In 1493, Christopher Columbus brought cacao beans back to Spain from his second voyage to the Caribbean, specifically from the islands of Hispaniola and possibly Cuba, though he initially mistook them for almond-like nuts of little value. The beans were presented at the Spanish court but failed to make an immediate impression, as their bitter taste without Mesoamerican flavoring confused European palates. Despite this unpromising introduction, Columbus's transport of cacao initiated the chain of events that would make chocolate one of the most widely consumed and culturally significant food products in world history.

Early colonial chronicles by figures such as Peter Martyr d'Anghiera described Columbus's cacao encounter, creating the first European literary accounts of what would become chocolate. These texts established a narrative tradition of New World food discovery that would later influence poets from Góngora to Charles Baudelaire, who wrote about chocolate and exotic stimulants as emblems of modern desire and colonial encounter in poems like "Le Poème du haschisch."