Food & DrinkExplain Like I'm 5Beginner
The Story of Chocolate course icon

The Story of Chocolate

Like Duolingo, but for The Story of Chocolate. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.

For the part of you with thirty open tabs that never became anything.

26 bite-size levelsAbout 5 minutes each

Free during early access · No credit card · iPhone & Android

Cocoa the Capybara
The Story of Chocolate
with Cocoa the Capybara
26
Levels
3
Sections
5
Min/day
What you'll learn

Key ideas in The Story of Chocolate

  • Ancient chocolate was a bitter drink flavored with spices like chili.
  • Mesoamericans used cornmeal as a thickener and prized the foam on top.
  • Cacao was believed to be a gift from the gods with spiritual power.
  • Cacao beans were so valuable they functioned as a form of money.
  • The process began with harvesting and fermenting the raw cacao seeds.
  • Ancient chocolate ingredients and characteristics
  • The final step involved pouring the liquid from height to create a thick foam.
  • Cultural roles of cacao
  • Sequence the traditional Maya process
  • Cacao beans were portable and durable enough for trade
  • The difficulty of growing cacao ensured a controlled, scarce supply
  • Cacao ownership was a marker of high social status
  • Merchants facilitated trade by moving beans between regions
  • Cacao beans had value both as a medium of exchange and a food product
  • Physical properties of cacao currency
  • Consumability prevented the currency from becoming worthless
Why not just Google it

You've tried the other tabs

Wikipedia

Thirty open tabs. Four facts you actually kept.

YouTube

You watched. You nodded. By Sunday it was gone.

ChatGPT

One answer, then back to scrolling.

Online courses

Eight weeks. You meant to finish. You didn't.

Tomo gives The Story of Chocolate the Duolingo treatment: levels, streaks, and quick quizzes that test what you just learned. That game loop is what the tabs above never had, so it's the one you actually finish.

Try a question

Here's what playing it feels like

A real question from this course. Take your best guess.

Sipping History with the Gods

What did people do to make their chocolate drink look like it had soap bubbles on top?

Get it right to open this lesson and 25 more in the app.

Course map

Where The Story of Chocolate takes you

Follow the journey of chocolate from a bitter ancient drink to the world's favorite sweet treat. Discover how a simple bean changed history and conquered our taste buds.

  1. 1

    The Ancient Roots of Cocoa

    • The Spicy Drink of the Gods
    • Using Beans as Money
    • How the Aztecs Drank Chocolate
    • The First European Encounter
  2. 2

    Chocolate Conquers the World

    • Adding Sugar in Spain
    • The Secret Recipe Spreads
    • Fancy Chocolate Houses in London
    • The Invention of the Cocoa Press
    • Making the First Chocolate Bar
    • The Secret to Smooth Milk Chocolate
  3. 3

    Modern Chocolate Culture

    • How Chocolate is Made Today
    • Why We Give Chocolate for Love
    • The Future of the Cocoa Bean

3 sections · 13 units · 26 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.

How it's taught

You pick the voice

This course
Explain Like I'm 5

The Story of Chocolate is taught in the Explain Like I'm 5 style: no big words. promise.. Want a different feel? In the app you can spin up the same topic in any of Tomo's teaching styles. Same facts, totally different vibe.

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Start free

Start The Story of Chocolate today.

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