As the holidays come up, the topic of what we eat is incredibly popular. Specifically, as the days get colder, hot chocolate becomes the iconic drink we turn to, and while I enjoy the classic beverage, I’ve always wondered about its origins. Did hot chocolate even exist before the 20th Century, and if so, what was it like? Where is it from?

(I’ve also had the age old argument that hot chocolate with water is true hot chocolate while with milk, it’s just hot chocolate milk and not true hot chocolate.)

Drinking chocolate has been around for about 4,000 years but was only introduced in French culture within the 1600s and 1700s, in which Louis XIV’s wife brought the chocolate drink as a wedding gift.

For my experiment, I gave three drinks to eight people. One drink was with hot water, one was with cold milk, and the other was old-fashioned hot chocolate. This is dark chocolate and cream mixed together into a thick consistency.

Several problems occurred. One, there was too much water in the mix. Two, we couldn’t heat the milk, so we just drank clumpy chocolate milk. Three, I was down several people. Finally, four, the French hot chocolate wasn’t served to everyone.

However, here are the results! Five people liked the original hot chocolate, two people liked the milk, and one person liked the water.

Despite the mess of this experiment, I’m excited to try again with you guys next month–so be on the lookout!