Today, chocolate is a symbol of love and commitment — we even recognize July 7 as World Chocolate Day. Whenever we hear the word ‘chocolate,’ we think of its outstanding taste, a cute gift, chocolate cake or that ‘I just realized I don’t have chocolate in the house, let me go buy some’ feel. The moment we taste chocolate, it fills us up with love and happiness.
In the 21st century, chocolate is used to make a variety of sweet and affordable treats. However, throughout history, chocolate didn’t always taste so sweet.
The origin
Chocolate originated from the fruit of Theobroma cacao, a tropical tree native to the Amazon and Orinoco river basins in South America. The cacao tree was first cultivated in Central and South America. Etymologists trace the origin of the word ‘chocolate’ to the Aztec word ‘xocolatl,’ which referred to a bitter drink made from cacao beans.
It is not absolutely certain how long chocolate has been around, but modern studies show that chocolate is older than 2000 years. According to food historians Sophie and Michael Coe, chocolate consumption stretches back to Mesoamerica, or present day Mexico.
Olmec civilization, one of the earliest civilizations in Latin America, was the first to turn cacao beans into chocolate. Centuries later, the Mayans considered chocolate to be the drink of the gods and used chocolate to make a thick foamy beverage called ‘xocolatl’ or bitter water like the Aztecs. Moreover, for several centuries, cocoa beans were valuable enough to be used as currency in pre-modern Latin America.
The sweetner
Sweetened chocolate didn’t appear until Europeans reached America. According to legend, Spanish explorer Hernando Cortez was invited to a banquet by Aztec King Montezuma and was served chocolate drinks. However, the conquering invader, mistaken as a reincarnated deity, hated the chocolate drink.
After being mixed with honey or cane sugar, chocolate then became popular throughout Spain. It is also believed that Christopher Columbus was the first European explorer to discover cacao trees and bring them back to Spain.
By the 17th century, the sweet chocolate beverage became a luxury in many rich households throughout Europe. People believed the chocolate drink to have nutritious, medicinal and aphrodisiatic properties. It was not until the invention of steam engines in the 1700s that mass productions of chocolate were made available to the majority of the population.
The chocolate bar
In 1828, Coenraad Johannes van Houten, a Dutch chemist and chocolate makrer, found a way to remove half the natural fat from chocolate liquor to produce a powdered chocolate, known today as cocoa. Soon, other processes combined with the powdered chocolate made solid chocolate possible.
In 1847, English chocolate maker Joseph Storrs Fry was the first to create the modern chocolate bar. He made moldable chocolate paste by adding melted cocoa butter back into powdered chocolate.
The box of chocolates
Cadbury was the first company to sell boxes of chocolate in England in 1868. One year later, Swiss chemist Henri Nestle made powdered milk, and one year after that, Swiss chocolate manufacturer Daniel Peter used the powdered milk to produce milk chocolate. This resulted in Rudolphe Lindt, a Swiss chocolate manufacturer and inventor, inventing a process called ‘conching,’ which improved the quality and texture of chocolate by making it more blendable.
An average American consumes about half a pound of chocolate per month. During the Revolutionary War, chocolate was so valued in America that it was included in every soldier’s rations. Soldiers would also receive payments in chocolate. Still a powerful economic force, chocolate manufacturing is a more than 4-billion-dollar industry in the United States and continues to be a loved delicacy all around the world.
