history - food : chocolate history

Chocolate history

"Chocolate was consumed by the Gods in Paradise, and the seed of cocoa was conveyed to man as a special blessing by the God of the Air"
~ Mexican Mythology

recipes from the film Chocolat

Cocoa And The Mayan Civilisation

It was the Maya Indians, an ancient people whose descendants still live in Central America, who first discovered the delights of cocoa as long ago as 600 AD.

The Yucatan Peninsula, a tropical area in what is now Southern Mexico, where wild cocoa trees grew, was where the Maya lived. They harvested cocoa beans from the rain forest trees, then cleared areas of lowland forest to grow their own cocoa trees in the first known cocoa plantations.

A drink called 'chocolatl' made from roasted cocoa beans, water and a little spice, was their most important use but cocoa beans were also valued as a currency.

Because cocoa beans were valuable, they were given as gifts at ceremonies such as a child's coming of age and at religious ceremonies. The Maya had very many complicated religious beliefs with many gods. Ek Chuah, the merchant god, was closely linked with cocoa and cocoa fruits were used at festivals in honour of this god. Merchants often traded cocoa beans for other commodities , cloth, jade and ceremonial feathers.

Maya farmers transported their cocoa beans to market by canoe or in large baskets strapped to their backs. Wealthy merchants travelled further employing porters to carry their wares as there were no horses, pack animals or wheeled carts in Central America at that time. Some ventured as far as Mexico the land of the Aztecs, so introducing them to the much prized cocoa beans.

The Aztec Empire, cocoa and the Emperor Moctezuma

The Aztecs were an ancient nomadic people who founded a great city in the Valley of Mexico in 1325 - Tenochtitlan. This rich prosperous city and its culture were destroyed by the Spanish in 1521, to be later rebuilt by the Spanish conquerors and renamed Mexico City.

'Chocolatl' was consumed in large quantities by the Aztecs as a luxury drink. The Aztec version of this much prized drink was described as 'finely ground, soft, foamy, reddish, bitter with chilli water, aromatic flowers, vanilla and wild bee honey.

Because of their dry climate the Aztecs were unable to grow cocoa trees themselves so they had to obtain supplies of cocoa beans from 'tribute' or trade. 'Tribute' was a form of taxation paid by provinces conquered by the Aztecs in wars.

By the time the Spanish invaded Mexico in the 16th century the Aztecs had created a powerful empire: their armies were supreme in Mexico. Tributes in the form of food, cloth and luxury items such as cocoa beans flowed into Tenochtitlan. The Aztecs were very superstitious; they had many gods and believed that their world was constantly threatened by catastrophe. One god Quetzalcoatl, creator god and provide of agriculture, was particularly associated with cocoa beans. Great temples were built to honour him in Tenochtitlan; Moctezuma, Emperor of Mexico and ruler of the Aztecs in the early 16th century particularly revered him.

Quetzalcoatl is further linked with the story of cocoa and chocolate. An old Mexican Indian myth explains that Quetzalcoatl was forced to leave the country by a chief god, but he was lovingly remembered by his devoted worshippers who hoped that he would return. Until that time they still had his legacy - the cocoa tree. When Don Hernan Cortes, the Spanish conquistador arrived in 1517 with his fleet of galleons, the Aztecs thought that he was Quetzalcoatl returning.

The word "chocolate" is said to derive from the Mayan "xocoatl", cocoa from the Aztec "cacahuatl." The Mexican Indian word "chocolate" comes from a combination of the terms choco ("foam") and atl ("water"). Early chocolate was only consumed in beverage form.

1502 - 04
Christopher Columbus is said to have brought back cacao beans to King Ferdinand from his fourth visit to the New World, but they were overlooked in favour of the many other treasures he had found.

1517
The voyage which led Don Cortes to discover Mexico and the Aztec civilisation began in 1517 when he set sail from Cuba with 11 ships and 600 men, all seeking fame and fortune in the 'New World'. Landing on the Mexican coast near Veracruz, he decided to make his way to Tenochtitlan to see for himself the famed riches of Emperor Montezuma and the Aztec empire.

It was Montezuma who introduced Don Cortes to his favourite drink 'chocolatl' served in a golden goblet. American historian William Hickling's ·History of the Conquest of Mexico· (1838) reports that Montezuma" took no other beverage than the chocolatl, a potation of chocolate, flavoured with vanilla and spices, and so prepared as to be reduced to a froth of the consistency of honey, which gradually dissolved in the mouth and was taken cold." The fact that Montezuma consumed his "chocolatl" in goblets before entering his harem led to the belief that it was an aphrodisiac.

1520
In May 1520 the Spanish attacked a peaceful Aztec festival, Montezuma was killed and by July the Aztecs had forced the Spanish out of the city of Tenochtitlan. After regaining their strength, the Spanish and their allies held the city siege for 75 days and when it fell that marked the end of the Aztec civilisation.

1528
When he returned to Spain in 1528 he loaded his galleons with cocoa beans and chocolate drink making equipment. Soon 'chocolate' became a fashionable drink enjoyed by the rich in Spain. It took nearly a century for the news of cocoa and chocolate to spread across Europe as the Spanish kept it a closely guarded secret.

Once Don Cortes had provided the Spanish with a supply of cocoa beans and the equipment to make the chocolate drink, a Spanish version of the recipe was devised. Monks in monasteries known for their pharmaceutical skills were chosen to process the beans and perfect the drink to Spanish tastes. Cinnamon, nutmeg and sugar were added and the chilli pepper was omitted and it was discovered that chocolate tasted even better served hot. Cocoa beans were in short supply so the special chocolate drink recipe was a closely guarded secret for nearly a century.

English and Dutch sailors, who found cocoa beans in the Spanish 'treasure' ships captured as they returned from 'New World', failed to recognise their importance. The precious beans were thrown overboard by the angry sailors who were reputed to have thought that they were 'sheep's droppings'.

1606
By 1606 chocolate was well established in Italy. An Italian traveller, Francesco Carletti, was the first to break the Spanish monopoly having visited Central America where he saw how the Indians prepared the cocoa beans and how they made the drink.

In the 17th century, the Dutch, who were great navigators, also broke Spain's monopoly of cocoa when they captured Curacao. They not only brought cocoa beans from America to Holland where cocoa was greatly acclaimed and recommended by doctors as a cure for almost every ailment, but also enabled the trade in cocoa beans to spread.

1615
The secret of chocolate was taken to France in 1615 when Anne, daughter of Philip II of Spain married King Louis XIII of France. The French court adopted this new exotic drink with great fervour and it was considered to have medicinal benefits as well as being a nourishing food.

The supply of cocoa beans to the French market greatly improved after 1684 when France conquered Cuba and Haiti and set up their own cocoa plantations.

1646
Chocolate reached Germany probably in 1646 brought back by visitors to Italy. The secret of the aromatic chocolate flavoured drinks finally reached England from France in the 1650s and they became very popular at the court of King Charles II.

1657
The first chocolate house was reputedly opened in London in 1657 by a Frenchman. Costing 10 to 15 shillings per pound, chocolate was considered a beverage for the elite class. Sixteenth-century Spanish historian Oviedo, noted: "None but the rich and noble could afford to drink chocolatl as it was literally drinking money. Cocoa passed currency as money among all nations; thus a rabbit in Nicaragua sold for 10 cocoa nibs, and 100 of these seeds could buy a tolerably good slave."

1660
Marie Therese presents her husband; Louis 14th of France with a wedding gift of chocolate. Louise establishes the title "Royal chocolate maker", the first of which is bestowed on one Monsieur Debauve. (see 1819)

1661
Other fashionable chocolate houses were soon opened where the people could meet their friends to enjoy various rich chocolate drinks, many of which were rather bitter to taste, while discussing the serious political, social and business affairs of the day or gossiping. Samuel Pepys, the famous diarist , wrote of his visits to chocolate houses . . . "Went to Mr Bland's and there drank my morning draft of chocollatte."

Chocolate also appears to have been used as a medicinal remedy by leading physicians of the day. Christopher Ludwig Hoffmann's treatise Potus Chocolate, recommends chocolate for many diseases, citing it as a cure for Cardinal Richelieu's ills.

1662
Louis XIV of France (after consulting with his Jesuit advisors) declares that the drinking of chocolate does not break the fast before Easter. Pope Gregory XIII confirms this.

16??
Thomas Gage writes his story 'Death by Chocolate'

1664
(Eating chocolate was introduced in 1674 in the form of rolls and cakes, served in the various chocolate Emporiums).

1693
The most famous chocolate house was undoubtedly White's Chocolate House, in the fashionable St James Street opened in 1693 by Frances White, an Italian immigrant. The chocolate drinks, served along with ale, beer, snacks and coffee, would have been made from blocks of solid cocoa, probably imported from Spain. A pressed cake from which the drink could be made at home was also sold.

1700s
The first porcelain chocolate cup is produced.

Around 1700 the English improved the drink by adding milk. But by the end of the 18th century London's chocolate houses began to disappear, many of the more fashionable ones becoming smart gentlemen's clubs. White's Chocolate House is to this day a very exclusive gentlemen's club in St James' London.

1723
Louis 15th of France comes to the throne (aged 13). One of his mistress' Madame Dubarry does much to enhance the use of chocolate as an aphrodisiac

1743
Empress of Austria summons Jean Etienne Leotarde to Austria, who was famous for his paintings of woman and/or chocolate. He paints 'La Belle de Chocolatiere', one of the famous paintings of the period, it depicts the chamber maid who used to bring him his morning chocolate. She later is to marry an Austrian Prince.

17??
Mozart immortalises chocolate in his opera 'Cosi van Tutti'.

Swedish naturalist Carolus Linnaeus establishes chocolate's botanical name 'fia broma', Greek for 'Food of the Gods'.

1755
Chocolate arrives in the Americas around this time.

1765
With the Industrial Revolution came the mass production of chocolate, spreading its popularity among the citizenry. Chocolate was introduced to the United States in 1765 when John Hanan brought cocoa beans from the West Indies into Dorchester, Massachusetts, to refine them with the help of Dr. James Baker. The first chocolate factory in the USA was established there. Yet, chocolate wasn't really accepted by the American colonists until fishermen from Gloucester, Massachusetts, accepted cocoa beans as payment for cargo in tropical America.

Where chocolate was mostly considered a beverage for centuries, and predominantly for men, it became recognised as an appropriate drink for children in the seventeenth century. It had many different additions: milk, wine, beer, sweeteners, and spices. Drinking chocolate was considered a very fashionable social event.

1790
German author Goethe, takes chocolate with him to Switzerland because of its rarity in that country.

1819
Descendant of Debauve opens a chocolate shop on the left bank of Paris with his partner Monsieur Gallais. This shop still exists today.

1824
A one-man business opened by a young Quaker, John Cadbury, in Bull Street Birmingham was to be the foundation of Cadbury Limited, now one of the world's largest producers of chocolate. His first advertisement in the Birmingham Gazette on 1st March 1824 presents his new sideline very succinctly:

"John Cadbury is desirous of introducing to particular notice 'Cocoa Nibs', prepared by himself, an article affording a most nutritious beverage for breakfast."

1826
Philip Sucher begins selling chocolate, made with machinery he invented himself. All this because years earlier being made to buy a pound of chocolate for his ailing mother, that cost three days wages.

1828
Dutchman C. J. Van Houton invents a screw press that squeezes out two thirds of the cocoa butter from finely ground cacao beans, thus making cocoa powder, this helps to reduce the price of chocolate. The Dutch made chocolate powder by squeezing most of the fat from finely ground cacao beans. The cocoa butter from the pressing was soon added to a powder-sugar mixture, and a new product, eating chocolate was born.

1847
Frys of England sells the first eatable chocolate bar

1850s
Taxes on imported cocoa beans were reduced by Prime Minister William Gladstone in the mid 1850s, a turning point for the cocoa and chocolate industry which brought these products within the reach of a wider section of the population.

1854
Cadbury Brothers received their first Royal Warrant on February 4 1854 as 'manufacturers of cocoa and chocolate to Queen Victoria' and the company continues to hold Royal warrants of appointment

1866
A turning point for the Cadbury's; with the introduction of a process for pressing the cocoa butter from the cocoa beans. This not only enabled Cadbury Brothers to produce pure cocoa essence, but the plentiful supply of cocoa butter remaining was also used to make new kinds of eating chocolate. This technique enabled Cadbury Brothers to market a new cocoa essence . . . "Absolutely Pure - Therefore Best".

1876
A Swiss firm added condensed milk to chocolate, producing the worlds first milk chocolate. Nestle declares that from 1800 to the present day, these four factors contributed to chocolate's "coming of age" as a worldwide food product:

• The introduction of cocoa powder in 1828
• The reduction of excise duties
• Improvements in transportation facilities, from plantation to factory
• The invention of eating chocolate, and improvements in manufacturing methods

1879
In Berne Switzerland, Rudolph Lindt develops the process known as 'conching', the process we still use today. This process involves heating, cooling and rolling of the chocolate to refine it. This then produced the worlds first real eating chocolate, that would melt in the mouth.

1881
Cadbury received the first overseas, from the Cadbury representative in Australia - long before the world famous Cadbury's Dairy Milk had been developed.

1892
Milton S Hershey decides at the World's Columbus Exposition, USA, to get into chocolate making.

1894
Milton S Hershey produces the worlds first mass produced chocolate bar at an affordable price

1897
Milk chocolate for eating was first made by Cadbury, by adding milk powder paste to the dark chocolate recipe of cocoa mass, cocoa butter and sugar.

1900s
The famous French artist Henri Toulouse le Trec is credited with the invention of chocolate mousse, which was curiously first known as 'mayonnaise de chocolat'

1905
What was to be Cadbury's top selling brand was launched. Three names were considered Jersey, Highland Milk and Dairy Maid. Dairy Maid became Dairy Milk and Cadbury's Dairy Milk with its unique flavour and smooth creamy texture was ready to challenge the Swiss domination of the milk chocolate market.

1913
Jules Suchout develops a process for the making of filled chocolates, thus firmly establishing the Swiss as the Kings of chocolate making.

1914-18
Chocolate is issued to soldiers in the First World War as a form of nourishment.

1916
Cadbury introduces the half-pound deep-lidded box with the traditional purple background and gold script, followed by the one-pound box in 1924.

1925
The New York Cocoa Exchange, located at the World Trade Centre, was begun October 1, 1925, so that buyers and sellers could get together for transactions.

1938
Cadbury's "Roses" launched to compete in the 'twist-wrap' chocolate market

1943-5
Non-family directors were appointed for the first time to Cadbury's.

1962
The whole structure of Cadbury's was reorganised with the formation of a public quoted company - Cadbury Limited.

1969
The merger of the Cadbury Group in 1969 with Schweppes and the subsequent development of the business led to 'Cadbury Schweppes'.

1980
A story of chocolate espionage hit the world press when an apprentice of the Swiss company of Suchard-Tobler unsuccessfully attempted to sell secret chocolate recipes to Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, and other countries.

Chocolate Today

By the 1990s, chocolate had proven its popularity as a product, and its success as a big business. Annual world consumption of cocoa beans averages approximately 600,000 tons, and per capita chocolate consumption is greatly on the rise. Chocolate manufacturing in the United States is a multibillion-dollar industry. According to Norman Kolpas (1978, p. 106), "We have seen how chocolate progressed from a primitive drink and food of ancient Latin American tribes - a part of their religious, commerce and social life - to a drink favoured by the elite of European society and gradually improved until it was in comparably drinkable and, later, superbly edible. We have also followed its complex transformation from the closely packed seeds of the fruit of an exotic tree to a wide variety of carefully manufactured cocoa and chocolate products. Beyond the historical, agricultural and commercial, and culinary sides to chocolate, others: affect on our health and beauty, and inspiration to literature and the arts."

From the three original chests of cacao beans that Cortes exported to Spain in 1519, the world exports in 1977 were 1.5 million metric tonnes, one fifth of which went to the USA. Even with this massive amount the USA only ranks tenth in the world for consumption: 4.5 kg per head per annum, far behind the number one consumers the Swiss with 9.5 kg per annum!

UK food laws are quite specific about what can and cannot be called 'chocolate'. It is any product that is obtained from cocoa nibs, cocoa mass, cocoa, fat-reduced cocoa or any combination of two or more of these ingredients, with or without extracted cocoa butter and sucrose. Chocolate must contain not less than 35% total dry cocoa solids and not less that 18% cocoa butter.

It is the cocoa solids that give the chocolate its rich flavour and the amounts included in the recipe vary with different brands, giving them their own characteristic taste. Milk chocolate may contain a minimum of 14% milk solids or 20% as in Cadbury's Dairy Milk.

There is another range of products popularly referred to as 'cooking chocolates' many of which in fact should be called 'chocolate flavoured cake coverings' because they do not contain cocoa butter. Vegetable fats are used as economic alternatives and this alters not only their taste and texture but also their melting properties.

Chocolate is a recipe product and different traditions and tastes have developed in different countries of the world. Plain chocolate is the most popular on the continent and their chocolate has a higher level of cocoa solids giving it a much stronger flavour. Milk chocolate is the preferred choice in the UK, while the Americans favour dark chocolate with the smoky flavours of South American beans.

Another important difference between the recipe traditions of continental and UK chocolates is the kind of milk used. Continental manufacturers use dried milk powder, often mixed with whey powder while in the UK the very best milk chocolate is made with fresh milk. It is the special flavours produced when fresh milk, cocoa mass and sugar are cooked together in the first stages of the chocolate making process that give Cadbury's Diary Milk its very special taste.

These figures will soon and maybe already have changed, due to the new European laws that restrict what can and cannot be called 'chocolate'. I will update this page with these descriptions as soon as I can track them down.

The information contained here is supplied for your interest only and further research may be required. I have gathered it from many sources over many years. While I attempt to insure they are crossed referenced for accuracy, I take no responsibility for mistakes - additions or corrections are welcomed.

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