Chocolate’s history — dark, rich and intense

Cacao seeds and fruit

Chocolate — the mere mention of its name brings, for most of us, a desire to tantalize our taste buds with at least a tidbit of the tempting treat whose official scientific name is “Theobroma cacao” — “food of the gods.”

Chocolate’s long history starts in the tropical rainforests near the equator. Its story may have begun with the Olmec people who inhabited what is now Mexico almost 3,000 years ago. However, the earliest clear record of humans consuming chocolate is the Maya, around 1,500 years ago. The Maya lived in the same region as the earlier Olmecs and built a great civilization that included huge temples, hieroglyphics, accurate calendars — and a passion for chocolate. From what remains of their art and hieroglyphics, it is known that the Maya held chocolate (made from the seeds of the cacao tree) in highest esteem and even offered it to their gods.

Quetzalcóatl

Instead of eating chocolate, the Maya drank it from pots and added spices to it. So did the Aztecs, who followed in the Mayan footsteps and rose to power around 1200 A.D. They ruled over a wide empire centered in Tenochtitlán, located in what is today Mexico City. Because their lands were outside of, but close to, the rainforests of Central America, they traded for the cacao seeds or demanded them as payment from the people they conquered. They, too, offered chocolate to their god, Quetzalcóatl.  

Montezuma II, the last Aztec emperor, was said to have a warehouse that contained 960 million cacao seeds (which would be enough to make 25 million chocolate bars today). He needed a large supply — the ruler, his court, guards and servants drank about 2,000 pots each day.

Both chocolate and the Aztec world encountered many changes shortly after Christopher Columbus reached the Americas in 1492. The Spanish conquistadors — soldiers looking for gold, followed him. Hernando Cortés, the leader of the Spanish army that defeated the Aztecs, called chocolate “the divine drink which fights fatigue.” For the most part, that chocolate drink was bitter, harsh and spicy-hot to the tongue. But, sugar changed all that.

The Spaniards invented a drink that became all the rage by adding sugar to crushed cacao seeds and mixing both with water. The rest of Europe was unaware of the new Spanish drink for quite a while as some of the first chocolate makers were monks, hidden away in monasteries. It is said that a Spanish princess brought chocolate from Spain to France around 1630.

As chocolate spread so did its popularity. “Chocolate houses” — meeting places for drinking chocolate or coffee and arguing about politics — became the stylish places to be seen in the 1600s. Debates arose, just as they do today, about the effects of chocolate on health. Some people even said, “Drinking chocolate could cause a person to fall in love.”

Chocolate and sugar were both very expensive and the drink was reserved for the upper classes. Then, in 1828 a Dutch inventor, named Coenraad Van Houten, built a press that could separate the shelled, crushed cacao seeds (known as chocolate liquor) into their two distinct parts: a fatty part (called cocoa butter) and a purer chocolate part. Van Houten’s invention changed the world of chocolate forever — no longer was it only available in liquid form but now chocolate makers could mold candy bars by mixing chocolate liquor with smaller portions of cocoa butter and sugar.

Other inventions occurred over time and each of them helped to improve the quality of chocolate until it has reached the wonderful creation, in its wide variety of forms, that we know today. Modern-day factories turn out thousands of candy bars and chocolate treats every hour — making it available not only for special occasions but every day of the year.

How chocolate became associated with Valentine’s Day is another story in itself. Every year Americans spend more than $1 billion on candy (much of it chocolate) in celebration of St. Valentine’s Day — Feb. 14.

St. Valentine was traditionally honored on his Feb. 14 feast day up until 1969 when the church dropped the day from the official Roman Catholic calendar. “His” history was unclear as the Roman Martyrology lists two early martyrs named Valentine on Feb. 14. One was a priest, likely of Rome, who is said to have died under the persecution of Claudius II. The other Valentine is said to have been the bishop of Terni, Italy. Because these men lived so long ago, their legacies are based on legend rather than fact, which is the reason the church made the change.

Legend or not, Valentine’s Day is here to stay in the secular world. It has become not only a special day for “lovers” but also a day for remembering all those whom we love. Chocolate often plays its role in helping us make others feel special whether they are our spouses, girlfriends or boyfriends, parents, children, grandchildren, friends or co-workers. CJK

Tomorrow’s special treat: A surprisingly easy recipe for homemade chocolate covered cherries.