The exact origin of frozen hot chocolate is unknown, but it is believed to have originated in the United States in the early 1900s.
Frozen hot chocolate was invented in the early 1970s by a man named Steve Herrell. He was the owner of an ice cream shop in Massachusetts, and he was looking for a way to make his ice cream more chocolatey. Herrell’s experimentations led him to the creation of frozen hot chocolate, which is made by blending ice cream, milk, and chocolate syrup.
It became popular in the 1950s after it was featured in the children’s book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl.
The first chocolate drink is believed to have been created by the Maya around 2,500–3,000 years ago, and a cocoa drink was an essential part of Aztec culture by 1400 AD.
Hot chocolate is consumed throughout the world and comes in multiple variations, including the spiced chocolate para mesa of Latin America, the very thick cioccolata calda served in Italy and chocolate a la taza served in Spain, and the thinner hot cocoa consumed in the United States.
A distinction is sometimes made between "hot cocoa", made from cocoa powder and "hot chocolate", made directly from bar chocolate, which already contains cocoa, sugar, and cocoa butter.
European hot chocolate tends to be relatively thick and rich, while in the United States the thinner instant version is consumed more often. In Nigeria, hot chocolate is referred to as "tea" even though it is not actually a tea. Hot chocolate with churros is the traditional working-man's breakfast in Spain.