Chocolate has enveloped the entire world in its decadent embrace. It has captured not only our taste buds, but also our hearts and imaginations. We've all become chocolaholics and we simply can't kick the stuff...not that we really want to. But when you stop to think about it, what do we really know about chocolate? It's like we've been having a love affair with chocolate for years, and suddenly we realize we don't even know its last name! Well have no fear! Young Audiences has been doing some snooping into chocolate's past, and we've got all of the facts for you. There's a lot of history here so we hope you're hungry!
Before we start, we need to learn a new word: Cacao (Ka-KOW). Cacao refers to the plant and beans of the cacao tree, which grows in the tropical rain forests of South and Central America and from which chocolate is made. These little beans, deep inside the jungles of history, are where our story begins.
Chocolate looks pretty good for its age when you consider that its origins date back over 2,000 years. The ancient civilizations of Mexico and South America are considered by most historians the first people to make chocolate. Their version was not quite the sweet treat we know and love today. There were no brightly wrapped candy bars for the Aztecs. Instead, they mushed up cacao beans, mixed it with chili powder and water, and drank it warm (think chunky and spicy hot chocolate without the sugar. Yummy). The Mayans and the Aztecs both believed that chocolate had magical and medicinal properties. It made a man strong, healthy, and irresistible to the opposite sex.
The Aztecs believed that their god Quetzalcoatl had brought the cacao tree from paradise. It was a divine plant and was treated accordingly. Chocolate began to play a huge role in religious ceremonies. Priests would drink xocoatl and offer the beans to the gods in order to win their favor. If an Aztec sacrifice victim felt too melancholy before his grisly contribution to a religious ceremony, he was given a gourd of chocolate tinged with blood to cheer him up. How thoughtful of them!
Cacao beans became so valuable that they actually became a form of currency. According to a 16th century Aztec document, one cacao bean was worth one tamale and 100 beans were worth a good turkey hen. Anything you were going to buy, you bought it with cacao beans. Chocolate was so valuable, that it actually became the key to the Aztec's mighty empire.
Meanwhile, Europe had no idea that chocolate even existed. It wasn't until the 1500s when they were finally introduced to the miraculous bean. Legend has it that the great Aztec ruler, Montezuma, greeted Spanish conquistador Hernandos Cortes with a giant banquet and goblets of chocolate, having mistaken the explorer Quetzalcoatl, a decision that would ultimately doom the Aztec people. Understandably, the Spanish fell in love with chocolate. After defeating Montezuma's tribes in battle, Cortes and his men raided the Aztec treasure, which included massive stores of cacao beans, and took their trophies across the ocean to Spain.
With its long journey to Europe complete, chocolate won the hearts of the Europeans. Originally, they weren't too thrilled with the Aztec and Mayan's bitter drink, but at some point, someone had the brilliant idea of mixing sugar, honey, and cinnamon with the mush of cacao beans, and viola! sweetened chocolate was born. It wasn't until sometime in the 1600s that the rest of the continent learned the Spaniards' secret. Chocolate swept across Europe. The first chocolate house opened in 1657 in London. Much like the coffeehouses of today, it was a place to socialize, get a hot drink, and gamble.
The next few decades heralded in a new age for the sweet treat. Chocolate giants such as Cadbury, Nestle, Godiva, and Hershey's emerged, along with the chocolate bar, milk chocolate, and white chocolate. Eventually, it traveled back across the oceans to North America, finding its way into our hearts. In fact, it became so important, we even include chocolate in our soldiers' war rations!
Today, chocolate production is a 4-billion dollar industry! Chocolate empires like the ones mentioned above have become household names, as have their tasty products. New machines, techniques, and imaginations are constantly improving and recreating our beloved chocolate, making it something that most of us couldn't imagine living without. From just a humble little bean to a cultural phenomenon, there is something truly special about chocolate. Maybe the Aztecs had it right; maybe chocolate really is food from heaven!
If this delicious history wet your appetite, be sure to check out Young Audience's Chocolate Fest on September 15th, 2011!
Want to learn more?
The Field Museum of Chicago's Chocolate Exhibit
Here's what the Smithson has to say
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