The Surprising History of Chocolate

Chocolate. Chocolate is… well, it hardly needs any introduction. The world loves chocolate. Over 4 million metric tons of cocoa are produced worldwide each year for consumption in countless forms. But, what is chocolate? What are its origins, how was it made, and how did it spread across the world? What are the differences, furthermore, between terms like chocolate, Ladies and gentlemen, hello and welcome to Fire of Learning's History of Food and Agriculture series. Thank you for joining us in this episode as we look at the origins of chocolate. Before we begin, I'd like to thank Daniel Gariano, Saucio Vinicius Costa, Dr. Indiana Bones, may he never be forgotten, James Abercrombie, Charles Rigsby, Lethal Husky, Katie Burt, Riley, and Peter Andrew Mitchell for being my most recent supporters on Patreon. They join these supporters, listed here, who help to make videos like this possible. Now then, let's get to it. Where does chocolate come from, in the first place? Chocolate is made from the seeds, or beans, found within the fruity pods of cacao trees, through a process on which we will elaborate later. Searching for the origin of these cacao trees takes us to the Americas. The specific time and place in which cacao trees were domesticated is a debated topic, but recent evidence points to northern South America, as early as 3300 BC. The Mayo Chinchipe culture of Ecuador appears to have been one of, if not the first society to domesticate the trees and establish the human relationship with chocolate. Over time cacao cultivation spread northward, eventually reaching Mesoamerica. The beans were traded even further, possibly at one point as far north as modern day Utah. The civilizations of Mesoamerica would play a major role in further developing the cultivation and consumption of cacao beans. Cacao beans would be consumed by the Olmecs, an ancient and mysterious civilization which began to flourish around 1500 BC in modern day Mexico. The cacao beans they grew and harvested were likely normally ground and used in drinks. Indeed, consuming chocolate in drink form was the norm throughout pre-Columbian history. Many centuries later, the Maya and Aztec civilizations would inherit the Olmec love for cacao and the drinks made from it. From the beginning, cacao seems to have been highly prized by these societies. The Maya placed a special, partly religious significance on cacao. It appears to have been consumed especially during major events, such as feasts, marriages, and religious ceremonies, including human sacrifices. It was often offered as a tribute to great figures, both living and as funerary offerings. The value that was placed on cacao beans was such that they were even possibly used as one of a number of different currencies in Mayan society by around 700 AD. The Aztecs also placed religious significance on chocolate, used chocolate as a medicine, and even also used the beans as a currency. One had to keep a close eye out on the markets of Tenochtitlan, however, as there are believed to have been counterfeit cacao beans in circulation. However, unlike the Maya, the Aztec homeland did not have a suitable climate for growing cacao trees. It was thus demanded and imported as tribute from tributary states in the south of the Aztec empire, and then stored in great warehouses in Tenochtitlan. At one point, the annual tribute is recorded to have reached about 24 tons. The drink, being practically liquid money, was also generally only available for the elites in Aztec society. However, soldiers and priests were allowed to drink it as well. The chocolate drinks of these Mesoamerican societies were not very similar to something like the chocolate milk or hot cocoa with which many of us are familiar today. They were often sugarless and bitter drinks, frothing with foam and mixed with things like chili peppers, vanilla, various kinds of flowers, and cornmeal, although honey may have been added at times. Because of this value and ubiquity, when Europeans reached the Americas, it did not take them long to discover the magnificent beings that indigenous Americans had discovered long ago. Christopher Columbus and his crew appear to have first encountered them on his fourth voyage in 1502, in the Bay Islands off the coast of Central America. His son Ferdinand later wrote about their encounter, saying quote, as if an eye had fallen from their heads, end quote. Almonds of course are the closest thing which he knew of to compare them to. However, it does not appear that much actually came from this encounter. In fact, chocolate does not seem to have been well received by Europeans at first. However, it would slowly grow on the Spanish as they colonized chocolate consuming areas. Likely, the first time Europeans actually drank chocolate was in 1519, when the Spaniards, under the conquistador Hernán Cortés, reached Tenochtitlan. When exactly it took off in Spain itself is a bit of a mystery. There are a number of myths and possible introduction points, but regardless, it is known to have been introduced by 1544 at the latest, when Bartolomé and a group of Dominican friars and Guatemalan Mayans included it in their gifts to the future king Philip II. Chocolate would become quite popular throughout Spain and its empire, though much like in Aztec society, only the upper classes could afford to consume it on a regular basis. Also like the Aztecs, the plant would not grow in Spain itself, and so chocolate had to be The Spanish would imitate the original Mesoamerican culinary practices, but quickly began adding new things to the drink, like sugar, which was likely key in popularizing it. From the Spanish, it would be introduced to the rest of Europe. Europeans would also begin to add things like milk and sometimes cinnamon as well. Chocolate would usually be consumed as a drink until the although it was sometimes mixed into solid foods like cakes and cookies. It was also believed to have medicinal properties, said to aid especially in providing energy and improving digestion. Before we continue with the history, we must ask, how is chocolate even made, and why are there multiple terms applied to it? Cacao beans grow inside American football-shaped pods produced by cacao trees. The beans are surrounded by a white pulp, which is also edible and tastes somewhat like citrus. The pulp in fact has probably been consumed in a variety of ways as long as cacao beans have, maybe longer. The process used to make chocolate from cacao beans throughout history is similar to the process used today. The beans were taken from the pods and left out to ferment to improve their flavor. The beans were then dried, roasted, and shelled, and the remaining part, called the nibs, were ground into a kind of cacao paste. What is the difference between cacao, cocoa, and chocolate? There is actually no universal agreement. However, generally the word cacao refers to the plant, Theobroma cacao, and the raw beans or seeds inside cacao fruit. Meanwhile, cocoa refers to cacao beans after they have been fermented or roasted, depending on who you ask, and the products made from these beans, especially cocoa powder. It would seem English is the only language that has separate words for cacao and cocoa. Indeed, cocoa was probably just an early misspelling of cacao that became rationalized. Chocolate is defined as anything made from cocoa beans. The word cacao comes from the Nahuatl word kakawot. The word Theobroma is Greek for food of the gods. By the 17th century, chocolate had reached most of Europe, and Europeans were taking quite a liking to it, those who could afford it anyway, as it remained somewhat expensive. As such, consuming chocolate remained mostly a habit of the upper classes. Louis XIV drank hot chocolate in Versailles while his enemies, William III and Mary II of England, had a chocolate kitchen devoted to the drink constructed in the Hampton Court Palace. However, throughout the 17th century and into the 18th century, prices would fall and chocolate would become somewhat more available to the general public. This happened as Europeans, the Portuguese, British, French, and Dutch in particular, pursued the expansion of their colonial empires. They would join Spain in growing cacao in their territories in the Americas and East Indies. These cacao plantations were often worked by slaves brought in from Africa. This increased availability, although it still wasn't nearly as cheap as it is today. Not only would chocolate be sold at European coffee houses throughout the Western world, but chocolate houses themselves opened as well in cities like London, Boston, and Amsterdam. Chocolate houses were much like their coffee house equivalents, in that they were intended as places where upper class men in particular could gather to gamble, relax, and converse about the various subjects of their age while consuming a stimulating beverage. Chocolate was more expensive and has less caffeine than coffee and tea, however, which is likely primarily why the latter two surpassed it in popularity, even before it became viewed as a treat. Not everyone agreed with that trend, however. Thomas Jefferson wrote to John Adams in 1785 saying, quote, by getting it good in quality and cheap in price, the superiority of chocolate, both for health and nourishment, will soon give it the same preference over tea and coffee in America which it has in Spain, end quote. It is not known exactly when chocolate was introduced to China, but there is a record of a papal envoy giving some to the Kangxi emperor in the early 18th century as a gift. However, the emperor is reported to have disliked it. The details of chocolate's introduction to China are overall murky, but it seems the expensive drink of outsiders failed to compete with tea, which was already well established there. Like many agricultural products, we have the industrial revolution to thank for chocolate's modern ubiquity. Not only would advances in technology during this age allow chocolate to become more easily produced and transported, but it allowed chocolate to take many novel forms. Chocolate would not be as we understand it today without the work that was done on it in Europe in the 19th century. The more natural chocolate consumed throughout history is more bitter than what we In 1815, a Dutch chemist named Conrad Johannes van Houten addressed this issue by adding alkaline salts to cocoa. This also allowed the cocoa to mix more easily with water. This alkalized cocoa is known as Dutch cocoa. In 1828, not he, who is usually credited, but his father, Casparus van Houten, invented a process by which roughly half the fat, or cocoa butter, is removed from the cocoa nibs. What remained was then pulverized into cocoa powder. These innovations were fundamental to the creation of the chocolate varieties we see all around us today. Less than two decades later, in 1847, the company J.S. Fry and Sons in England built on this when they discovered that this cocoa powder could then be mixed with sugar and then have cocoa butter re-added to it to create moldable solid chocolate. They are often credited with giving birth to the inevitable result of this combination, the first chocolate bar, though there were other forms of solid chocolate that predate this. In 1779, the famous imprisoned French nobleman, the Marquis de Sade, wrote to his wife requesting cookies with chocolate on the inside of them that, quote, must smell of chocolate, as if one were biting into a chocolate bar, end quote. What these chocolate bars he mentioned were, exactly, appears to be unknown, but it is noteworthy that this mention of chocolate bars, intended to be bitten into specifically, predates even the van Houtens by about 50 years. In 1875, these innovations were followed by the invention of milk chocolate in Switzerland by Daniel Peter, with the assistance of Henri Nestlé, the founder of the modern company Nestlé, by adding powdered milk to cocoa. Dark chocolate is the name given to chocolate that has not had milk added to it, or in the modern world at least, not much. And while we're at it, white chocolate is made only from cocoa butter, sugar, and milk solids, without cocoa solids. White chocolate seems to be the most controversial member of the chocolate family, with some going so far as to argue that, because of the absence of cocoa solids, it isn't even real chocolate. I myself am in the middle. I like white chocolate, but wouldn't go out of my way for it. Although I will say, white chocolate on scrambled eggs with mustard is quite good. Give it a try. In 1879, Swiss chocolate maker, Rodolf Lindt, invented the conching machine, which improved the texture and taste of chocolate. In 1900, Hershey's began producing their own chocolate bars in Pennsylvania. American chef, Ruth Graves Wakefield, created the Toll House cookie in 1938, which was the first known chocolate chip cookie. During the Second World War, chocolate was rationed and provided to the soldiers of many nations by their governments. Once the war was over, however, chocolate was allowed to explode into the grand variety we see today. Today, chocolate remains as popular as ever, with, as mentioned, over 4 million tons being produced worldwide each year. The top three producers are the Ivory Coast, Ghana, and Indonesia, with about 75% of the world's chocolate coming from West Africa overall. Working conditions in many chocolate producing countries are not always ethical, with slavery and child labor still being used in certain locations to produce it. And there we have it. Chocolate. A delightful substance with a complex history. I hope you enjoyed this video. If so, I invite you to come check out the rest of Fire of Learning, and to subscribe to see more videos like this in the future. To support the channel, you may make a donation through Patreon, the link to which is in the description. A special thanks to my current patrons, once again listed here. I also run a science channel much like this called Lucinox, so if that sounds interesting, be sure to check that out too. Thank you for watching.