Cacao was domesticated in South America about 5,300 years ago, long before it reached Mesoamerica, where the Olmecs may have fermented its pulp into an alcoholic drink. Mesoamerican peoples such as the Maya and Aztecs treated cacao as a gift from the gods, used cocoa beans as currency, and drank a bitter, spiced froth. Europeans first encountered it through Spanish conquistadors, and it spread through Europe in the 1600s as a sweetened warm drink that was thought to be a medicine and an aphrodisiac. The breakthrough came in 1828, when Coenraad van Houten patented a press that separated cocoa butter from the liquor, making cheap powder possible. Later developments such as milk chocolate and conching produced the smooth bars we know.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.