Chocolate’s
always been a favorite. The first
recorded use of chocolate dates back to 2000 BC in the Amazon region. The Indians there knew about cocoa from which
chocolate is made. By the sixth century
the Mayas knew about it. They called the
cocoa tree cacahuaquchtl… "tree," and the word cocoa comes from the
Maya word xocoatl which means bitter water.
To the Mayas, cocoa pods symbolized life and fertility. Stones
from their palaces and temples revealed many carved pictures of cocoa pods. In the Yucatan they cultivated the first
known cocoa plantations and referred to cocoa as “food of the gods.”
The Aztecs
took cocoa to a whole new level. They
believed that one of their gods Quetzalcoatl descended from heaven on a beam of
a morning star carrying a cocoa tree stolen from paradise. In both the Mayan and Aztec cultures cocoa
was the basis for a thick, cold, unsweetened drink called xocoatl. They thought that drinking it was good for
you. They even used it as an
aphrodisiac. The Aztecs didn’t have
sugar, so different spices were used to add flavor, including hot chili peppers
and corn meal.
The last
Aztec emperor Montezuma dyed the drink red and drank it out of golden goblets
that were thrown away after one use. (So
wasteful. I’d have taken those goblets
in a snap.) They also used cocoa beans
as money.
When the
Spanish conquistadores came to the New World they encountered cocoa for the
first time, but nobody paid too much attention to it even though they gradually
discovered how much the Indians prized it.
It was the explorer Cortes who figured things out. He mixed cocoa with sugar and other spices,
and a new craze was born.
Europeans
loved it as much as the Indians did. The
first European chocolate factory opened in 1819 in Switzerland, and in 1828 the
Swiss invented the cocoa press which led to reduced prices and helped to
improve the quality of the beverage by squeezing out part of the cocoa butter. This
gave the chocolate smoother consistency and made it taste better.
The British
were the ones who started making solid chocolate in 1830.
A major step
in the evolution of chocolate came in 1875 when Daniel Peter of Switzerland
introduced milk chocolate, thus making Switzerland the chocolate capital of the
world. And in 1913 Jules Sechaud of
Switzerland introduced the process for filling chocolates. Personally, I still think Swiss chocolate is
the best you can buy.
Americans
loved chocolate too. In 1765 the first
American chocolate factory was founded. Did you know that in World War II cocoa beans
were shipped to the soldiers as part of their gear? Today, the government gives them chocolate
bars instead. It just goes to show how
wonderful chocolate is.
Er, could
you excuse me? I want another piece of chocolate cake.
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