History of Chocolate

History

Chocolate comes from the cacao plant, originally evolved in South America. The cacao tree bears large seed pods that contain a white, sweet pulp. Embedded in the pulp are the dark-colored cacao seeds. It is believed that the Olmecs of the southern Gulf coast of Mexico were the first to cultivate the cacao trees. Before 600 BCE, they introduced it to the Maya in the Yucatan peninsula. The Maya then traded it to the Aztecs in the north. The Aztecs roasted and grounded the cacao seeds and made them into a bitter drink that was associated with their religious ceremonies. The seeds were valuable enough that were used as currency.

Europeans first saw the cacao bean around 1502. There are detailed descriptions of cacao and its usage in the New World dating in the early 1500s. According to the History of the New World (1564) by Girolamo Benzoni, the cacao kernels were laid to dry, then roasted and ground, finally mixed with water and other spices (including chili pepper) for a drink that was satisfying without intoxicating. The Aztecs highly esteemed their chocolate drink. According to the English Jesuit Thomas Gage, they also dried the cocoa beans and spices, ground them, heated them to melt and form a paste. Then they allowed the paste to solidify on a leaf, and peeled it off as a chocolate tablet, which they later mixed with atole to make hot chocolate.

By the 1580s, the first chocolate factories were built in Spain. Within 70 years, chocolate was found in Italy, France, and England. The Europeans substituted chili pepper with sugar. By the late 17th century, chocolate houses had begun to serve hot chocolate with milk. By this time, the Spanish had also made chocolate into lozenges, and people were aware that taking the chocolate at night would keep them up, so it was good for soldiers. By the 18th century, chocolate had made its way into many recipes throughout Europe.

Still, chocolate was mainly thought of as a drink, not a solid food. The chocolate paste was coarse and crumbly in texture. It was not until 1828, when Conrad van Houten in Amsterdam developed a hydrolic press that removed more than half of the cocoa butter from the ground bean. He then pulverized the defatted cacao beans to become "cocoa." He treated the cocoa with alkaline salts to make it more water soluble. The result was what we now know as Dutch processed cocoa. Later, he found that the cocoa butter could be added to a paste of ordinary ground chocolate and sugar, and the resulting paste had a smoother texture that allowed for the first solid chocolate. The English firm of Fry and Sons in 1847 introduced the first chocolate that could be eaten, rather than made into a drink.

In 1876, Swiss Daniel Peter used dry milk powder produced by Henri Nestlé to make the first solid milk chocolate. Most chocolate today is consumed as milk chocolate. Two years later, in 1878, Rudolphe Lindt invented the conche, a machine that ground cacao beans, sugar, and milk powder to a much finer consitency, which is the consistency of chocolate consumed today.

The process for making chocolate has not changed that much since the early discoveries in the 19th century.Today, over half of the world cacao is produced in West Africa. Other major producers are Indonesia and Brazil.