Bitter beginnings

The history of chocolate can be traced to the ancient Olmecs of southern Mexico who in turn introduced chocolate to the Mayans. The word chocolate may conjure up images of sweet candy bars and luscious truffles, but the chocolate of today is little like the chocolate of the past. Throughout much of history, chocolate was a revered but bitter beverage, not a sweet, edible treat.

Into the jungle

Thousands of years ago in the rain forests of South America, the Mayan people first began to farm cacao trees. The bright pink flowers of these trees developed into hard pods the size of melons, which held precious cocoa beans.

Some like it hot

The Mayans added crushed cocoa beans to water to make a hot, foamy drink called chocolatl. Chocolatl was very bitter, and often mixed with flavorings like chile or vanilla. Soon the Aztecs from Mexico also started enjoying chocolatl, though they drank it cold.

A Royal Beginning

The Aztecs took chocolate admiration to another level. They believed cacao was given to them by their gods. Given its value and importance, only royalty and upper-class people could drink chocolate. Lower classes enjoyed it occasionally at weddings or other celebrations.

Chocolate coins

The Aztecs used cocoa beans like we use money. Emperor Moctezuma II was said to have more than 960 million beans in his storehouses. When the Spanish conquistadors  first arrived, they had no idea why these beans were so valuable.

Sweetening the deal

Soon these Spanish conquistadors were drinking chocolatl with sugar and sending beans home to Spain. This chocolate drink became popular in Spain as a fashionable treat for the rich. It was even enjoyed by kings and queens! It quickly spread across Europe, and back across the Atlantic Ocean to North America. New technology like the water wheel and steam engine made it easier and cheaper to produce chocolate, and soon everyone could enjoy it.

A Decadent time

The Baroque era was a time of exuberant, twisting, turning, exploding artistic expression. That new, exciting, intriguing concoction from the New World, chocolate, seemed to find its home in this new environment of Europe. Chocolate managed to weave its way into the very fabric of society – starting at the top, and in due course working its way down to cover all of society. The Baroque made it possible.

Trendsetters

In the Baroque, what is fashionable and in taste was defined and determined by those in power or positions of influence. King Philip IV (Spanish House of Habsburg), for example, had chocolate as part of his morning routine – and he was indeed a creature of habit. His habit reinforced the cultural trend of chocolate. Chocolate and the Baroque seemed like a match made in heaven. Without it gaining such a strong foothold in the Baroque, chocolate may not be the popular food that it is today.

Medicine man

Chocolate was believed to have medicinal qualities and was exempted from Friday and Lenten fast requirements. It was believed that chocolate not only was a tasty treat, but also could cure a surprisingly vast array of diseases, maladies, and ailments. However, the death of composer Henry Purcell was blamed on “chocolate poisoning,” a mystery that was memorialised in a dramatic work entitled Henry Purcell: Death by Chocolate.

The Candy man

In the 1840s, a chocolate company in England replaced the water in chocolate with cocoa butter. This oil was pressed from cocoa beans and normally left out of chocolate. The mixture cooled and hardened, creating the first solid chocolate bar! The recipe has changed a lot since then, but we still enjoy chocolate today.