carlos V of Spain saying "Chocolatl is the divine drink which builds up resistance and fights fatigue". The first chocolate bar was invented by Joseph Fry. It is possible now to choose high quality chocolate from Ecuador or Madagascar.