| History
& Description of Chocolate - The Condensed Version
We would
like to bring you a brief history of this mysterious and wonderful
food. And invite you to enjoy our beautiful, scrumptious tokens
of what can become of chocolate when we work our magic!
Historians believe that around 1500 BC the Maya of the Yucatan
Peninsula & Central America and the Aztecs of Mexico were
the first peoples to use Cacao. It was believed to be divinely
inspired - a gift from the god Quetzalcoatl, who brought the
seeds of the cacao tree from the Garden of Life and gave them
to Man. Chocolatl, as the Aztecs called it, was given to the
gods and reserved for the truly elite which was taken as a
foamy drink mixed with maize (corn) and other spices. Holding
true to its divine roots, In 1753 the great Swedish scientist
and naturalist Linnaeus named the tree from which the cocoa
bean grows Theobroma Cacao “food of the gods.”
Christopher Columbus, who never actually tasted cacao, was
the first to chronical the value that these beans held to
it’s people. As the story goes, in the water near the
island of Guanaja (north of Honduras) Ferdinand Columbus (Christopher’s
son) captured a great Maya trading canoe. On board slaves
were transporting materials for trade and provisions for their
journey. About these provisions, the chronicler Peter Martyr
writes: “...they had many of those almonds which in
New Spain (Mexico) are used for money. They seemed to hold
these almonds at a great price; for when they were brought
on board ship together with their goods, I observed that when
any of these almonds fell, they all stooped to pick it up,
as if an eye had fallen.” A Mexican document from around
1550 lists the following prices: One good turkey hen equals
100 full cacao beans, a tom turkey is worth 200. One jackrabbit
equals 100 beans, one small rabbit trades for 30. A turkey
egg or a fish wrapped in maize husks will cost 3 cacao beans
each, and a tamale is exchanged for one cacao bean.
With a few exceptions, the cacao tree will not bear fruit
outside a band of 20° north and south of the equator.
It requires year-round moisture, temperatures above 60°,
and is vulnerable to a host of diseases. Of the many flowers
on a tree only 1 - 3% actually bear fruit. The fruit is a
large pod containing 30 to 40 almond-shaped seeds or “beans”
surrounded by sweet juicy pulp. It takes 400 beans just to
make one pound of chocolate! Second, the harvest is very labor
intensive. Once the pods are opened by hand and the pulp removed,
there are 4 major steps (fermentation, drying, roasting and
winnowing) required to produce the cacao “nibs”,
which are later ground into cocoa liqueur.
Sometime in the late 1600’s chocolate was brought to
Europe and again enjoyed only by the elite. As in Meso America,
they added chili’s, vanilla and other spices, but they
are credited for adding one ingredient that changed chocolate
forever, sugar. The manufacturing process which turns the
nibs into what is known in the trade as “cacao liquor”
requires great skill and expensive processing equipment. One
half of the dried nib is cocoa; the other half is fat or cocoa
butter. During the manufacturing process cocoa butter is removed
and later added back in. The quantity that is returned will
determine the quality of the final product. Really fine dark
chocolate has upwards of 60% cacao solids or cacao liquor.
In 1867 the Swiss chemist Henri Nestle and Swiss chocolate
manufacturer Daniel Peter added milk solids to chocolate and
created the first milk chocolate product. And around the same
time, Rudolphe Lindt invented “conching.” By pulverizing
cocoa nibs and sugar together Lindt discovered that he could
create a smooth creamy fondant-like chocolate. The weight
and friction of the nibs being crushed between heavy rollers
allows heat to build and chocolate paste to develop it’s
desired flavor and wonderful smooth and silky “mouth-feel.”
As you can see, chocolate has gone through quite a transformation
and has reached a level where it is finally available to people
of all ages and social classes. And yet, very fine chocolates
continue to be a sophisticated adult indulgence. Now scientists
are proving what the Mayans and Aztecs knew all along, that
chocolate is actually quite good for us. For starters, the
chemical Phenylethylamine which is found in chocolate is associated
with feelings of happiness and bliss. There are definite connections
between chocolate and mood. Chocolate draws 50% of its calories
from sugar and 50% from fat - a combination found in no other
food. “That unique mixture of fat and sugar is pure
heaven to our brains. Chemically speaking chocolate really
is the world’s perfect food.” says nutrition researcher
Michael Levine. It seems you only have to pick up the health
section of any major newspaper these days to learn of the
many gifts that chocolate continues to bring. Chocolate is
Mother Nature’s best-kept secret. We still haven’t
unlocked all of its mysteries, and reproducing it is out of
the question.
So
go ahead, indulge your passion for chocolate and order some
chocolate truffles, hand-made caramels, or chocolate turtles
today. These wonderful confections are perfect holiday gifts,
wedding favors, unique corporate gifts, wedding shower favors,
chocolate gift baskets, or almost any other occasion you can
think of!
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