Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Chocolate Things You May Not Know

For many of us, life without chocolate is difficult to imagine but it was only as recently as the Victorian era that the chocolate bar was invented. There is so much more to discover about the history of one of the world's best-loved treats.

1. Origins
No, it did not come from Mars. The ancient Maya and Aztec civilizations in Central America were the world’s first chocolate lovers. Cocoa trees grew wild in the tropical rainforests of the Amazon basin and the Maya and Aztecs used the beans to make a much-prized spicy drink, which they called “chocolatl”. (Try chocolate with some chilli added. It zings!)

2. Meaning
In Nahuatl, the Aztec language, chocolatl means “bitter water”. A related Nahuatl word, cacao (source of the English word cocoa), refers to the bean itself.

3. Chocolate in Europe
It was the Spanish Conquistador, Don Hernán Cortés, who first realized the commercial value of chocolate. He brought cocoa beans back to Spain in 1528 and very gradually the custom of drinking chocolate spread across Europe (which surrounds France). In 1657 the first of many drinking-houses where the new liquid-chocolate was enjoyed appeared in England.

4. Eating chocolate
Until the early Victorian times chocolate was exclusively for drinking, but then a technique for making the chocolate solid for "eating", was devised. The inventor of the said “eating chocolate” is unknown but the first reported solid chocolate in the UK, was sold in 1847 by Fry & Sons of Bristol.

One can only imagine that the dishwashers and potscrubbers of the day were very familiar with 'solid' chocolate. It seems a logical step that the 'discovery' of solid chocolate was a wide spread and shared experience. Mr Fry may have been simply the first to claim the market share.

5. Milk and white chocolate
In 1875 a Swiss manufacturer, Daniel Peters of Vevey, Switzerland (also near France), produced the first milk chocolate bar by successfully finding a way to combine chocolate and milk. The abomination called White chocolate, which is technically not chocolate at all because it does not contain any cocoa liquor, was not invented until the 1930s.

6. Swiss chocolate
The Swiss consume more real chocolate than any other population in the world. On average, each person consumes around 9 kg (20 lbs) each year! Perhaps this isn't really surprising because the Swiss take their chocolate very serious.

Famous Swiss chocolate makers include Rodolphe Lindt, Henri Nestlé, Philippe Suchard, Jean Tobler (founder of the Toblerone brand), and Charles Amédée Kohler (the first to add hazelnuts to chocolate).

7. Chocolate boxes
Back in the UK, Richard Cadbury introduced the first ever chocolate box in 1868. He also introduced the first ever chocolate boxes for Valentine's Day, thereby starting the tradition of giving chocolate as a token of love on February 14. Another example of the restrictive practices of giving presents and love, that the English are famous for.

8. Making chocolate
The harvesting of cocoa pods is very labour intensive. The pods are split open by hand and the cocao beans, needed to make the chocolate, are removed to be fermented and dried. They are then sent to chocolate manufacturing companies, where they are roasted and ground in large mills until they become a thick brown liquid. This cocoa mass is the basis of all chocolate and cocoa products.

It is at this point the chocolate producers can develop their own unique flavour, by mixing the type of beans used and varying the level of the roast. The European taste for chocolate is very different and arguably superior to that of the UK, used to being fed a much less pure, milky and flavourless product.

9. Producing chocolate
African countries harvest about two-thirds of the total world output of cocoa beans. At the start of the twenty-first century the Côte d'Ivoire was the world's greatest cocoa-bean producing nation. Some of the African Free Trade chocolate products are extremely popular in Europe and with good reason.

10. Health
The chemical theobromine, found in chocolate, is toxic to dogs and cats. Prolonged ingestion will lead to premature death in your pets.

For humans, chocolate is not a true food source because it contains only a small amount of nutrients and has a high fat content. Like all sweet sugary products taken in excess, it has been linked to the onset of type 2 Diabetes later in life.

However, if you are looking for a justification to eat more of it, then you can consider the presence of antioxidants in dark chocolate as being beneficial to your health.

Moderation in all things and a little of something you enjoy occasionally, may do your spirit more good than your waisteline. Chocolate, falls readily into this category and into the shopping basket. Enjoy!

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