"Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get." Do you still remember this statement? Well, this famous quote from Forrest Gump is in fact not completely true. And you certainly wouldn't agree with this statement either, would you? You can indeed find out exactly what's inside a bar of chocolate by examining the lists of ingredients and nutrition information written on its box or its cover. Otherwise you would never consume chocolate again because you're not sure what benefits you might get from it. The fact is, besides its wonderful taste, chocolate contains a wide range of vitamins and minerals that the body needs, including potassium, sodium, iron, fluorine, and vitamins A, B1, C, D, and E. That's why chocolate is very popular nowadays.
Source: http://blog.soliditytrade.com/harvesting-cocoa-beans-to-produce-cocoa-butter/Do you know how it has become the favorite snack of millions? Well, chocolate was unknown before Columbus "discovered" America. Coming back in triumph from the New World, he gave among the other loot he took from the conquered Aztec tribe - some cocoa beans to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. Then his fellow explorer, Hernando Cortez, introduced chocolate to a very select group of people there. Gradually its popularity grew among the noble and rich people in European countries and then spread widely throughout the world.
The Origin of Chocolate
It is said that the word 'chocolate' comes from the Mayan word xocoatl and the Aztec word cacahautl, which means "bitter water." But some people insist that the origin is derived from the native Mexican word choco meaning "foam" and atl, meaning "water".
Mesoamericans believed the beans from the cacao tree (Theobroma cacao) came from Paradise. According to legend, the god Quetzalcoatl came to Earth in the light of Morning Star with a cacao tree and guided the people how to make the beans into a drink because it brought wisdom and knowledge to those who consumed it. For that reason, a part of ritual in Mesoamerican marriages in the 1100s was sharing a well-mixed chocolate drink. Before the Swedish naturalist Carolus Linnaeus decided to call the plant as only "cacao" or "cocoa", Theobroma cacao didn't have its permanent name. Theobroma is Greek for "food of the gods."
The Fabolous Montezuma
Cocoa beans were discovered by the ancient Mayan and Aztec populations of what is now Mexico, Central America, and the northern part of South America thousands of years ago. They established the first known cocoa plantations around 600 A D in the northern part of South America. They considered this bean such a valuable commodity that they used it as currency. But the chocolate of the Mayans and Aztecs was very different from the one we eat today; it tasted extremely bitter.
One of the well-known figures from the Mesoamerican tribes who were crazy about consuming a drink made a chocolate was King Montezuma. He was said to have consumed up to fifty or more portions of chocolate every day. When Spanish exlorer Hernando Cortez came to visit him in 1519, he gave his guest xocoatl. Returning to Spain, Cortez didn't tell other people about his new finding. Instead, he planted and processed cacao in monasteries. When he found out that this commodity was much coveted, especially when tailored to European tastes, he decided to make it into a good business. Since then the Spanish continued growing cacao on plantations in their overseas colonies, including some South East Asian countries because this kind of tree grows well only in rain forests and tropical forests within 10 to 20 degrees latitude of the equator.
Source: http://fiksi.kompasiana.com/prosa/2010/02/25/14-hari-untuk-cinta-11-chocolate%E2%80%99amore/From Drinking to Munching
Originally chocolate was processed and consumed as a kind of beverage. The Mayan and Aztec tribes didn't chew or munch on a solid bar of chocolate like we do today. These tribes took cacao beans (what we call cocoa beans) from the cacao tree (Theobroma cacao). Then they pressed the beans and mixed them with spices in hot water to make a bitter drink.
When it was introduced in Europe, however, cacao underwent an evolution both in taste and in the form of its substance. A drink that tastes bitter didn't seem to be Europe's cup of tea. So, when Hernando Cortez introduced chocolate to the Europeans, he managed to adjust it to their taste by replacing chili pepper with sugar to sweeten it and adding some other ingredients like vanilla and wine. This in turn resulted in the spreading popularity of chocolate drinks among the noble and rich throughout Europe.
The wide availability of the new commodity at that time enabled people to experiment with new methods of making foodstuffs from chocolate in addition to beverages. The result was cakes, pastries, and sorbets made of chocolate. Since then people have continued to develop the technology of chocolate making and production. The Dutch chocolate maker Conrad J. Van Houten, for example, created a machine -a hydraulic press- that could reduce the cocoa butter content by nearly half. After being made into a fine powder, cocoa was combined with potassium or sodium carbonates so that the powder would mix more easily with water. This so-called "Dutching" was the first patented process of chocolate making. Van Houten's invention of chocolate powder made it possible to combine chocolate with sugar and then remix it with cocoa butter to create a solid substance. And that is the chocolate you munch on today. So, to all you chocolate lovers out there, ENJOY!
Source:
Cn'S, Volume 1 No. 3 October - November 2001
Cn'S, Volume 1 No. 3 October - November 2001
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