Rushem and the Chocolate Wormhole

The story

Rushem is always in a hurry to know everything and get everywhere fast. When Manipulata tricks him into racing for chocolate covered caramels, he runs so fast down the street that he creates a wormhole.

He shoots back in time to 2000 BC, landing in a village among cacao trees, then keeps zooming through history, from a busy royal kitchen in Spain to a cocoa factory in Holland, always one step ahead of trouble.

The real place: Ancient Mesoamerica

Three things to tell your kid after the story.

1. 1Chocolate comes from the seeds of cacao pods, which grow right on the trunk of the cacao tree.
2. 2Thousands of years ago, people in Mexico and Central America made cacao into a bitter drink, and the Aztecs even used cacao beans as money.
3. 3Chocolate reached Spain in the 1500s, but it was mostly a drink until the first chocolate bars were made in the 1840s.

Next stop

EP 127 · Uyuni salt flat, Bolivia

Manipulata

Always gets her way.

EP 128 · Rolls-Royce UltraFan jet engine

Neverwait

Never waits.