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