The Notorious Side of Chocolate's History

Legend says chocolate is a powerful love potion. History is full of stories about people who put chocolate’s reputation to the test.

• Montezuma supposedly drank 50 cups of chocolate a day. And as if that weren’t enough, he downed an additional cup to increase his stamina before consorting with his female companions.
• Cacao seeds were like cash. In fact, dishonest Aztec merchants are believed to have made counterfeits!
• It’s said that in the 18th century, chocolate was the preferred drink of Cardinals—they even served chocolate while electing a new Pope. In fact, chocolate was rumored to have disguised a poison that killed Pope Clement XIV in 1774.
• Casanova, reportedly the greatest lover who ever lived, was said to have drunk chocolate daily to increase his amorous energy. Supposedly he preferred it over champagne as an aphrodisiac.
• The Marquis de Sade, an author and the inspiration for the term “sadistic,” had his wife send him chocolate in prison. He was even rumored to have thrown a hedonistic party where he served guests chocolate laced with cantharsis (a Spanish fly also believed to induce lust).
• St. Valentine’s Day supported the tradition of sending chocolates to the one you love—the idea being that the candy’s mysterious properties would seduce your beloved’s heart and cause him or her to return your feelings.
• Mass production has made chocolate available to a much wider market. However, in countries where cacao is grown, the value of cacao as an export crop outweighs the sensory delights of eating it.
• And not everyone is in love with chocolate. Most Asian cultures have never really developed a taste for the sweet. In fact, the Chinese eat only one bar of chocolate for every 1,000 consumed by the British.
• In Japan, American soldiers introduced chocolate to the country during World War II. Its popularity is now beginning to rise, and the Japanese consume about 3.75 pounds of chocolate per person a year.

The Legend of St. Valentine
Today, the Catholic Church recognizes at least three martyred saints who bore the name Valentine or Valentinus. On February 14, 273 C.E. [A.D.], the Roman Emperor Claudius II beheaded a priest named Valentine. It seems that Valentine continued to perform marriages in secret after Claudius declared that young soldiers must remain single.

Claudius outlawed marriage because he believed it decreased a man’s zest for battle. One legend says that, while he was in prison, St. Valentine actually sent the first valentine to his jailer’s daughter. Having fallen in love with her, he signed his romantic letter “from your Valentine”—the phrase we still use today.

When picking out a St. Valentine’s Day gift for a loved one next year, you may want to head for the grocery store. Cheddar cheese, salami, and pickled herring all contain more PEA (the chemical connected with emotional highs) than chocolate. During the Middle Ages, Europeans believed that birds chose their mates each year on February 14th. To emulate their feathered friends, people drew lots on this date and let fate decide who their future mates would be.

Will I Live Longer If I Eat Chocolate? Perhaps. A Harvard University study found that men who ate chocolate lived one year longer than those who didn’t. Scientists think that chocolate contains chemicals that help keep blood vessels elastic and increase beneficial antioxidants in the bloodstream, but research is under way and no conclusive results have been found.

“If you are not feeling well, if you have not slept, chocolate will revive you.” Marquise de Sevigne, February 11, 1677

Florence Nightingale, the mother of nursing, considered chocolate a basic ingredient of healthcare. A single bar of dark chocolate contains more than twice as many antioxidants as a bar of milk chocolate. Also, dark chocolate harbors fewer calories than milk chocolate.

Milk chocolate is much higher in unhealthful saturated fats and calories simply because it contains milk. Also, it contains fewer cocoa solids per ounce (and thus fewer antioxidants). In fact, it takes four cacao seeds to make one ounce of milk chocolate and 12 seeds to make one ounce of dark chocolate. About the only health advantage milk chocolate has over dark chocolate is that it contains calcium.

yours truly,
witsanwisdom

European Chocolate History

Cacao Becomes an Expensive European Import Europe’s first contact with chocolate came during the conquest of Mexico in 1521. The Spaniards recognized the value attached to cacao and observed the Aztec custom of drinking chocolate. Soon after, the Spanish began to ship cacao seeds back home. An expensive import, chocolate remained an elite beverage and a status symbol for Europe’s upper classes for the next 300 years. Sweetened chocolate became an international taste sensation. When the Spanish brought cacao home, they doctored up the bitter brew with cinnamon and other spices and began sweetening it with sugar. They managed to keep their delicious drink a Spanish secret for almost 100 years before the rest of Europe discovered what they were missing. Sweetened chocolate soon became the latest and greatest fad to hit the continent. Chocolate was a European symbol of wealth and power. Because cacao and sugar were expensive imports, only those with money could afford to drink chocolate. In fact, in France, chocolate was a state monopoly that could be consumed only by members of the royal court. Like the Maya and the Aztecs, Europeans developed their own special protocol for the drinking of chocolate. They even designed elaborate porcelain and silver serving pieces and cups for chocolate that acted as symbols of wealth and power. Cacao farming required lots of land and workers. Cacao and sugar were labor-intensive agricultural products. To keep up with the demand for chocolate, Spain and many other European nations established colonial plantations for growing these plants. A combination of wage laborers and enslaved peoples were used to create a plantation workforce. yours truly, witsanwisdom

The Beginning History of Chocolate

“Twill make old women young and fresh,
Create new motions of the flesh.
And cause them long for you know what,
If they but taste of chocolate.”

James Wadworth, 1768-1844

Candy bars, milk shakes, cookies, flavored coffee—even cereal and medicine! Chocolate is a key ingredient in many foods. In fact, it ranks as the favorite flavor of most Americans. And yet, few of us know the unique origins of this popular treat. The story of chocolate spans more than 2,000 years and now circles the globe. The tale began in the tropical rainforests of Central and South America where cacao (kah KOW) first grew. Chocolate is made from the seeds of the cacao tree. But the journey from seed to sweet is a long one, spanning many centuries and requiring many processes. So look at the different blog posts and select which tale you’d like to hear first:

Chocolate’s Roots in Ancient Mesoamerica We tend to think of chocolate as a sweet candy created during modern times. But actually, chocolate dates back to the ancient peoples of Mesoamerica who drank chocolate as a bitter beverage. For these people, chocolate wasn’t just a favorite food—it also played an important role in their religious and social lives. The ancient Maya grew cacao and made it into a beverage. The first people clearly known to have discovered the secret of cacao were the Classic Period Maya (250-900 C.E. [A.D.]). The Maya and their ancestors in Mesoamerica took the tree from the rainforest and grew it in their own backyards, where they harvested, fermented, roasted, and ground the seeds into a paste. When mixed with water, chile peppers, cornmeal, and other ingredients, this paste made a frothy, spicy chocolate drink.

The Aztecs Adopt Cacao By 1400, the Aztec empire dominated a sizeable segment of Mesoamerica. The Aztecs traded with Maya and other peoples for cacao and often required that citizens and conquered peoples pay their tribute in cacao seeds—a form of Aztec money. Like the earlier Maya, the Aztecs also consumed their bitter chocolate drink seasoned with spices—sugar was an agricultural product unavailable to the ancient Mesoamericans. Drinking chocolate was an important part of Maya and Aztec life. Many people in Classic Period Maya society could drink chocolate at least on occasion, although it was a particularly favored beverage for royalty. But in Aztec society, primarily rulers, priests, decorated soldiers, and honored merchants could partake of this sacred brew. Chocolate also played a special role in both Maya and Aztec royal and religious events. Priests presented cacao seeds as offerings to the gods and served chocolate drinks during sacred ceremonies.

yours truly,
witsanwisdom

Chocolate's History at a Glance

“So noble a confection, more than nectar and ambrosia, the true food of the gods.”
Dr. Bachot, 1662

Chocolate: A Mesoamerican Luxury Before chocolate was a sweet candy, it was a spicy drink. Some of the earliest known chocolate drinkers were the ancient Maya and Aztecs of Mesoamerica. They ground cacao seeds into a paste that, when mixed with water, made a frothy, rather bitter beverage. Drinking chocolate was an important part of life for the Classic Period Maya and the Aztecs.


Chocolate: A European Sweet Until the 1500s, no one in Europe knew anything at all about the delicious drink that would later become a huge hit worldwide. Spain’s search for a route to riches led its explorers to the Americas and introduced them to chocolate’s delicious flavor. Eventually, the Spanish conquest of the Aztecs made it possible to import chocolate back home, where it quickly became a court favorite. And within 100 years, the love of chocolate spread throughout the rest of Europe.


Chocolate Meets Mass Production and Machinery For centuries, chocolate remained a handmade luxury sipped only by society’s upper crust. But by the 1800s, mass production made solid chocolate candy affordable to a much broader public. To meet the demands of today’s global market, chocolate manufacturing relies on both ancient techniques in the field and new technologies in the factory. New inventions and ingredients improved chocolate’s taste and texture.

The Industrial Revolution witnessed the development of an enormous number of new mechanical inventions and ushered in the era of the factory. The steam engine made it possible to grind cacao and produce large amounts of chocolate cheaply and quickly. Later inventions like the cocoa press and the conching machine made it possible to create smooth, creamy, solid chocolate for eating—not just liquid chocolate for drinking.



Cacao growing hasn’t changed much since ancient times. New processes and machinery have improved the quality of chocolate and the speed at which it can be produced. However, cacao farming itself remains basically unaltered. People grow cacao in equatorial climates all around the world today using traditional techniques first developed in Mesoamerica. Cacao is still harvested, fermented, dried, cleaned, and roasted mostly by hand. We use cacao for more than just making chocolate.

Today, additional steps in the processing of cacao help create a variety of new flavors and forms for chocolate candy. But cacao is more than a source for calories and confections. The chemicals and substances in cacao can be extracted and incorporated into cosmetics and medicines. And the by-products of cacao can be used as mulch or fodder for cattle.

yours truly,
witsanwisdom