Cacao And Cocoa
Long before a chocolate bar became the go-to snack or indulgence the bitter beans of the cacao trees found in South and Central America offered ancient cultures a treasured and God-given beverage.
For the origin of chocolate, we need to step back in history about 4000 years to the Southern Mexican (Mesoamerican) Olmec people. Cacao beans offered them a ceremonial drink and they believed that it had magical properties.
Each cacao pod carried around forty beans and these were dried, roasted and then possibly ground into a pulp or left whole. Sadly but understandably, there are no surviving records or recipes for their version of hot chocolate.
The earliest proof of cacao consumption by the Olmecs dates back to approximately 1500 B.C. Pots discovered by archaeologists revealed the presence of theobromine, a chemical present in cacao and chocolate.
To clarify, "cacao" is the name given to the cacao bean prior to processing, and "cocoa" is used when it is in a powdered or processed form.
Mayan Chocolhaa & the Aztecs Xocolatl
The chocoholic Olmecs introduced their drink to the Mayans and they loved it so much that they used it for ceremonies and whenever a business deal was sealed. They named it chocolhaa meaning bitter water (https://www.iaf.gov/).
Very quickly, at all levels of Mayan society every meal was accompanied by the drink and the people experimented with the flavour by adding sweet and spicy ingredients to their chocolhaa.
The Aztecs made the Olmecs and the Mayans look tardy in their enthusiasm.
They believed that cacao was a gift from their gods and they named it xocolatl. Ruler Montezuma II (1466-1520) believed that xocolatl was an aphrodisiac and that it gave him an energy boost. Chocolate contains a small amount of caffeine. It was reserved for the great and powerful and he issued xocolatl to his soldiers so that they would perform better in battle.
The wider Aztec population enjoyed it as a special occasion-only drink.
Fun Facts
7.5 million tons of chocolate was consumed around the world in 2022 (damecacao.com).
In 2021 the Swiss ate the most chocolate followed by the Americans and Germans (beantobar.com).
Chocolate Arrives In Europe
The details are sketchy but chocolhaa/xocolatl was introduced to the Europeans during the 16th century. There are three dominant theories:
- It was given to King Philip II of Spain by monks who had visited the Mayans.
- The explorer Christopher Columbus brought it back from the Americas after meeting the Aztecs.
- The Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes acquired some xocolatl from the Aztecs and he travelled home with it.
Once European high society learned of the existence of the bitter beverage its popularity never waned. Chocolate houses appeared in Europe's cities and plantations were established in Central and South America to meet demand. Spain started to import the commodity in 1585.
The chocolate house owners experimented with flavours because the European taste buds preferred a sweeter option. Soon a concoction more similar to today's hot chocolate was created.
The Dutchman Van Houten created powdered chocolate, known as "Dutch cocoa"—note the change of spelling—and this made it more accessible to the less wealthy. It was easier to mix it with water.
Joseph Fry, Henri Nestle and Roldophe Lindt
The American colonies first saw liquid chocolate in 1641 when it arrived on a ship from Europe. The result: More chocolate lovers. By the following century, chocolate formed part of the U.S. Army rations. This was sometimes in lieu of monetary payment.
During the early 19th century chocolate remained a drink but the use of milk became more widespread. The English Quaker Joseph Fry invented the first chocolate bar in 1847. Familiar names like Lindt, Cadburys, Mars and Nestle emerged with a solid product that contained milk in varying quantities.
In the 1870s German-born Henri Nestle was the first to mass produce milk chocolate from his premises in Switzerland.
Chocolate bars were not yet the refined product we enjoy today; chocolate was hard to chew until Swiss chocolatier Rodolphe Lindt pioneered a process that aerated and smoothed out the mixture. He also invented conching, the process of evenly spreading cocoa butter in the chocolate mixture. Modern chocolate was born in 1879. Thank you Herr Lindt.
Milk Chocolate and White Chocolate
Pennsylvanian-born Milton S. Hershey founded his company in 1894 and the U.S. consumer has enjoyed his products since. Today, the U.S. chocolate market is worth $4 billion.
White chocolate was created and produced in large volumes by Henri Nestle during the 1930s. Closer to the original Olmec product, dark chocolate contains antioxidants so that almost makes it a healthy option, but not quite.
Did you know that one chocolate bar contains on average 250kcals so it takes a walk of between 45-55 minutes to burn those calories (based on a 50-year-old).
That said, 21st-century xocolatl is so tempting.
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