All About Chocolate

Chocolate’s History at a Glance
The tasty secret of the cacao (kah KOW) tree was discovered 2,000 years ago in the tropical rainforests of the Americas. The pods of this tree contain seeds that can be processed into chocolate. The story of how chocolate grew from a local Mesoamerican beverage into a global sweet encompasses many cultures and continents.
The first people known to have made chocolate were the ancient cultures of Mexico and Central America. These people, including the Maya and Aztec, mixed ground cacao seeds with various seasonings to make a spicy, frothy drink.
Later, the Spanish conquistadors brought the seeds back home to Spain, where new recipes were created. Eventually, and the drink’s popularity spread throughout Europe. Since then, new technologies and innovations have changed the texture and taste of chocolate, but it still remains one of the world’s favorite flavors.
Chocolate’s Roots in Ancient Mesoamerica
We tend to think of chocolate as a sweet candy created during modern times. But actually, chocolate dates back to the ancient peoples of Mesoamerica who drank chocolate as a bitter beverage.
For these people, chocolate wasn’t just a favorite food—it also played an important role in their religious and social lives.
The ancient Maya grew cacao and made it into a beverage.
The first people clearly known to have discovered the secret of cacao were the Classic Period Maya (250-900 C.E. [A.D.]). The Maya and their ancestors in Mesoamerica took the tree from the rainforest and grew it in their own backyards, where they harvested, fermented, roasted, and ground the seeds into a paste.
When mixed with water, chile peppers, cornmeal, and other ingredients, this paste made a frothy, spicy chocolate drink.
The Aztecs adopted cacao.
By 1400, the Aztec empire dominated a sizeable segment of Mesoamerica. The Aztecs traded with Maya and other peoples for cacao and often required that citizens and conquered peoples pay their tribute in cacao seeds—a form of Aztec money.
Like the earlier Maya, the Aztecs also consumed their bitter chocolate drink seasoned with spices—sugar was an agricultural product unavailable to the ancient Mesoamericans.
Drinking chocolate was an important part of Maya and Aztec life.
Many people in Classic Period Maya society could drink chocolate at least on occasion, although it was a particularly favored beverage for royalty. But in Aztec society, primarily rulers, priests, decorated soldiers, and honored merchants could partake of this sacred brew.
Chocolate also played a special role in both Maya and Aztec royal and religious events. Priests presented cacao seeds as offerings to the gods and served chocolate drinks during sacred ceremonies.
Cacao Becomes an Expensive European Import
Europe’s first contact with chocolate came during the conquest of Mexico in 1521. The Spaniards recognized the value attached to cacao and observed the Aztec custom of drinking chocolate. Soon after, the Spanish began to ship cacao seeds back home.
An expensive import, chocolate remained an elite beverage and a status symbol for Europe’s upper classes for the next 300 years.
Sweetened chocolate became an international taste sensation.
When the Spanish brought cacao home, they doctored up the bitter brew with cinnamon and other spices and began sweetening it with sugar.
They managed to keep their delicious drink a Spanish secret for almost 100 years before the rest of Europe discovered what they were missing. Sweetened chocolate soon became the latest and greatest fad to hit the continent.
Chocolate was a European symbol of wealth and power.
Because cacao and sugar were expensive imports, only those with money could afford to drink chocolate. In fact, in France, chocolate was a state monopoly that could be consumed only by members of the royal court.
Like the Maya and the Aztecs, Europeans developed their own special protocol for the drinking of chocolate. They even designed elaborate porcelain and silver serving pieces and cups for chocolate that acted as symbols of wealth and power.
Cacao farming required lots of land and workers.
Cacao and sugar were labor-intensive agricultural products. To keep up with the demand for chocolate, Spain and many other European nations established colonial plantations for growing these plants.
A combination of wage laborers and enslaved peoples were used to create a plantation workforce.
Chocolate Meets Mass Production and Machinery
For centuries, chocolate remained a handmade luxury sipped only by society’s upper crust. But by the 1800s, mass production made solid chocolate candy affordable to a much broader public.
To meet the demands of today’s global market, chocolate manufacturing relies on both ancient techniques in the field and new technologies in the factory.
New inventions and ingredients improved chocolate’s taste and texture.
The Industrial Revolution witnessed the development of an enormous number of new mechanical inventions and ushered in the era of the factory. The steam engine made it possible to grind cacao and produce large amounts of chocolate cheaply and quickly.
Later inventions like the cocoa press and the conching machine made it possible to create smooth, creamy, solid chocolate for eating—not just liquid chocolate for drinking.
Cacao growing hasn’t changed much since ancient times.
New processes and machinery have improved the quality of chocolate and the speed at which it can be produced. However, cacao farming itself remains basically unaltered.
People grow cacao in equatorial climates all around the world today using traditional techniques first developed in Mesoamerica. Cacao is still harvested, fermented, dried, cleaned, and roasted mostly by hand.
We use cacao for more than just making chocolate.
Today, additional steps in the processing of cacao help create a variety of new flavors and forms for chocolate candy.
But cacao is more than a source for calories and confections. The chemicals and substances in cacao can be extracted and incorporated into cosmetics and medicines. And the by-products of cacao can be used as mulch or fodder for cattle.
A Mesoamerican Luxury
Before chocolate was a sweet candy, it was a spicy drink. Some of the earliest known chocolate drinkers were the ancient Maya and Aztecs of Mesoamerica.
They ground cacao seeds into a paste that, when mixed with water, made a frothy, rather bitter beverage. Drinking chocolate was an important part of life for the Classic Period Maya and the Aztecs.
Take a more detailed look below at the different ways the Maya and Aztec people obtained, made, and used cacao.
An Ancient Mayan Crop
Many anthropologists consider the ancient Maya to be the first people to have made chocolate. The first evidence of chocolae in glyphs and actual remains in ancient vessels come from the height of Mayan civilization, the Classic Period (250-900 C.E. [A.D.]).
The Maya shared a common culture and traded with each other over long distances. Their territory covered the countries that we know today as southern Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, and part of El Salvador.
Obtaining Cacao—
The Maya grew it.
Ancient Maya artifacts often show people collecting cacao for chocolate.
Archaeologists aren’t sure exactly how the Maya first learned the tasty secret of cacao—a tree that grew in the tropical rainforests of their homeland.
But one thing is for sure: chocolate was a treasured Maya treat. Many Maya artifacts are painted with scenes of people pouring and enjoying chocolate.
The ancient Maya grew cacao in their own backyards.
In 1976, a bulldozer unearthed an ancient Maya village in El Salvador. There, archaeologists found the remains of cacao gardens near Maya homes. Many clay dishes also contained preserved cacao seeds.
Apparently, the Maya people valued chocolate so much that they gathered cacao seeds from rainforest trees and planted cacao in household gardens.
Making Chocolate—
The Classic Period Maya made chocolate into a spicy drink.
The Maya of this period probably processed cacao much like we do today.
After gathering the cacao pods, people would have to ferment and dry the seeds found inside. Then, they would roast these seeds in a griddle held over a fire.
Next, the shells would have to be removed and the seeds ground into a paste by crushing them with a small stone (called a mano [MAH no]) against a large stone surface (called a metate [meh TAH tay]).
Maya chocolate was a frothy, bitter drink.
The ancient Maya didn’t eat their chocolate; they drank it. First, they ground cacao seeds into a chocolate paste that they mixed with water, chile peppers, cornmeal, and other ingredients.
Then, they poured this bitter concoction back and forth from cup to pot until it developed a thick foam on top. (Sugar wasn't available in Mesoamerica, so any sweetener probably came from a bit of honey or flower nectar.)
Using Chocolate—
Maya people of all ranks drank chocolate for social and Religeous reasons
Chocolate found favor with rich and poor alike.
Among the ancient Maya from the Classic Period, everyone—no matter their status—could occasionally enjoy a chocolate drink. But the wealthy drank their chocolate from elaborate vessels decorated by specially trained artists.
In fact, the paintings on these vessels tell us much about chocolate’s place in Maya life. Some show images of kings, or even gods and animals, drinking chocolate.
Maya writing tells us much about chocolate’s use.
We know these containers held chocolate because the written symbols painted on them say so. These symbols, called "glyphs," are actually the Maya written language. The word for chocolate has its own special glyph.
In addition, Maya historical documents typically contain both pictures and glyphs and reveal much about chocolate’s role in society.
Cacao and chocolate were used for ceremonial purposes.
A particular favorite of Maya kings and priests, chocolate played a special part in royal and religious events. Maya couples even drank chocolate as part of their betrothal and marriage ceremonies.
The Maya believed that one of the most sacred offerings was that of blood. Images from ancient religious text sometimes show Maya priests dripping a blood offering onto cacao pods.
An Aztec Import
By the 1400s, the Aztecs were gradually gaining control over a huge expanse of Mesoamerica. Their territory ranged all the way from northern Mexico to the Maya lands in Honduras.
Cacao quickly became key to the Aztec’s vast trade empire—not only as a luxury drink, but also as money, offerings to the gods, and payment to rulers.
Obtaining Cacao—
The Aztecs traded for it and demanded it as tribute.
The Aztecs couldn’t grow cacao, so they traded for it.
The cacao tree will not flourish in the dry highlands of central Mexico, at one time the seat of the Aztec empire. So the Aztecs traded with the Maya and other peoples in order to receive a steady supply of seeds for chocolate.
In Maya lands south of their own, Aztec traders filled woven backpacks with cacao. Then these men hauled their precious cargo on foot to the Aztec capital city, Tenochtitlan (ten noch teet LAN), today the site of Mexico City.
The Aztecs also demanded cacao as tribute.
Aztec rulers required ordinary citizens and conquered peoples to pay a tax, also called “tribute.” Because cacao was so valuable, conquered peoples who lived in cacao-growing areas paid tribute with cacao seeds.
Cacao cups, ocelot skins, feathers, greenstone beads, and many other goods were just a few of the items people could use to pay tribute.
Making Chocolate—
The Aztecs drank chocolate, and sometimes colored it for sacred rituals.
The Aztecs processed cacao into chocolate just like the ancient Maya.
To make the seeds lighter during transport, Aztec merchants most likely traded for cacao that had already been fermented and dried.
Once these seeds were obtained, the Aztecs then roasted and ground the cacao using a griddle and a mano and metate, just like the Maya.
The Aztecs flavored their chocolate drink with a variety of seasonings.
Like the Maya, the Aztecs made their chocolate into a frothy, bitter beverage and mixed it with cornmeal, chile peppers, vanilla beans, and black pepper.
Different ingredients changed the texture, flavor, color, and purpose of the brew. To turn the chocolate a deep, blood-red shade for ritual use, the Aztecs added achiote (ah chee OH tay), the seed of the annatto tree.
Using Chocolate—
Only Aztecs nobility, merchants, and priests drank chocolate, but everyone used cacao seeds as money.
Drinking chocolate was a luxury few Aztecs could afford.
In the Aztec world, cacao seeds were worth a fortune—for paying tribute to rulers, for buying things in markets, and for making offerings to the gods.
Only the Aztec elite (rulers, priests, decorated warriors, and honored merchants) held the social status and economic position to savor the drink.
Chocolate was the Aztec food of the gods.
According to one Aztec legend, the god Quetzalcoatl (ket sal koh AH tul) brought heavenly cacao to Earth.
Eventually, Quetzalcoatl was cast out of paradise for the blasphemous act of giving this sacred drink to humans. (The gods felt that only they should have access to chocolate.) Priests often made offerings of cacao seeds to Quetzalcoatl and these other deities.
In Aztec markets, cacao seeds served as cash.
When Aztec people went shopping, they used cacao seeds to buy and sell everything from cooking pots to clothes and food. The seeds were valuable and easy to carry—like having a pocket full of coins.
Cacao was valuable partly because the Aztecs couldn’t grow it themselves and had to import it from far away. And for this reason, cacao wasn’t for sale in markets—merchants kept the seeds locked up like money in a cash register.
A European Sweet
Until the 1500s, no one in Europe knew anything at all about the delicious drink that would later become a huge hit worldwide. Spain’s search for a route to riches led its explorers to the Americas and introduced them to chocolate’s delicious flavor.
Eventually, the Spanish conquest of the Aztecs made it possible to import chocolate back home, where it quickly became a court favorite. And within 100 years, the love of chocolate spread throughout the rest of Europe.
Take a more detailed look below at the different ways Spain and the rest of Europe obtained, made, and used cacao.
A Spanish Conquest
Although it's likely that other early explorers encountered cacao in the Americas, it wasn’t until Hernán Cortés conquered Mexico in 1521 that the Spanish began to learn about the delicious flavor of chocolate.
Contact between Spaniards and Aztecs opened a gateway for the exchange of ideas and technology—and a new European market for foods like cacao
Obtaining Cacao—
The Spanish demanded it from conquered peoples.
The Spanish carried cacao home with them.
In 1521, Cortés led his forces against Montezuma’s warriors and defeated them in battle. The Spanish soldiers demanded that Aztec nobles hand over their treasures or be killed.
Cacao, a treasured treat and a form of Aztec money, became one of the spoils of war. Spanish soldiers claimed the Aztec’s supply of cacao and began to demand it from the same peoples from whom the Aztecs had demanded tribute. Before long, cacao and chocolate made their way to Spain.
Indigenous peoples provided labor for landowners in the Americas. In Spain, people couldn’t get enough of this new drink, which had never been tasted before outside the Americas. Keeping up with the demand for chocolate required the labor of millions of people to tend, harvest, and process both sugar and cacao.
From the early 1600s until the late 1800s, enslaved people provided most of this labor—the most inexpensive way for plantation owners to produce large quantities. The first people enslaved for the sake of chocolate were Mesoamericans.
Making Chocolate—
The Spanish drank chocolate with cinnamen and sugar and blended it with a molinillo.
The Spanish didn’t like the bitter flavor of chocolate.
At first, Cortés and his men weren’t thrilled by chocolate’s taste. To spice up the brew a bit, they began heating the beverage and adding a variety of ingredients.
Once the drink migrated to Europe, someone eventually got the idea to add sugar, cinnamon, and other spices to the mix—and sweet, hot chocolate was born.
The Spanish introduced a new tool to chocolate making.
Spain didn’t really change the way raw cacao was prepared and processed into chocolate. The native peoples still did all the work of harvesting the pods and fermenting, drying, cleaning, and roasting the seeds.
However, the Spanish did bring one new tool to the trade—the molinillo (moh lin EE oh). A wood stirring stick, the molinillo made the job of whipping chocolate into a smooth foam much easier.
Using Chocolate—
Only wealthy Spaniards and church officials could afford to drink chocolate
Spanish priests introduced the Spanish court to chocolate.
Legend has it that, in 1544, a group of Dominican friars took a delegation of native peoples to visit Prince Philip in Spain. These captives gave his majesty his first taste of chocolate, which quickly became the fashionable trend in the Spanish court.
Because of its early colonization of the Americas, Spain held a monopoly on chocolate for many years. Only the wealthiest and most well-connected Spanish nobility could afford this expensive import.
The Spanish Catholic Church drank chocolate for energy.
The Spanish recognized chocolate’s restorative and nutritional properties immediately. (Cacao is naturally high in calories and contains caffeine and a similar chemical called theobromine.)
As a result, during the 16th century, chocolate became known as a clerical fasting beverage. After much debate, the Catholic Church allowed people to drink liquid chocolate as a nutritional substitute during fasting periods (when solid foods are taboo).
A European Obsession
Nearly 100 years passed before other European countries caught the chocolate craze. Were the Spaniards trying to keep chocolate to themselves? And how did news of chocolate spread? We’re not sure.
Eventually someone let the secret slip, and chocolate became the latest and greatest fad to hit the royal courts of Europe—a trend that lasted until the Industrial Revolution made chocolate available to a much broader public.
Obtaining Cacao—
Europeans grew it on plantations.
Many countries established cacao-growing colonies.
The English, Dutch, and French also colonized cacao-growing lands near the equator. The British planted trees in Ceylon (Sri Lanka). The Dutch established plantations in Venezuela, Java, and Sumatra. And the French focused on the West Indies.
Soon, these countries were shipping cacao back home to keep Europe well stocked with chocolate.
Plantations struggled with labor issues.
Many of the products coming out of the Americas at this time were labor-intensive crops. Colonial landowners needed a large workforce to meet European demand for sugar as well as indigo (dye), tobacco, cotton, and cacao itself.
After so many Mesoamericans died from European diseases, growers needed a new labor force. European colonial landowners turned to Africa to supply them with the necessary labor. For over two centuries, a combination of millions of wage laborers and enslaved peoples were used to create a large workforce.
Making Chocolate—
Europeans ground cacao using mills and some drank their chocolate with milk
Chocolate mills helped Europeans grind large amounts of cacao.
Like the Spanish, most other Europeans had their plantation workers harvest, ferment, and dry the seeds for overseas shipping. Once they arrived in European ports, these seeds would have to be ground by hand.
But eventually, to produce larger amounts of chocolate more quickly, people began grinding their cacao using wind-driven or horse-drawn mills.
Europeans drank their chocolate with sugar and milk.
As with the Spanish, most Europeans liked their chocolate sweetened with sugar, another expensive and exotic import from faraway plantations.
And in the late 1600s, Sir Hans Sloane, president of the Royal College of Physicians, introduced another culinary custom: mixing the already popular chocolate drink with milk for a lighter, smoother flavor.
Using Chocolate—
Only the european elite could afford to drink chocolate
In France, chocolate was a state monopoly.
According to legend, the French court’s love of chocolate was sealed when its new, self-confessed chocoholic queen, Anne of Austria (daughter of King Philip III of Spain), married Louis XIII in 1615.
Chocolate became an instant status symbol, and by decree, no one but members of the French aristocracy were allowed to drink it.
In England, anyone with money could drink chocolate.
The first chocolate house opened in London in 1657. Like coffee shops, which became popular much later, chocolate houses were places to enjoy a hot drink, discuss politics, socialize, and gamble.
Many chocolate houses admitted only men. Others were open to anyone who could afford the entrance fee.
Wealthy Europeans used special dishes for drinking chocolate.
Europeans preferred to drink their chocolate from ornate dishes made out of precious materials and crafted by artisans.
Like the elaborate ceramic vessels of ancient Maya and Aztec rulers, these dishes were more than serving pieces. They were also symbols of wealth.
A Contemporary Confection
For hundreds of years, the chocolate-making process remained relatively unaltered. But by the mid 1700s, the blossoming Industrial Revolution saw the emergence of innovations that changed the future of chocolate.
A steady stream of new inventions and advertising helped set the stage for solid chocolate candy to become the globally favored sweet it is today.
Take a more detailed look below at the different ways people obtained, made, and used cacao in the recent past and in the present.
An industrial age innovation
From Prehispanic times until the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, chocolate was largely a handmade product. Time consuming and expensive to produce, chocolate was available only to the wealthy as a beverage.
But new machinery of the industrial age made it possible to create solid chocolate and mass-produce this candy in enormous quantities at a fraction of the original cost. For the first time, most of the general public could afford this tasty treat.
Obtaining Cacao—
Europeans and americans purchased cacao and sugar from plantations.
Hardships continued long after slavery’s end.
For more than two centuries, enslaved people had labored to produce crops in lands colonized by European nations. Although slavery was abolished in all countries by 1888, the need for labor to meet the demand for products like sugar and cacao continued.
In some tropical countries, harsh labor conditions prevailed long after the end of slavery.
Some activists in the world of chocolate worked to improve conditions.
In 1910, William Cadbury (the famous chocolate manufacturer) invited several English and American chocolate companies to join him in refusing to buy cacao from plantations characterized by harsh working conditions until things improved.
That same year, a United States Congressional hearing resulted in a formal U.S. ban on any cocoa shown to be the product of slave labor from these plantations.
Making Chocolate—
Europeans and Americans used machinery to process cacao into solid chocolate candy.
Machines made chocolate a mass-produced treat.
In the early 1700's, a Frenchman named Doret invented a hydraulic machine to grind cacao seeds into a paste. Not long afterward, another Frenchman by the name of Dubuisson, created the steam-driven chocolate mill.
These mechanical mills relieved people from the labor-intensive process of grinding cacao. It became possible to grind huge amounts of cacao and mass-produce chocolate inexpensively and quickly.
New innovations improved chocolate’s texture and taste.
Before the Industrial Revolution, chocolate was a gritty, rather oily paste usually dissolved in water or milk and made into a beverage. But the invention of new machines made it possible to create smoother, creamier chocolate in the form of an edible candy bar.
One of the most important inventions was the cocoa press, created in 1828 by the Dutch chemist Coenraad Van Houten. It squeezed out cocoa butter (leaving the powder we call cocoa) and made cocoa both more consistent and cheaper to produce.
New ingredients also improved chocolate’s texture and taste.
In 1815, Van Houten added alkaline salts to powdered chocolate, which helped it to mix better with water and gave it a darker color and milder flavor.
And in 1875, Daniel Peter and Henri Nestlé teamed up to introduce condensed milk to chocolate. Their smooth, creamy “milk chocolate” rapidly became a popular favorite.
Using Chocolate—
In europe and America, eventually solid chocolate for eating became affordable to a mass market.
Expensive handmade chocolate gave way to affordable mass-produced sweets.
For hundreds of years, chocolate remained a pricey luxury for the upper classes. But new technologies made chocolate affordable to a much broader segment of society and opened up opportunities for culinary experimentation.
Chocolate began to appear not only in its candy bar form, but also became much more popular as an ingredient in other confectionery sweets, such as cakes, pastries, and sorbets.
Advertising boosted public consumption of chocolate.
While inventions made chocolate easier to produce, advertising made it something people craved.
As chocolate products became cheaper to make and buy, advertisers introduced marketing campaigns aimed at more people, particularly women and children.
Breakfast chocolate became a part of many people’s diets. And nibbling on chocolate bars was encouraged as a way to sustain energy, cure lethargy, and improve a host of other medical conditions.
During the early part of the 20th century, new machinery, new lands for cacao-growing, and even the two world wars helped spread chocolate’s popularity.
Today, although cacao farming hasn’t changed much, chocolate manufacturing has become a blend of art and science. Thanks to trade and technology, cacao seeds and chocolate are part of a global market economy that includes most countries around the world
Obtaining Cacao—
Today, traders move cacao between small farmers and manufacturers.
Cacao comes from farms around the world.
In the past century, chocolate’s popularity grew so astonishingly that, at times, cacao became scarce. As a result, throughout the world many equatorial countries that had never grown cacao before began to cultivate it.
A few manufacturers today still own their own cacao farms, but the colonial plantations once controlled by Europe and America are gone. Most cacao is now produced by independent farmers or cooperative groups in unexpected places like Africa and Indonesia—far away from cacao’s original home in the tropical rainforests of the Americas.
Cacao is still grown by hand.
While machines have made chocolate faster to produce and cheaper to buy, they haven’t changed the way in which cacao is grown.
Chocolate manufacturers must still purchase cacao from farmers who tend, harvest, ferment, dry, and pack the seeds by hand.
Cacao is traded as a global commodity.
Cacao farmers sell their product to chocolate-processing companies through traders at the Coffee, Sugar, and Cocoa Exchange (similar to a stock exchange).
Chocolate manufacturers, cacao importers and exporters, trade houses, and producers all buy and sell contracts for cacao crops before those crops are even harvested.
Making Chocolate—
We use machinery in facttories to process cacao.
Chocolate is mostly machine-made, not handmade.
Converting cacao seeds into chocolate has now evolved into a complex and time-consuming mechanized process that includes several steps.
In assembly-line fashion, varieties of cacao from around the world are blended, roasted, cracked, winnowed, ground, pressed, mixed, conched, refined, and tempered into rich, creamy candy bars.
Chocolate factories operate like science labs.
Most large-scale manufacturers run their chocolate-making factories like laboratories. They devise special blends of exotic cacao seeds and create unique recipes for chocolate that hold the secret to brand success.
Precision instruments track temperature and moisture levels and regulate the timing of automated processes within the factory.
Hundreds of new chocolate factories and flavors have come and gone.
Over the years, many creative confectioners developed lots of new varieties and flavors of chocolate. A few icons of the early 1900s still survive today.
Hershey got his start making chocolate-coated caramels in 1893. And his competitors, the father-and-son team of Mars, created the malted-milk-filled Milky Way after an inspiring trip to the local drugstore soda fountain.
Using Chocolate—
Around the world, many people can now eat chocolate or use cacao products in cosmetics or medicine.
The military introduced many people to chocolate.
Surprisingly, the armed forces helped spread the love of chocolate worldwide. The trend first began in the late 19th century, when Queen Victoria got her soldiers hooked on chocolate by sending them gifts of this nourishing and delicious candy for Christmas.
But the popularity of candy bars really skyrocketed after World War I, when chocolate was part of every United State’s soldier’s rations. By 1930, there were nearly 40,000 different kinds of chocolate.
Although it’s now more affordable, not everyone chooses to eat chocolate.
Many Asian cultures have never really developed a taste for the sweet. In fact, the Chinese eat only one bar of chocolate for every 1,000 consumed by the British.
And in countries like Ghana and Ivory Coast, people rarely eat chocolate because it is worth more to them as a trade product than as a food.
Cacao can be used in cosmetics and medicine, too.
For many years, chocolate has been more than a food; it has served as a health and beauty aid, too.
Theobromine, a chemical found in chocolate, enlarges blood vessels and is used to treat high blood pressure. In addition, cocoa butter is used in cosmetics and ointments—and even as a coating for pills. Plus, leftover cacao husks make good mulch and cattle feed.
Chocolate is still associated with many religious holidays.
Chocolate still plays a part in festive celebrations that are associated with many religious holidays. Most of us expect to eat chocolate in some form near events like Hanukkah, Christmas, and Easter.
In Mexico in particular, chocolate is used to make offerings during the Day of the Dead festival, a time for remembering loved ones who have died.
Most of us know chocolate as a deliciously decadent sweet that we eat in cookies, cakes, candy bars, and other desserts. But around the world, many people have prepared chocolate as a bitter, frothy drink—or even as part of a main meal served at dinnertime.
And, chocolate isn’t simply a snack or key ingredient in cooking. Over the centuries, many cultures have used the seeds from which chocolate is made—cacao (kah KOW)—as a sacred symbol in religious ceremonies. Plus, medicinal remedies featuring chocolate have been used as household curatives across the globe.
Chocolate as a Food
We tend to think of chocolate as a rich, creamy food—a favorite ingredient in many dishes and a luscious indulgence in its own right.
But until recently in fact, (for 90% of its history), people drank chocolate; they didn’t eat it.
Peoples of Mesoamerica liked their chocolate drink frothy and spicy.
The Classic Period Maya (250-900 C.E. [A.D.]) and Aztecs (1250-1521) were early connoisseurs of chocolate’s flavorful properties. They made chocolate by mixing crushed cacao seeds with water. The result was a tepid, foamy, and quite bitter beverage.
The Aztec people spiced their drink with chile peppers, thickened it with cornmeal, or flavored it with honey, vanilla, or flower petals. Sugar wasn’t yet available as a sweetener in the Americas.
Europeans liked their chocolate drink sweet and hot.
When the Spanish conquered the Aztecs, they found the native chocolate drink too bitter for their tastes. To sweeten and flavor it, the Spanish added sugar, cinnamon, cardamom, and other spices.
The Spanish managed to keep their delicious drink a secret from others for almost 100 years. But eventually versions of the brew spread like wildfire throughout Europe, becoming the popular drink of the continent’s rich and elite.
Today, people worldwide love sweetened chocolate as a drink and as a food.
During the mid-1800s, new machines made it possible to inexpensively mass-produce solid chocolate candy. No longer a rich person’s treat, chocolate became affordable to a much wider audience.
Today, chefs in many countries have incorporated chocolate into specialty dishes, desserts, and drinks so that this sweet can now be found in some form on most menus around the world.
The Symbolism of Cacao and Chocolate
Chocolate is more than just a food. Its rarity and richness have secured it a special status in history.
For hundreds of years and in many different cultures, the act of eating chocolate has taken on symbolic significance. Chocolate has been linked to power, religion, and romance—especially when chocolate was considered an expensive and rare luxury.
A symbol of devotion.
At sacred altars, Aztec priests presented cacao seeds as offerings to their deities. Drinking chocolate was often a part of special religious events. And only elite members of society—merchants, soldiers, priests, and rulers—were allowed to consume such a sacred and powerful drink.
A symbol of power.
In the Aztec culture, only high-ranking figures were deemed worthy of drinking chocolate. And when the Spanish first brought the beverage home, the custom remained the same. The rare and expensive import was a status symbol fit for (and affordable to) only elite members of society. Although relatively inexpensive today, chocolate's richness still symbolically represents luxury.
A symbol of love.
Chocolate’s allure as an aphrodisiac is legendary. The Aztec ruler Montezuma II is said to have drunk an extra cup of chocolate before consorting with favored ladies. Even today, chocolate remains a popular Valentine’s Day gift.
Chocolate as a Cure
For centuries, chocolate has been shrouded in mystery and legend. Many cultures believed that chocolate was a gift from the heavens, or that it had special healing properties.
Today, many cultures still consider chocolate a potent weapon in the fight against disease and illness. Modern scientists have only recently begun to understand what, if any, medicinal powers chocolate contains.
Chocolate was an ancient remedy.
Maya and Aztec peoples drank chocolate not only for pleasure, but also for its perceived healing and nourishing powers. They used it to treat a host of illnesses, such as seizures, fevers, dysentery, diarrhea, and skin infections.
Like most new foods, chocolate was received with mixed reactions by Europeans. Encountering chocolate for the first time in the 1600s, some believed it could induce sleep, aid digestion, purify the blood, ease childbirth pains, and enhance libidos—though others believed it could cause drunkenness or illness.
Some doctors even claimed chocolate prolonged life and cured everything from ringworm to ulcers!
Modern science says that chocolate may not be all bad for you.
For a long time, the medical profession assumed that traditional folk remedies using chocolate were pure wives’ tales. In fact, chocolate developed a bad reputation for causing everything from acne to tooth decay.
But current research reveals the fact and fiction behind many of these beliefs. Although scientists are still trying to understand the more than 300 chemicals in chocolate, there may be some beneficial side effects to eating chocolate.
Cooking with Chocolate
Chocolate has won fame worldwide as both a savory flavoring and a sweet seasoning. Over the centuries, many cultures have incorporated chocolate into their traditional recipes.
In the Americas and Europe, chocolate reigns as a popular ingredient in main dishes, side courses, desserts, and drinks.
But in Asia, chocolate’s appeal is not as widespread because of national taste preferences. And in Africa, cacao remains an important national export, too valuable for general consumption. (However, chocolate’s popularity is growing gradually in both of these regions of the world.)
Chocolate In the Americas
It makes sense that a huge wealth of culinary chocolate delights comes from Central and South America, the original home of the cacao tree.
Many contemporary Mexican recipes preserve the flavors of the ancient Mesoamerican chocolate by blending corn and chiles with cacao. Early Spanish traditions appear, too, in the use of nuts, cinnamon, and other spices.

Next

Kitchen Home

Index To Recipes

Home