My Account Of The History Of Chocolate The Shortened Version.
The history of chocolate starts with the cocoa tree which is native to the forests of South and Central America and grows to approximately 20 foot high.
This quite delicate tree starts to produce fruit in its 4th to 5th year. Large red or yellow pods encase a white pulp that hides its treasure of anywhere between 20 to 50 cocoa beans.
The cocoa bean was cultivated for centuries by the Maya Indians, the Mexican Aztecs and the Incas of Peru where they had ceremonial significance and were associated with the festivities of births and marriages. They were often used as money or a tribute at these events. In some areas only those of the highest ranking could enjoy the wonderful drink boiling these beans could produce.
When the Spanish conquered Mexico in 1519 they were so taken with this chocolaty drink (although they did add sugar to sweeten the taste) they introduced these trees to Trinidad where they closely guarded their secret s of cultivation and preparation. It wasn’t long however before the trees spread to the West India Islands and The Philippines’. The Dutch are believed to have introduced them into Indonesia, Sri Lanka and the Gull fog Guinea, South America however remained the chief exporter and producer until 1891.
In the Seventeenth century the drink was introduced to the noblemen and women of the courts of Spain, Italy, Germany, France and England. Chocolate still remained an expensive luxury even though the secret to its preparation was no longer a secret. When the first chocolate house was opened in London in 1657, the cost of a pound of chocolate was more than 6 months wages putting it way out of your average 17th century Londones price bracket and making it exclusive to the very wealthy. This was due to the heavy import duty imposed on cocoa beans.
Both drinking and eating chocolate are relatively new inventions that were developed during the 19th century. The chocolate of today was not produced until a Dutchman discovered how to press the cocoa butter out of the beans.
The pressed beans could then produce a much less fatty drinking chocolate that was much more palatable than the rich buttery drink the Aztecs had made centuries earlier. The cocoa butter could then be used to make eating chocolate. In 1847 these techniques were perfected by J.S. Fry and the delicious bit of bliss that we know today as chocolate went on sale for the first time.
Now while the chocolate recipe is all very interesting, does it really matter to those of us who just want to gorge ourselves on the sweet creamy taste, how it got here. Or just that it did. The weird thing about history is that it changes all the time and while most things get better and progress naturally forward, Why is there always someone that wants’ to screw with a good thing. Something weird is happening to chocolate, it’s progressing and getting politically correct, it’s getting better for us while losing its delicious taste.
Chocolate doesn’t have a hard job to do, it doesn’t have to fund the cure for cancer or date Britney Spears it just has to tantalize our taste buds and make us smile as we swallow.
Chocolate lovers all over the world it’s time to pick up your chocolate molds get out of your chocolate fountain and put down your chocolate cake (only for a minute you can pick it up again as soon as we’ve made our point,) and tell the chocolate makers NO! We don’t want anymore inferior chocolate; we don’t want the no-name, no frills, sugar-free, low calorie, low fat, carob chocolate.
We want our Cadbury’s, Lindts, Hershey’s, Mars and all those other fine quality chocolates tasting as creamy, rich, and delectable as they should. After all History teaches us to learn by our mistakes and you can’t improve on perfection!
