As a writer, I take research very seriously. I’ve invested years sampling this particular invention so I can present today’s post with good authority—chocolate.
Three thousand years ago, the people of Central and South America, and in particular, Mexico, cultivated theobroma cacao,
the original cacao bean, and used it in religious ceremonies and for
medicinal purposes. They found the bean could combat fatigue, not unlike
the effects of coffee. For intestinal and stomach problems, a chocolate
drink was mixed with the bark of the silk cotton tree. If fever and
fainting were the problem, then patients consumed eight to ten cacao
beans mixed with dried maize kernels.
Archaeologists
in Puerto Escondido, Honduras, discovered the cacao had been cultivated
as far back as 1100 to 1400 B.C. when they found a white pulp from the
cacao bean in a vessel and, later, discovered the ancient Hondurans used
cacao pulp as a sugar fermented to create a type of alcoholic drink.
The
Aztecs didn’t use chocolate in cooking, even though many people think
they did. According to food historians, the Aztecs prepared their
chocolate drink by grinding roasted cacao beans and mixing them with
water and adding chili, maize, or honey. Sometimes they added flowers,
and consumed the drink cool, not hot. Coriander, sage, and vanilla
(extracted from the pods of orchids) were also favorite additional
flavorings.
Conquistador
Francisco Hernandez sampled a variety of chocolate drinks on his
travels—green cacao pods, honeyed chocolate, flowered chocolate, and a
bright red chocolate made from the huitztexcolli flower. And
according to accounts by the Spanish officers who dined with Montezuma
in 1520 at Tenochtitlan, the king enjoyed drinking chocolate from cups
made of pure gold.
After
the Spanish conquistadors made their mark in the Americas, they
imported chocolate to Europe. Only the wealthy could afford it, and to
keep up with demand, the Spanish fleets enslaved the Mesoamericans
(people of Aztec and Mayan descent) to get them to produce more cacao.
Eventually, the Spanish grew their own beans and used African slaves as
labor.
By
1657, a Frenchman opened London’s first chocolate house. And in 1689,
Dr. Hans Sloane discovered a drink made from chocolate in Jamaica. The
bitter taste didn’t appeal to him, though, so he mixed it with milk. He
sold the powdered chocolate in tins to the Cadbury brothers in 1897 and,
in my humble opinion, the world changed for the better. The Dutch van
Houten family created what is known as “dutched chocolate”—a method that
squeezes out cocoa butter, enabling the chocolate to be set hard in
molds. Yes, history’s very first chocolate bars! But it wasn’t until the
Industrial Revolution that these little bars of joy saw mass production
and became available to the general populace.
A
Mr. Rudolfe Lindt thought adding cocoa butter back into the cocoa mass
of crushed and ground beans might be a good idea. He did this,
lengthened the kneading process, and a velvety smooth and very shiny
type of chocolate was born. Mr. Lindt, you are to blame for those extra
hours I should be pounding the pavement!
So next time you wander into Starbucks for a hot chocolate or a mochaccino,
perhaps pause and give thanks to the clever Mesoamericans for
discovering a little thing that has brought joy to many over the
centuries.
Nice little history here! You did a great job researching. I love chocolate. As a child, we used to go to a French bakery that sold fresh-baked bread and freshly made chocolate eclairs. The eclairs were a treat if we behaved while we got the shopping done. It was a good motivator!
ReplyDeleteOh.... eclairs! One of my very favourite treats. Yes, I can see why it would be a good motivator to behave! Thanks for stopping by, Jenni!
ReplyDeleteAside from the obvious, there is so much to love about this post. Words like 'enslaved', 'velvety' and 'conquistadors' made it well worth eating...er...reading.
ReplyDeleteThanks Alli x