The origins of chocolate, which is derived from the Theobroma cacao tree, stretch back at least 4000 years.
“The True History of Chocolate” describes the origins of the word “cacao” as coming from the Maya of the Yucatan Peninsula and neighbouring Central Americas. The Olmec (from the southern part of Veracruz and Tabasco) are described as being the first to domesticate the plant. The Aztecs apparently regarded cacao as being of divine origin (‘Theobroma’ means ‘food of the gods’). They used the tree’s beans as currency – 100 beans would buy a slave, 12 beans the services of a courtesan and 10 beans a rabbit.
“The True History of Chocolate” describes the origins of the word “cacao” as coming from the Maya of the Yucatan Peninsula and neighbouring Central Americas. The Olmec (from the southern part of Veracruz and Tabasco) are described as being the first to domesticate the plant. The Aztecs apparently regarded cacao as being of divine origin (‘Theobroma’ means ‘food of the gods’). They used the tree’s beans as currency – 100 beans would buy a slave, 12 beans the services of a courtesan and 10 beans a rabbit.
The Maya created what we now know as chocolate by fermenting, drying and roasting the beans and then grinding the kernels to produce cocoa mass (chocolate liquor).
According to a Monograph published in 1891 by Walter Baker and Company and now available as an e-book through Archive.Org, “the first references to the chocolate-plant and its products are found in the accounts of the explorers and conquerors who followed Columbus. These first descriptions of this singular tree, of its fruits and seeds, of its uses and the methods of cultivation, are remarkably accurate in all essential particulars.”
Christopher Columbus is thought to be the first European to carry beans back to Europe (around 1502) but they were as curiosities. The introduction of chocolate to Europe has been traced toDominican Friars who in 1544 took a delegation of Maya to visit Prince Philip in Spain and they carried receptacles of beaten chocolate as gifts.
Chocolate, coffee and tea are believed to have arrived in England at roughly the same time. When Cromwell’s forces captured Jamaica from the Spanish in 1655 there were already flourishing cacao “walks” that lasted until a ‘blight’ caused their demise in the 1670′s. Jamaica was the main supplier of cacao to England during this period.
Initially, many Europeans did not particularly like the Aztec delicacy of “chocolate”- a thick cocoa drink laced with ground chillies and dyed red with annatto to look like blood.
Chocolate drinks were developed in Spain that were seasoned with pepper, vanilla, sugar and cinnamon or mixed with beer or wine. They became such a hit that Spanish society ladies had them served during Mass. When the French latched on to it, they immediately hailed it as a wondrous aphrodisiac and, by slapping heavy taxes on it, further enhanced its status as a drink for the rich and decadent.
It is recorded that Sir Hans Sloane was introduced to cocoa as a drink in Jamaica during his stay in the 1680′s. He apparently found it ‘nauseous’ but by mixing it with milk made it more palatable. He took this chocolate recipe to England on his return where it was manufactured and at first sold by apothecaries as a medicine. Much later, Cadburys manufactured chocolate using Sloane’s recipe.
In 17th and 18th century England, the drink became so popular that chocolate houses threatened the existence of the traditional English pub.
The first commercial chocolate factory in the UK began in Bristol in 1728, owned by Walter Churchman. After the death of Walter and his son Charles, who took over from him, the patent and recipes were purchased by Dr Joseph Fry (around 1761). Fry died in 1787 and the business was then operated by his wife Anna and later by his third son, Joseph Storrs Fry (J.S. Fry).
The first primitive version of the chocolate bar is credited to J.S. Fry and Son, when in 1847 they mixed sugar and cocoa butter with chocolate powder to produce a dry, grainy and not particularly tasty solid slab.
The first primitive version of the chocolate bar is credited to J.S. Fry and Son, when in 1847 they mixed sugar and cocoa butter with chocolate powder to produce a dry, grainy and not particularly tasty solid slab.
Milk chocolate was a much later invention and the eating chocolate of today began in 1876 when Henri Nestleand Daniel Peters added milk and extra sugar to create the world’s first milk chocolate bar.
Later still the American, Milton Hershey became the first to mass produce chocolate when in 1894 he began selling the world’s first Hershey Bar for five cents. For more information on the Hershey story, connect to Hersheys web site
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