What is cocoa?
Cacao is a tree that grows in a narrow strip around the earth’s equator. This characteristic limits its origins to certain areas of Mesoamerica.
When its flower is pollinated, it gives rise to a pod of twenty centimeters long that develops inside between thirty and forty reddish-brown beans that are immersed in a whitish and viscous pulp with a slightly sweet flavor.
It is a very robust and resistant fruit. Its alkaloid content in the cocoa beans gives them a bitter taste, and therefore very unpalatable to animals wishing to feed on them. However, the pulp inside the pods surrounding the seeds is sweet and has a pleasant texture.
The drink of the Gods
Theobroma cacao, from the Greek “theo”, God, and “broma” food, i.e. “food of the Gods” is the scientific name given to the cacao tree.
Although today the origin of cocoa remains a mystery, according to Aztec mythology, the god Quetzalcoatl (in the Nauhtl language, “Feathered Serpent”) became a man and came down from paradise to transmit wisdom to men, bringing them a gift: the cocoa plant (cacahuaquahitl) that he had stolen from the gods, who jealously guarded it because from it they obtained a drink that they believed was only meant for them.
Quetzalcoatl planted the tree and taught humans how to obtain chocolate. The other gods did not forgive him for making a divine food known to men and banished him.
Quetzalcoatl entrusted the secret of the tree’s location to his wife, who preferred to sacrifice her life rather than reveal the place where the city’s treasure was hidden.
When the princess died, her blood fertilized the land where she fell dead and by Quetzalcoatl’s express wish, cocoa trees were born there, whose fruit was “bitter like the suffering the princess had endured for love, strong like the virtue she had displayed in adversity and slightly red like the blood she had shed”.
The proto-chocolate
The first to cultivate the cacao tree were the Olmecs (1500 to 400 B.C.) who called it kakaw (“kaj” means bitter and “kab” means juice).
The Olmecs ground the cocoa beans mixed with water and savored the delight of the seed in the form of a drink that was reserved for the upper classes. As time went by, the cocoa culture spread to the Mayan (600 B.C.) and Aztec (1400 B.C.) populations. At that time, the cocoa bean was used as a monetary and measuring unit.
It was drunk at cold, warm or hot temperatures and there are indications that they also used the fresh bean and the white pulp that surrounds it in slightly alcoholic fermented beverages. To produce the foam, the prepared chocolate was poured from shoulder height into a container placed on the floor.
It was not until 1519 that the “brown gold” caught the attention of Hernán Cortés, who after having tasted it at the side of the Aztec emperor Moctezuma, who received it as a deity, would take it to the Spanish Court years later, almost a century before tea and coffee were known.
Chocolate conquers Europe
Chocolate conquers EuropeThe country that first welcomed chocolate after Spain was Italy, as some Italian regions were under Spanish rule.
France welcomed chocolate introduced from Spain.
It spread rapidly throughout the French aristocracy. In the publication of L’Encyclopédie by Denis Diderot (1751-1772), the process of making and tasting chocolate is already mentioned.
The first European chocolatier saga appeared in Paris: the Menier family created Chocolat Menier in 1856, a company that expanded throughout Europe and America.
In 1727, the English gentleman Nicholas Sanders produced a mixture of chocolate and milk for Hans Sloane in Jamaica.
In 1641, Johan Georg Volkmer travels from Naples to Germany and transports cocoa for the first time. Knowledge of cocoa in the Netherlands comes through German influence. Their eagerness to dominate the market soon led them to dispute the maritime cocoa routes with Spain. Already in the 18th century, the port of Amsterdam was the second largest cocoa port after the Spanish ports.
Worldwide dissemination of chocolate
In the middle of the 19th century, chocolate solidifies, offering a new aspect. Solid chocolate has a melting point close to body temperature, causing it to melt in the mouth and thus providing a new textural sensation.
The European craze for chocolate became known in the United States after the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations in London in 1851. Prior to that, chocolate was imported from Europe. The introducer of chocolate prior to this event was an Irish immigrant, John Hannon. In 1770, Hannon had acquired cocoa beans from international trade and began processing chocolate in Massachusetts.
The production would eventually become the Baker’s Cocoa factory, which became popular with an advertising icon in 1883: a girl offering chocolate on a tray.
Chocolate arrived in China at the beginning of the 17th century thanks to the transmission of Christian missionaries: Spanish Jesuits and Franciscans. Large-scale commercial introduction to China took place via trade routes (such as the Silk Road) and through the major ports of Asia (via the Philippines). The incorporation of chocolate into Japanese culinary customs is later, dating from the end of the 19th century.
