English Learning For ESL & EFL students: Chocolate: A Short History

The history of chocolate, and its creation from the beans of the cacao tree, can be traced to the ancient Maya, and even earlier to the ancient Olmecs of southern Mexico.

The cacao plant is believed to have originated in the upper reaches of the Amazon basin and the foothills of the Andes in South-Eastern Ecuador. It is thought that humans first used wild cacao plants by eating the sweet, fleshy pulp (the soft middle) inside the cocoa pod which surrounds the cocoa beans. Evidence suggests that this may have been fermented and served as an alcoholic beverage as early as 3,500BC.

Researchers do not agree on which Central American culture first domesticated the cacao tree, but the first to use fermented cocoa beans rather than the pulp to make a drink seem to have been the Olmecs. The Olmecs lived on the east coast of Mexico and were around between 1600 BC to 400 BC.

Throughout much of its history, chocolate was a bitter drink (like coffee or green tea), not a sweet, rich-tasting treat. But after it became popular with the kings and the rich of Europe and the people of colonial America (around the years 1700 to 1800), chocolate soon evolved into the universally loved food it is today.

Who Invented Chocolate?

Chocolate is made from the fruit of cacao trees, which are native to Central and South America. The fruits are called pods and each pod contains around 40 cacao beans. The beans are dried and roasted to create cocoa beans.

It’s unclear exactly when cacao was first eaten or drunk or who invented it. Ancient Olmec pots and vessels from around 1500 B.C. were discovered with traces of theobromine, the stimulant compound found in chocolate and tea.

It’s thought the Olmecs used cacao to create a ceremonial drink (for religious events, weddings etc.). However, since they kept no written history, opinions differ on if they used cacao beans in their drinks or just the pulp (soft inside part) of the cacao pod.

Mayan Chocolate

The Olmecs undoubtedly passed their cacao knowledge on to the Central American Maya who not only consumed chocolate, they revered (loved) it. (The Mayan civilization was at its greatest from the years 250 to 900.) The Mayan written history mentions chocolate drinks being used in celebrations and to finalize important transactions and ceremonies.

Despite chocolate’s importance in Mayan culture, it wasn’t only for the wealthy and powerful, but was easily available to almost everyone. In many Mayan households, chocolate was enjoyed with every meal. Mayan chocolate was thick and frothy (with bubbles on top) and often combined with chili peppers, honey or water.

Xocolatl

The Aztecs took chocolate love to another level. (The Aztecs were a civilization in central Mexico from 1300 to 1521.) They believed cacao was given to them by their gods. Like the Maya, they enjoyed the caffeinated kick of hot or cold, spiced chocolate beverages in ornate (very nicely decorated) containers, but they also used cacao beans as currency to buy food and other goods. In Aztec culture, cacao beans were considered more valuable than gold.

Aztec chocolate, which they called xocolatl, was mostly an upper-class extravagance, although the lower classes enjoyed it occasionally at weddings or other celebrations.

Spanish Hot Chocolate

There are conflicting reports about when chocolate arrived in Europe, although it’s agreed it first arrived in Spain. One story says Christopher Columbus discovered cacao beans after intercepting a trade ship on a journey to America and brought the beans back to Spain with him in 1502.

No matter how chocolate got to Spain, by the late 1500s it was a much-loved indulgence (something that costs a lot of money that you don't buy often) by the Spanish king and the rich people, and Spain began importing chocolate in 1585. As other European countries such as Italy and France visited parts of Central America, they also learned about cacao and brought chocolate back to their countries.

Soon, chocolate mania spread throughout Europe. With the high demand for chocolate came chocolate plantations, which were worked by thousands of enslaved people.

But Europeans weren’t satisfied with the traditional Aztec chocolate drink recipe. They made their own varieties of hot chocolate with cane sugar, cinnamon and other common spices and flavorings.

Soon, fashionable chocolate houses for the wealthy cropped up throughout London, Amsterdam and other European cities.

Chocolate in the American Colonies

Chocolate arrived in Florida on a Spanish ship in 1641, and it’s thought the first American chocolate house opened in Boston in 1682. By 1773, cocoa beans were a major American colony import and chocolate was enjoyed by people of all classes.

During the Revolutionary War, chocolate was provided to the military as rations (soldier's food) and sometimes given to soldiers as payment instead of money.

(Chocolate was also provided as rations to soldiers during World War II to give them more energy, but the chocolate bars were made to taste "like a boiled potato" so that the soldiers would eat them when they needed energy and not when they just wanted something sweet.)

Cacao Powder

When chocolate first came on the scene in Europe, it was a luxury only the rich could enjoy. But in 1828, Dutch chemist Coenraad van Houten discovered a way to treat cacao beans with alkaline salts to make a powdered chocolate that was easier to mix with water.

The process became known as “Dutch processing” and the chocolate produced called cacao powder or “Dutch cocoa.”

Van Houten supposedly also invented the cocoa press, although some reports state his father invented the machine. The cocoa press separated cocoa butter from roasted cocoa beans to inexpensively and easily make cocoa powder, which was used to create a wide variety of delicious chocolate products.

Both Dutch processing and the chocolate press helped make chocolate affordable for everyone. It also opened the door for chocolate to be mass-produced.

In 1847 the English firm of Fry and Sons combined cocoa butter with chocolate liquor and sugar to produce sweet chocolate—the base of most chocolate confectionary—and in 1876 Daniel Peter of Switzerland added dried milk to make milk chocolate. Many flavored, solid, and coated chocolate foods rapidly followed.