History of Chocolate

To explore the history of chocolate, you first need to know where does chocolate come from. It may also be interesting to find out how chocolate is made.

Up until a research study was published in 2007, the earliest documented use of cacao was around 600 BC by the Mesoamerican people including the Mayans and Aztecs. However, professor John Henderson wrote in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, that archaeological evidence now pushes that date back another 500 years. Chemical tests performed on pottery vessels which were found in what is now Honduras  dated back to around 1100 BC. These vessels showed the presence of the chemical compound, theobromine, which is unique to the cacao plant. It is believed that cacao pulp was in fact used to make a fermented drink. This drink has been described as a beer, but is technically a line.

Later, the Mayans and Aztecs were known to use the cacao seeds to make a frothy drink which was drunk at special ceremonies such as weddings and baby births. The drink was seasoned with spices, but since sugar was not available the drink was bitter. The Aztecs called their drink xocolatl which means bitter water.

An interesting fact that is part of the history of chocolate is that fact that it was deemed so valuable to the Aztecs that they used the chocolate seeds as a form of money. The Mayans even had a god of chocolate.

The first documented European to see the cacao bean Christopher Columbus during his fourth voyage to America in 1502. Columbus brought the beans back to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, but they found the bitter drink unappealing. However, in 1519 Hernan Cortes wrote the Spanish Court that he had discovered a miraculous new beverage in which, “a cup of it gives every soldier the strength to march for an entire day.”

When Cortes brought the secret of xocolatl back to Spain, cane sugar from the East Indies was added as well as spices from Europe and America such as vanilla, cinnamon, and black pepper. The Spanish royal court actually kept chocolate a secret reserved only for royalty for almost 100 years. To consume the chocolate the Spanish royalty would grind the cacao beans into a semi-liquid paste and then mix it with sugar and spices. Then they would allow the mixture to harden into cakes. The cakes would then be dissolved in hot water and frothed with a tool called a "molinet".

Eventually the secret of chocolate got out and "chocolate houses" began to appear throughout Europe. The popularity of chocolate then exploded. In fact, the chocolate drink grew so socially desired, that at one time the Catholic Church had to forbid parishioners from bringing the beverage to Sunday mass. Another interesting fact in the history of chocolate about the connections between chocolate and Catholicism is with regards to fasting. In 1569 Pope Pius V declared that the chocolate drink did not break the fact. Then for the next 190 years every Pope from Gregory XIII to Benedict XIV affirmed this decision. So, do to its nutritious value, chocolate became a popular way to nourish oneself on the many religious fast days. This may have reached it's climax when Pope Clement XIV was killed with a cup of poisoned Chocolate in 1774!

An important event in the history of chocolate is when in 1828 the Dutch developed a press to force the fat out of the cacao. The powder was then mixed with milk. Twenty years later at the Joseph Fry factory, they discovered a way to mix melted Cocoa Butter back into Dutch powder to create a gooey mass which could be molded. This produced the first bar Chocolate.

 In 1875 two Swiss men, Daniel Peter and Henri Nestlé used the sweetened condensed milk they had developed for concentrated infant food formula in to create milk-chocolate. The low water content of the milk made it possible to mix it with the Chocolate into a bar that did not spoil quickly. Rudolphe Lindt developed the conching process in Switzerland in 1879, producing for the first time, smooth creamy Chocolate bars like we are familiar with today.
You can find out more about the types of chocolate. You may also want to check out these fun chocolate facts.