A Potted History of Chocolate

 

 

 

Chocolate was discovered, or perhaps, developed by the Olmec in what is today south-east Mexico, and their word, ‘kakawa’ gave us our word, ‘cacao’. Chocolate beans are the seeds of the cacao tree. The Mayans in the central South American rainforests 'inherited' from the Olmec their knowledge ofchocolate and the earliest archaeological evidence of cacao use dates back to almost 3500 BCE in sitesrelated to the Mayo-Chinchipe culture in modern-day Ecuador, although the generally accepted date for the beginning of the history of chocolate is around 1000 BCE when the cacao trees grew wild.  

Mayan farmer with his precious
chocolate implements

The Maya, the first civilisation to include ‘cacao’ in its hieroglyphics, used their cherished chocolate in official ceremonies and religious rituals such as community and religious feasts, weddings, funerals, and also for medical purposes. Both the cocoa and its associated vessels and tools were considered societally precious gifts and objects, so important that cocoa was only allowed for elite male consumption as the stimulating effects of drinking it were considered unsuitable for commoners, women and children. When drunk by the elite at banquets, chocolate was always served at the end of the meal as a digestif.

Achieving the highly-prized
'brown foam''

The Aztecs, following the Mayans, inherited a rich legacy of chocolate-making and consumption from them and other Meso-American societies, and considered their chocolate as gifts from the gods, one of their most precious drinks, luxurious and sensuous, fit only for the elite such as royalty, nobility, priests and the long-distance traders, the pochteca, who were among the society’s aristocrats. Commoners who managed to consume chocolate, would face execution. Cacao had to be transported into central Aztec land instead of grown there, because of the prevalence of seasonal frosts and the pochteca transported cacao across swathes of Aztec territory, carrying 24,000 beans weighing 50/60 pounds on their backs. Most of the beans were imported from Soconusco, conquered by the Aztecs for its cacao; the conquered inhabitants were then required to pay tribute to the Aztec conquerors in cacao. An exception to the ‘no commoners’ rule, was soldiers for whom chocolate ‘pellets’ or wafers formed from ground chocolate, were included in their rations. The Aztecs also offered their chocolate as tributes to the gods whence originated this divine substance.

To make chocolate, the beans were fermented, dried and roasted. The Mayans removed the husks, and pounded the nibs into a paste, with stones [metate] ground against a stone surface [mano] built over a fire. This paste was hardened into solid chunks which were broken up and mixed with water and other ingredients for added flavour, such as flowers, chilli, honey and vanilla, for drinking. When this liquid was heated, a fat called ‘cocoa butter’ rose to the surface and was skimmed off. Before serving, the liquid chocolate was poured between vessels from a height to generate brown foam, an effect believed highly desirable, then some cacao paste was added in an emulsifying process. To determine if the chocolate was high quality, the darkness of the brown foam, the colour of the bubbles and the aroma as well as the actual flavour of the liquid, were considered very important.

Pedro de Alvarado, stylish conquistador, 
by Tomas Povedana

The Spanish conquistadors began to invade South America as early as 1517-19 and waged war on the Aztecs for almost two centuries, until 1697. During this prolonged conflict, Spanish settlers gradually arrived and the knowledge of chocolate and its value as drink and food, was gradually dispersed among them and by association, their compatriots in Spain. It was the Spanish conquistadors who disclosed that the Aztecs used the coffee bean as currency and noted in 1545 that 30 cacao beans could buy a small rabbit; one could buy a large tomato and one hundred could purchase a turkey hen. It was claimed that the stores of Aztec royalty held massive amounts of cacao beans as a treasury.

Christopher Columbus and a replica of one of
his three ships which set sail from Spain in 1502

Even earlier than the arrival of the conquistadors, Columbus and his crew captured a Mayan trading ship off the coast of Southern America in 1502 and they encountered cacao for the first time; he reputedly found the taste, bitter. He assumed the beans were a type of almonds and shipped them back, unknowingly to Spain. Hernan Cortes tried the cacao drink in 1544 and sent the beans back to Spain where his contemporaries too were rather wary of the bitterness of cocoa and added sugar. It was first introduced to the Spanish court where, mixed with sugar, honey, and vanilla, it became the fashionable drink for aristocratic families, 

The Spaniards kept their delicious discovery a secret from the rest of Europe for nearly a century but due to the colonial expansion of the Spaniards and Portuguese, and later the Dutch, chocolate did eventually reach Europe becoming a fad which swept through the continent. In a slight echo of the Mayans' restricted social availability of cacao, only the European nobility and elite could afford the beverage which used two very expensive imports: cacao and sugar! It is interesting to note that although chocolate was all the rage in Europe, it remained only a drink until the 1800’s when the technology of the industrial revolution helped transform chocolate from liquid form into solid bars and mass production made the delicacy affordable to the masses. Spain was one of the countries at the forefront of this industrialization and chocolate has been an important part of their culture and economy for centuries. 

Hot chocolate showed up in a painting for the first time in the 17th century. Here we can see Infanta Maria Josefa of Spain, daughter of the Spanish King Charles III, portrayed with her two favourite things: her puppy, and a fashionable cup of hot chocolate.

Below is a small cavalcade of chocolate-related portraits giving a nod to the centuries-old love affair of Europe and chocolate:

                       Ca'  Rezzonico. 

               La Cioccalato del Mattino

Pietro Longhi

Hot Chocolate
Raimondo Delgrado

 

La Chocolatiere
Jean-Etienne Liotard 1754

Edwardian advertisement

Advertisement 1904

Fry's famous advertisement . Early 20th century

Spanish menu board, Costa del Sol
Contemporary.

Advertising postcard 1910

Cacao in transit; Ivory Coast

Latin America is still known for its high quality chocolate and diverse flavours. In 2022, the regions produced over a million metric tons of cocoa beans with South America producing about 87% of the total. Ecuador is the leading producer in the region and was acknowledged as among the top cocoa prodiucers worldwide on 26th June 2024.

Aftertaste:

The reason for this potted history of chocolate is simply that I recently overheard a small child asking his mother in Abbeygate Street, 'Has chocolate always been here?' Even for a curious toddler, this was a profound query! And I sympathised with the mother's vague assurances that she thought it probably had as I began to wonder if indeed chocolate HAD always been around. I now notice from my small research that there is even a number of books on the topic covering around 1000 years of history. Which is as near to dammit to 'always'.

Research.