From Xocolatl to the Industrial Revolution
In the pre-Columbian era of Meso America the native Maya, Toltec and Aztec were preparing a drink of ground cocoa beans and cold water whipped together energetically with a round wooden whisk. This was the form of chocolate when first encountered by the Spanish. Twenty years after Columbus first encountered and dismissed the cocoa bean, travel companions of Hernando Cortez were enamored by native Indian drinking customs. The customs and manner that involved the preparation and drinking of this beverage – Xocolatl – were well recorded, particularly noting that Montezuma drank this mysterious beverage several times daily from pure gold beakers.
Higher ranking Indians spiced the drink with vanilla, honey, and occasionally chile. Spanish officers enhanced it with aniseed, cinnamon, almonds and hazelnuts sent to them from Spain for that purpose. Peasants and ordinary soldiers prepared the cocoa mixture by simply crumbling cocoa paste with whatever spices they chose in a gourd with cold water and shook it until the mixture was frothy.
The drinking of chocolate and the cocoa bean itself has been documented as playing a significant role in both social and religious ceremonies in Maya culture, occupying the same niche as expensive French champagne does in our culture. Needless to say the Spanish developed a fondness for drinking chocolate. Throughout the West Indies chocolaterias (chocolate houses) were established over the years. Cocoa was always freshly prepared, now with boiling water poured over the cocoa and vigorously whisking it to a frothy state.
In 1585 the first shipment of cocoa beans reached Spain from the New World. Historians generally agree that chocolate became acclimatized in the Spanish court during the first half of the 17th century. This chocolate was the same hot beverage that had taken shape among the Creole Spaniards. Being one of the wealthiest nations in the western world at that time, the Spanish spiced this new fashionable drink with everything the market had to offer: cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and sometimes even sugar. Still the drink continued to be made with water. Because the countries in which the cocoa bean was indigenous all belonged to the Spanish and Portuguese crown, cocoa remained a Spanish drink and a secret for nearly a century.
Chocolate not only reigned supreme in the courts of Spain throughout the 17th century, but the passion for chocolate impacted Spanish society, becoming the center stage for social gatherings – the chocolatada (chocolate parties), public displays and pageants. This passion quite often became the subject of serious discoursed among ecclesiastical and scientific circles.
In 1600 the Italians became acquainted with this special drink when they voyaged to the West Indies. Although the history of chocolates introduction to Italy and the rest of Europe is ambiguous, there being many rival theories, historians do not doubt that Italy certainly followed Spain and Portugal in adopting the chocolate drink. During the 17th century the use of chocolate became widespread throughout Europe, mainly among noble and wealthy. It was also during the Baroque era that many sweet meats, pastries and solid chocolate confections were created, particularly in France and Vienna.
By the latter half of the 18th century coffee housed and sprung up in many European cities. In these and in refreshment parlors one could get tea, coffee, chocolate, French pastry, preserves and liqueurs. Chocolate was still strictly for the upper class. Little difference existed between the chocolate quaffed in the 18th century and the Baroque era that preceded it. There was one great exception – the amount and form of chocolate that was eaten including chocolate bars, pastilles, desserts, main dishes, pastas and soups. In the 18th century chocolate drinking remained a social event.
England was last to accept the chocolate beverage. Their methods of preparation changed the way we conceive chocolate today. The British simply preferred to prepare this beverage with milk instead of water. Much of the political and cultural life of the nobility and gentry centered on the coffee and chocolate housed of London. Interestingly enough, the chocolate or coffee house institution seems never to have crossed the Atlantic to England’s North American colonies. Chocolate was well favored here. Instead the colonial well to do preferred to take their chocolate at home.
The advent of the Industrial Revolution near the turn of the 19th century brought about great changes in chocolate consumption. For at least 28 centuries, chocolate has been a drink of the wealthy and noble. Through technological advances, the increased use of sugar, and use of more abundant lower quality cocoa beans, costs were lowered and availability increased. By the mid 20th century chocolate transmuted into a solid food of the massed available to all.
Consuming Passion or Just Beans?
Nothing short of politics or religion evokes more passion than food. What one likes to eat is largely a matter of personal selection. The more informed we become the more knowledge we have in order to make that selection. Ultimately the chocolate that you choose depends upon your personal taste. Matters of taste are highly individual.
Chocolate comes from a spindly, under story plant – Theobroma cacao – grown in equatorial regions of the world. Of the twenty species of Theobroma, only Theobroma cacao is of significant food production value. There are three distinct varieties known as Criollo, Forastero, and Triniterio. Eighty percent of the world’s production of cacao is dedicated to the hardy, high yielding Forastero which produces a less flavorful, ordinary, somewhat bitter chocolate. The Forastero, considered the workhorse and warrior of cacao, is used to increase a farm’s overall production yielding a bulk bean that delivers a clean chocolate flavor. The remaining twenty percent are the finicky Criollo and Triniterio. These rare and flavorful beans contribute unique characteristics from a broad palette of flavors.
Cacao has been cultivated for three millennia beginning with the Olmecs and later the Classic Maya of Meso America. Not only was cacao used for making a beverage but also as a means of currency and important trade. The Aztecs utilized cacao as did the Maya, but it also played an important role in religious rites as well. The Aztecs treasured its conquered lands of central pacific America and competed with Mayan traders of the Yucatan and Guatemala. Spanish conquistadors took cacao back to the courts of Spain and from there the beverage (albeit greatly altered from the traditional drink of Meso America) entered into the courts of Europe. This cacao so revered by the elite and nobility of civilizations was of the Criollo variety.
Well into the 17th century, cacao could be afforded only by the wealthy, whom prized the Criollo cacaos from Mexico and Guatemala. The price of the preferred cacao shot up as the exportation into central Mexico declined. Criollos from Venezuela and Forasteros from Ecuador entered into the competition. Compared to the higher quality Criollos from Meso America, the Forastero cacao of Ecuador was always abundant and was cheap. Never mind that the flavor was poor and bitter. The cost effectiveness of the Forastero was firstly, because it was more productive than the Criollo and secondly, because African slaves had been brought in to work the plantations. The affordability now meant that access to the chocolate drink was available to all. Due to the bitterness of the cacao, large amounts of sugar had to be added to make the beverage palatable. Sugar was also inexpensive since it too was produced by the free labor of slaves.
From the parent cacao producing regions, plantations were established in other parts of Central and South America and the Caribbean. On the island of Trinidad the Triniterio cacao variety was discovered as an accident of hybridization between stands of established Criollos and feral stands of Forasteros. Triniterios combined the taste qualities of the Criollos with the vigor, hardiness and productiveness of the Forastero. This novelty along with the Forastero was to spread cacao cultivation around the equatorial world into Africa, Ceylon, Indonesia, and Pacific islands. Once cacao became affordable to the masses, the industrial revolution brought cocoa and chocolate into the 20th century.
The aroma and flavor characters (taste and aftertaste) of chocolate are primarily influenced by the variety of cocoa bean or bean blend, proper fermentation and the roasting conditions used to make the cocoa mass (chocolate liquor). Cocoa mass, known as cocoa content in today’s buzz, is the pure, roasted and refined cocoa bean without any additional ingredients added. The chocolate manufacturing industry itself describes dark chocolate flavor characteristics as ranging from a simple strong, basic chocolate flavor to fruity, floral, aromatic, spicy, earthy and roasted notes. Milk chocolates provide a range of flavors such as very light nutty, creamy, condensed milk, cooked milk and caramelized.
Other factors influencing quality include snap, smoothness and mouth feel. These are determined by the grind and refining of the cocoa, the addition or cocoa butter, and by manufacturing processes such as conching and tempering.
Crucial to the flavor and texture of chocolate is its cocoa mass (liquor) content. The formula is simple: the higher the cocoa content, the lower the sugar content. Most ordinary chocolate these days have at most 35% cocoa content. A good quality dark chocolate contains at least 45%, 55% is out standing, 70% is astonishing. With that high of a cocoa content you would think that the chocolate would be bitter and unpalatable. A word of caution however. Cocoa content alone does not quality make. It’s all about the beans! An inferior bean will not make a superior chocolate no matter how high the cocoa content. Caveat emptor!
Look at it from another perspective. There are grand crus representing the finest quality wine grapes, so too are there grand crus of cocoa beans. The most extraordinary chocolates come from skillful blending of rare and flavorful beans from isolated and often obscure plantations scattered around the world’s equatorial regions in places like the Caribbean, Indonesia, Hawaii, the South Pacific, the Indian Ocean, Central and South America and Africa. Many chocolate manufactures of fine chocolates have jumped on the band wagon offering fine cocoa blends with high cocoa contents. Exquisite varietal chocolates made from beans of a specific type, specific points of origin or even a specific plantation have been introduced from Europe and the Americas in the last decade. In many ways, chocolate has mirrored the direction coffee took a decade ago. What had once been a commodity underwent a renaissance based on flavor, taste and origin.
Trends and Tastes
Trends and tastes for various chocolate products as well as methods of preparation have changed and evolved over centuries past. Europe alone accounts for 60 percent of chocolate consumption world wide. Ten pounds of chocolate are consumed by the average American each year, whereas the average European consumes twelve pounds. Chocolate consumption tends to be higher in cooler climates as well. Regardless of the climate, the fact remains – the more chocolate people eat, the more they want.
The consumption curve for chocolate has seen a steady progression since 1980. This has been particularly true in the case of dark chocolate. Dark chocolate is in the news. It’s hot! It’s hip! Moreover, based on sound scientific research, it’s healthy! This has granted the consumer permission to enjoy good chocolate - a little bit of excellence that delivers both pleasure and positive health benefits.
By definition matters of taste are highly individual. The more varieties of chocolate the connoisseur eats, the more they develop a certain sensibility to the range of flavors and quality characteristics present. For the assiduous consumer, a good dark chocolate should contain between 50 and 75 percent cocoa mass, the ideal figure being around 60-65 percent.
One misconception is that truly great chocolate must be dark. Milk chocolate can be just as noble. Across the board, consumption of milk chocolate is significantly greater than that of dark, even with the rise of dark chocolate popularity. Again, the difference between ordinary chocolate and truly fine chocolate is remarkable. Ultimately the chocolate you choose depends upon your personal tastes, your mood and your pocketbook.
Today a new breed of confectioner has evolved, that of the artisan Chocolatier who makes handmade, gourmet chocolates according to jealously guarded secret recipes using the finest ingredients. Classical and nouvelle pastries and confections claim new heights. The chocolate houses of old are reborn through mystical creative endeavors of the skilled Chocolatier. Today, as it was with the Spanish in the New World, chocolate has a mysterious and intangible power to bewitch the consumer and reveal their creators as sorcerers. In the world of chocolate everything old is new again.
Go ahead and rediscover chocolate.
Enjoy the experience.
Experience the passion!
