The History of Chocolate

From “food of the Gods” to a Divine gift

The cacao tree (Theobroma cacao) is a native of Central and South America . Today, it is
cultivated around the equator, and can be found in the Caribbean, Africa, South-East
Asia, and even in the South Pacific Islands of Samoa and New Guinea . There are three
main varieties of cacao trees. The most common is Forastero, which accounts for nearly
90% of the world's production of cacao beans. Rarest and most prized are the beans of
the Criollo variety. Their aroma and delicacy make them sought after by the world's best
chocolate makers. Finally, there is the Trinitario variety of cacao, which is a cross between
Criollo and Forastero. The discovery of cocoa was only a first step in the direction of
chocolate. The Mayas were the first to cultivate the cocoa bean for the fruits it yielded.
They used the beans as an ingredient in their favorite chocolate drink 'xocotlatl'.

Legend suggests that the first beans came out of Paradise and lent wisdom and power to
the person that ate them. For obvious reasons, the use of cocoa was kept to a minimum by
the emperors and considered as “the food of the Gods”.

Before the Spanish explorers discovered the New World, chocolate and other "exotic"
foods were totally unknown in Europe . The spread of the cacao tree started during the
age of Colonialism, as did the spread of cacao beans, and of chocolate itself. Christopher
Columbus was the first European to come in contact with cacao. On August 15, 1502, on
his fourth and last voyage to the Americas , Columbus and his crew encountered a large
dugout canoe near an island off the coast of what is now Honduras . The canoe was the
largest native vessel the Spaniards had seen. It was "as long as a galley," and was filled
with local goods for trade -- including cacao beans. Columbus had his crew seize the
vessel and its goods, and retained its skipper as his guide. Later, Columbus ' son Ferdinand
wrote about the encounter. He was struck by how much value the Native Americans placed
on cacao beans, saying: "They seemed to hold these almonds [referring to the cacao
beans] at a great price; for when they were brought on board ship together with their
goods, I observed that when any of these almonds fell, they all stooped to pick it up, as if
an eye had fallen." What Ferdinand and the other members of Columbus ' crew didn't
know at the time was that cocoa beans were the local currency. In fact, in some parts of
Central America , cacao beans were used as currency as recently as the last century.
While it is likely that Columbus brought the cacao beans he seized back to Europe , their
potential value was initially overlooked by the Spanish King and his court.

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wenty years later, however, Spanish conquistador Hernando Cortez is said to have
brought back three chests full of cacao beans. This time the beans were recognized as one
treasure among the many stolen from the conquered Aztecs. By the beginning of the
sixteenth century, the Aztecs had an advanced and powerful civilization located in what is
now central Mexico . Many people believe that the Aztecs first developed chocolate.
However, chocolate goes back much farther. The ancient Maya, who inhabited what is
now parts of southern Mexico and Central America , certainly consumed chocolate. In fact,
the word "cacao" is Mayan: as early as 500 A.D., the Mayans were writing about cacao
on their pottery. Some think chocolate may be even older, dating back to the Olmec
civilization that preceded the Maya.

Legend suggests that the first beans came out of Paradise and lent wisdom and power to
the person that ate them. For obvious reasons, the use of cocoa was kept to a minimum by
the emperors. The Mayas sacrificed cocoa beans at the funerals of the Upper Class. The
chocolate of these Mesoamerican civilizations was consumed as a bitter-tasting drink
made of ground cacao beans mixed with a variety of local ingredients. An officer serving
with Cortez observed Motecuhzoma, the ruler of the Aztecs, drinking fifty flagons of
chocolate a day. The frothy beverage, which was sometimes made with water, and
sometimes with wine, could be seasoned with vanilla, pimiento, and chili pepper. It was
thought to cure diarrhea and dysentery, and was believed to be an aphrodisiac. Cortez is
said to have tried the beverage, but found it too bitter. He did, however, write to King
Carlos I of Spain , calling "xocoatl" a "drink that builds up resistance and fights fatigue."
For many Europeans, drinking chocolate (especially before it was sweetened) was an
acquired taste.

Spanish missionary Jose de Acosta, who lived in Peru in the late 1500s, described it this
way: What's in a Name? There is some confusion about the derivation of the word
"chocolate." The Merriam Webster Dictionary, and many other sources, state that it comes
from the Aztec, or more accurately Nahuatl (the language of the Aztecs), word chocolatl.
Michael Coe, Professor of Anthropology at Yale, and author of The True History of
Chocolate, presents a different view. He argues that the word chocolatl appears in "no
truly early source on the Nahuatl language or on Aztec culture." He cites the distinguished
Mexican philologist Ignacio Davila Garibi who proposed the idea that the "Spaniards had
coined the word by taking the Maya word chocol and then replacing the Maya term for
water, haa, with the Aztec one, atl." One other possibility is that chocolate is derived from
the Maya verb chokola'j, which means, "to drink chocolate together." Chocolate In Spain

From this moment on, things began to accelerate. Shops called Chocolaterias were
opened, where customers could listen to music while they enjoyed a cup of cocoa.

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When the Spaniards returned to their country, they found that they couldn't do without the
delicious taste of chocolate. Ships, stacked with cocoa, brought the delicacy back home
and real chocolate trade was started. It is thought that chocolate arrived for the first time
in Spain in 1527 and it was still being served as a beverage with different sort of spices.

In the beginning, people drank chocolate to improve their physical health.

In 1590, when sugar was added to the chocolate, a real passion for the product was
created. The recipe was kept a secret from other European countries for nearly a century!

Noble ladies drank chocolate in church. It helped them to last out the long services without
embarrassing stomach noises. Nevertheless, the constant interruption by their servants
disturbed the priests, so the ladies were requested to pray and drink somewhere else.

Whilst we are on the subject of religion…..

One day someone asked pope Clement VII if chocolate was a beverage or a food. In
other words, this person was asking whether or not one was allowed to consume chocolate
during the fasting period.

Although the answer seems very simple, it took a while before Cardinal Francesco Maria
Brancaccio confirmed that in solid form it wasn't, but in liquid form it was. For a long time,
the Spanish nobility and clergy reserved the delicious right of chocolate drinking for
themselves.
They did everything in their power to secure their monopoly on the cocoa bean, but this
was all to be in vain. TOP Chocolate In Europe

In his diary, the Italian Antonio Carletti revealed to his countryman how to make chocolate.
He may have discovered the secret while he was staying in the West Indies, or possibly
whilst in Spain , where he would have drunk chocolate. Anyway, the result was amazing.
The Italians knew what to do with the recipe for chocolate and they also made some
changes of their own.

From Italy , the craze for chocolate spread to Germany . Although the Germans were at
first quite reserved about a drink that was so different from their traditional beers, once
chocolate was accepted, its success was astonishing.

Then slowly, but surely, the whole of Europe fell under its spell. Because of its power to
uplift the spirits, the drink enjoyed an excellent reputation. During the 17th century, the
chocolate beverage quickly became the fashionable drink all over Europe -- although it
was limited to the wealthy because of its high price.

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The London chocolate houses became trendy meeting places where the elite of London
Society savoured this new luxury beverage. The first chocolate house opened in London in
1657, advertising "this excellent West India drink".

When doctors stated that chocolate had all kinds of healing and therapeutical qualities, its
success was enormous. Some authors recommended chocolate as a healing balm for
chapped and burnt skin, protection against the sun, treatment of the liver and the lungs or
even as a preventive remedy against snakebites!

Solid chocolate as we know it today wasn't created until the late 1800's in Europe . In
1728, Walter Churchman founded the first chocolate factory, in Bristol , using hydraulic
machines. Also in England , the first chocolate fan club was set up in 1746.

On his visit to Brussels in 1697 Henri Escher, the mayor of Zürich, drank a cup of chocolate
for the first time in his life. He was so enthusiastic about it that he decided to take the
chocolate home to Switzerland . As cacao became more commonly available, people
began experimenting with new ways of using it. Chocolate began to appear in cakes,
pastries, and sorbets. But it wasn't until 1828 that the "modern era" of chocolate making
and production began. In 1828, Dutch chocolate maker Conrad J. van Houten patented an
inexpensive method for pressing the fat from roasted cacao beans. The center of the
bean, known as the "nib," contains an average of 54 percent cocoa butter, which is a
natural fat. Van Houten's machine -- a hydraulic press -- reduced the cocoa butter content
by nearly half. This created a "cake" that could be pulverized into a fine powder known
as "cocoa." Van Houten treated the powder with alkaline salts (potassium or sodium
carbonates) so that the powder would mix more easily with water. Today, this process is
known as "Dutching."
The final product, Dutch chocolate, has a dark color and a mild taste. The introduction of
cocoa powder not only made creating chocolate drinks much easier, but also made it
possible to combine chocolate with sugar and then remix it with cocoa butter to create a
solid. Others began to build on Van Houten's success, experimenting to make new
chocolate products.

In 1830, the Swiss Kohler produced chocolate with hazelnuts, in 1849, English chocolate
maker Joseph Storrs Fry produced what was arguably the world's first eating
chocolate.and in 1875 Daniel Peter made the first milk chocolate. Industrialization in the
nineteenth and twentieth centuries has since made chocolate a food for the masses. Today,
the Swiss are famous for their chocolate, and rightly so. In the late 19th century, they
developed a number of processes that contributed greatly to creating the solid chocolate
candy that we all enjoy today.

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Two major developments occurred in 1879. First, Daniel Peter, a Swiss chocolate
manufacturer, had the idea of using powdered milk (invented by Swiss Chemist Henri
Nestle in 1867) to make a new kind of chocolate, milk chocolate. Second, Rudolphe Lindt
invented a process called "conching," which greatly improved the quality of chocolate
candy by making it more blendable.

Mars was founded in Chicago in 1911 and 12 years later, Milky Way first saw the light
of day.

In Belgium , chocolate has been considered as a present from its earliest days -- something
to give or to receive. No wonder that praline, one of the most popular presents, is a
Belgian invention.
Conclusions

Most people will agree that chocolate is one of the best inventions of the world. All kinds
of favorable properties have been attributed to chocolate. Many poets have dedicated
poems to its stimulating effects.

So, to end with the words of the English poet James Wadworth:

"She makes old women young and fresh, rushes renewed quivering through their flesh.
Let them yearn for you know what ... As soon as they have tasted chocolate."

Therefore ladies & gentlemen, if I may give you a good piece of advice:

If you want to spoil your beloved ... surprise him or her with chocolate!

Sources:
www.exploratorium.edu/exploring/exploring_chocolate/index.html
www.ghirardelli.com/chocopedia/history.aspx

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