The True History of Chocolate (Paperback: Revised and Updated: 280 pages)

Enhanced Muze Note

Sophie D. Coe died before completing her engaging history of chocolate, which has been finished by her husband. The book covers archaeological information about the presumed use of chocolate from the Olmec to the Aztecs....All of this seems amusingly like our own times, and the Coes tell the story well.

Enhanced Muze Note

...[S]cholarly and sound, with few surprises....While Michael Coe deserves thanks for his dedication to the late Sophie Coe's worthy undertaking, one wishes, as he does, that she had been able to finish it herself.

Enhanced Muze Note

...what the Coes have achieved is to strip away...the myths and misunderstandings, and to reconstruct from often very obscure sources, with some exciting archeological fieldwork and hieroglyphic deciphering, the remarkable passage of chocolate from its origins in the lowland jungles of southern Mexico to 'Hershey's Kisses' and Cadbury's 'chocolate box,' and to reestablish its genealogy over three millennia.

Enhanced Muze Note

At last a true classic in the repertoire of chocolate books. Based on flawless academic research, 'The True History of Chocolate' is a delightfully readable, and aptly illustrated book. At a stroke, Sophie Coe and her husband Michael have made this book the point of departure for all future studies on chocolate....The Coes set the record straight on many points.

Enhanced Muze Note

'The True History of Chocolate' goes beyond scholarly excellence. Every inch of unraveled data is set in a bright halo of journalistic energy...and this definitive history of chocolate must certainly be regarded as a textbook....One cannot imagine a single fact about chocolate that is missing from this extraordinarily researched book.