Cacao grows only in the narrow band around the equator and was first cultivated in what is now Guatemala and Belize, so Europeans knew it first through reports and drawings. After Cortés took Tenochtitlan in 1521, the Spanish wrote home about the frothy drink made from its seeds, which the Aztecs also used as currency. The sweet white pulp around the seeds was thought useless, and the seeds were the prize. Chocolate became fashionable in Madrid, then France and England. Images of the plant ran from pre-Columbian glyphs, in which the tree appeared as a 'tree of life', to accurate botanical drawings by the 1700s. Linnaeus named it Theobroma, 'food of the gods', in 1753.

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.