For a food that seems so familiar, most of us know surprisingly
little about the real origins and history of chocolate. I counted
myself in this group until very recently when I picked up a copy of a
book titled 'The True History of Chocolate", by Sophie D. Coe and
Michael D. Coe. Published in 1996, it's 268 pages of meticulously
researched, fascinating facts and "speculation" about the origin and
development of the food we call chocolate.
I wonder how many of us
would even recognize a cacao pod if one happened to fall on our head?
Of course, such an event is highly unlikely unless one happens to be in a
very small number of places in certain regions of the world. The cacao
tree simply refuses to grow outside of a very narrow range of latitudes
and weather conditions. Another crucial factor in the successful
cultivation of the tree is making sure that the right insects are around
to pollinate the flowers, a fact that wasn't known when some early
attempts were made to transplant the trees.
As the authors
mention, if you hold a cacao pod in one hand and a piece of chocolate in
any form in the other, you would never suspect that the one was made
from the other. In fact, for nine-tenths of its long history, chocolate
was drunk, not eaten. Consumption of solid chocolate by the masses is a
relatively recent development. So how did chocolate get from the
forests of Central America, where it began as drink for the royal courts
of the Maya in the Yucatan Peninsula, to your pantry in the form of a
Hershey Bar? Seems like a long trip, doesn't it? Furthermore, why is
chocolate thought of a product of Switzerland? How did the Swiss manage
to dominate the chocolate world? Can you think of two more different
environments than the jungles of the Yucatan and the Swiss Alps?
The
story is more fascinating than you can imagine and involves Columbus,
the Conquistadors, the fall of the Aztec Empire, the French Revolution
and the Industrial Revolution, and last but not least, Milton Snavely
Hershey.
When first introduced to Europe, chocolate was only for
the nobles, who endlessly debated it nutritional and medicinal
properties. In fact, because of the dominance of the Catholic Church,
long debates were held as to whether or not chocolate was actually a
food and whether, as such, eating it broke the fasting rules in place at
the time.
The generally accepted first meeting between Europeans
and the cacao bean took place in 1502 when Columbus anchored off the
island of Guanaja, north of mainland Honduras. It was his fourth
voyage, and he unfortunately died without ever tasting chocolate.
What
followed was the Spanish conquest of Central America and the eventual
return of cacao to Europe where it did not actually receive rave
reviews. But the story is long one, and to get all the details, pick up
a copy of the book. It's a wonderful story, a great history lesson,
and may leave you with the desire to sample not just Hershey Bars, but
some of the other more "exotic" chocolate products that are available
these days.
Note: You may freely publish the above article in any way you wish, as long as the author's name and links are left intact.
Pete Cullen runs the website [http://www.for-chocolate-lovers-only.com]
