World Chocolate Day

Today is World Chocolate Day!

Chocolate is a rather delicious substance mainly produced from cocoa beans. The plants that produce these beans are native to the tropical areas of the Americas, mainly in South America. This plant was first domesticated around 5,300 years ago in what is now Ecuador by the Mayo-Chinchipe. They served it as a bitter drink mixed with spices and corn. This would spread to Latin America, where there is a modern descendant of this drink served in southern Mexico and Central America: Chilate. From there, it would spread further to Pueblo peoples in what is now the Southwest USA. The Maya used chocolate for medicinal and ceremonial purposes. It was also seen as a luxury drink by the Aztecs.

The word "chocolate"'s exact origins are not exactly clear. The word was first recorded in English in 1604 and Spanish in 1579. There are theories that it descended from words in the Nahuatl or Nawat languages, but that is also debated. 

Chocolate would be introduced to Europeans in the 16th century, thanks to Christopher Columbus. Columbus seized a canoe used by natives to trade. Said canoe had cocoa beans on it. However, it would be Spanish friars that would make the big impact, thanks to them introducing chocolate to the Spanish royals. It was originally a luxury item, enjoyed only by the rich, where sugar was added to counter its natural bitterness. But when the steam engine was invented in the 1700s, it became possible to mass-produce chocolate. It would also help lead to the rise of the transatlantic slave trade thanks to the Portuguese introducing the cocoa crop to Africa after their South American colonies gained independence.

Over time, various improvements in technology would make chocolate more accessible to the common man, like Walter Churchman's mechanical cocoa grinder in 1729. Dutch chemist Coenradd van Houten's father patented a press that removed half the natural fat from chocolate in 1828. Houten discovered how to treat cocoa mass with alkaline salts to not only remove chocolate's natural bitter taste as well as make it more water-soluble. This led to the creation of Dutch processed chocolate. These innovations, among others, made chocolate cheaper and easier to produce, also allowing its transition from strictly a drink to something a person can eat like a food. It would take until the 1860s for wide usage of cocoa butter.

In 1847, the chocolate firm J. S. Fry & Sons created a method to mix cocoa butter with cocoa powder and sugar to create the first chocolate bars.

In the late 19th century, several chocolate companies were born. Some are still around today, like Cadbury and Hershey. In 1875, Swiss chocolatier and entrepreneur Daniel Peter could create modern milk chocolate, which would grow popular with the dawn of the 20th century. Concerns about the treatment of cocoa growers would lead to the rise in demand of fair trade chocolate in the 21st century. 

Chocolate has had a long and fascinating history which fits its long journey to become the beloved sweet treat we know it as today. If you want to learn more, you can read here and here. Thanks for reading this blog entry and treat yourself to some chocolate! If you liked it, show it off! Take care of yourselves and each other! If you like what I write and want to give this blog some additional support, please make a donation to my Ko-fi! See you next time!