The History of Chocolate (Part 2)

THE SPANISH ADVENTURERS

Although the Spanis explorer Hernan Cortes is a generally considered to be the first European to recognize the potential of Aztec chocolate, the initial discovery must be attributed to Christopher Columbus. In 1502, on his fourth and final voyage to the Carribean, Columbus reached the island of Guanaja off the Honduran coast. The story goes that he was greeted by Aztecs who offered him a sackful of what looked like large almonds in exchange for some of his own merchandise. Noticing his puzzlement, the Aztecs explained that a very special drink, tchocolatl (or xocolatl), could be made with these beans. Their chief demonstrated by having his servants prepare some on the spot. Columbus and his crew found the resulting dark and bitter concoction repellent but nevertheless took some cacao beans back to Spain for curiosity value, little realizing their future economic worth.

CACAO AS CURRENCY

When Hernan Cortes arrived in the New World seventeen years later, Montezuma II, the then Aztec Emperotm believed Cortes to be a reincarnation of Quetzalcoatl, the exiled Toltec god-king whose return had been predicted to take place in the same year. The confusion made it easy for Cortes to gain access to Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital, where Montezuma received him and his men with a royal welcome. The emperor offered them numerous gifts, including a cacao plantation, and an extravagant banquet was prepared in their honour. 

Despite the overwhelming welcome, Montezuma eventually realized that he had made a mistake and had wrongly identified the Spaniard. Immediately recognizing the insecurity of his position, Cortes enlisted the help of sympathetic natives and managed to take Montezuma prisoner. Withing the space of two or thress years he brought about the downfall of the Aztec kingdom. Unlike Columbus, Cortes quickly realized the enormous economic value of the cacao bean, both as food and a form of currency. A contemporary of Cortes reported that a slave could be bought for one hundred cacao beans, the services of a prostitute for ten, and a rabbit for four. The Jesuit, Pedro Martyre de Angleria, called the beans "pecuniary almonds" and described them as "blessed money, which exempts its possessors from avarice, since it cannot be hoarded or hidden underground". It is presumed that he was reffing to the fact that the beans could not be stored for long without rotting. 

    The writings of Thomas Gage, a seventeenth-century English Dominican friar, are a rich source of information on chocolate. Visiting the City of Mexico, Gage describes how the cacao bean is used as "both meat and current money". Basing the exchange rate on the Spanish real, which at that time (1625) was worth sixpence (2 1/2p), he explained that two hundred small cacao beans were worth one Spanish real, and "with these the Indians buy what they list, for fice, nay for two cacaos, which is a very small part of a real, they do buy fruits and the like".

THE CACAO PLANTATIONS

When Cortes set out on his voyage to the New World, his primary goal was to find El Dorado - Aztec gold. When he failed to unearth the dreamed-of riches, his attention turned to cacao beans. Having seen them used as currency, and noticing the importance attached to them, Cortes soon realized that money could literally be made to grow on trees. He devoted the next few years to exploiting the commercial potential of this "liquid gold" by setting up cacao plantations around the Carribean.

    Cacao was cheap to cultivate and reasonably profitable, and the prospect of easy riches attracted plenty of Spanish colonists. Before long, the Spanish had established plantations in Mexico, Ecuador, Venezuela, Peru, and the islands of Jamaica and Hispaniola (now called Haiti and the Dominican Republic). Caci production has since spread all over the world, but the plantations in these original regions still produce the most highly prized varieties of bean. 

THE SPANISH SECRET

The Spanish colonists had tried to keep the secret of cultivating and preparing cacao to themselves, and with good reason - they were making fat profits out of processing the beans in Latin America before shipping them to Europe. However the colonists did not remain in sole possession of their secret forever. In 1580, the first ever chocolate-processing plant was set up in Spain. From then on the popularity of chocolate gradually spread to other European countries. These, in turn, established their own plantations, trade routes and processing facilities. 

    The Dutch transplanted the tree to their East Indian states of Java and Sumatra in the early seventeenth century, and from there it spread to the Philippines, New Guinea, Samoa and Indonesia with a degree of financial success made possible by the exploitation of hundreds of thousands of African slaves. The French settled in Martinique in 1660, and in Brazil 1677, along with Portuguese. Trinidad was fought over by the Dutch, the French and the British for years; it eventually went to the British in 1802. In the early nineteenth century, the Portuguese successfully transplanted Brazilian cacao saplings to the island of Fernando Poo (now called Bioko) and West Africa. By the end of the nineteenth century, the Germans had settled in the Cameroons and the British in Sri Lanka. Plantations have since spread to South-East Asia, and Malaysia is now one of the world's leading producers. 

The Power of Chocolate

To the Aztecs, chocolate was a source of spiritual wisdom, tremendous energy and enhanced sexual powers. The drink was highly prized as a nuptial aid, and predictably, was the favourite beverage at wedding ceremonies. The Emperor Montezuma was reputed to get through fifty flagons of chocolate a day, always forifying himself with a cup before entering his harem.

    Although drunk on a daily basis, chocolate was still considered an exotic luxury and consumed primarily by kings, noblemen and the upper ranks of the priesthood. (Some historians say that priests would not have drunk chocolate, arguin that it would have been the equivalent of a priest quaffing champagne every day).

    Because of its renowned energy-boosting properties, chocolate was also given to Aztec warriors to fortify them on military campaigns. The chocolate was compressed into conveniently travel-sized tablets and wafers. Perhaps as a kind of incentive scheme a special law was instated declaring that unless warrior went to war, he was forbidden to drink chocolate or eat luxury meats, or wear cotton, flowers or feathers - even if he was a royal prince or nobleman. 

    The Spanish colonists, too, became infatuated by the chocolate mystique. Once they had become accustomed to the strangeness of the drink, they took to it with enthusiasm. The Jesuit, Jose de Acosta, wrote "The Spaniards, both men and women, that are accustomed to the country, are very greedy of this chocolate. They say they make diverse sortes of it, some hote, some colde, and put therein much of chili."

    Increasingly aware of its restorative values, Cortes convinced Carlos I of Spain of the enormous potential of this New World health food: "... the divine drink which builds up resistance and fights fatigue. A cup of this precious drink enables a man to walk for a whole day without food:.

    Thomas Gage was heavily reliant on it too. He wrote: "Two ir three hours after a good meal of three or four dishes of mutton, veal or beef, kid, turkeys or other fowles, our stomackes would bee ready to faint, and so wee were fain to support them with a cup of chocolatte".

RIGHTS, RITUALS AND CEREMONIES

The writings of New World travellers give us fascinating insights into the strange and sometimes barbaric rites, rituals and ceremonies attached to the cacao bean and the drinking of chocolate. 

    Religious rituals took place at different stages during cultivation. The Maya always held a planting festival in honour of the gods during which they sacrificed a dog with a cacao-colored spot in its hari. Another practice, calling for a certain amount of commitment, required the planters to remain celibate for thirteen nights. They were allowed to return to their wives on the fourteenth night, and then the beans were sown. Another somewhat gory planting ceremony involved placing the seeds in small bowls before performing secret rites in the presence of an idol . Blood was then drawn from different parts of the human body and used to anoint the idol.. Other practices include sprinkling "the blood of slain fowls" over the land to be sown. There were also tales of frenzied dancing, orgiastic rituals, and bloody sacrifices. The sixteenth-century Italian historian and traveller, Girolamo Benzoni, recorded that during festivals "they used to spend all the day and half the night in dancing with only cacao for nourishment". Another legend tells of how, as a prize, the winner of a type of ball game would  be offered as a sacrifice. The unfortunate man was first fed vast quantities of chocolate in order "to colour his blood" before his heart was cut out and presented to the gods, who, it was believed, would be honoured by the chocolate-rich blood.

    Another use of chocolate was as a face paint with which the Aztecs adorned themselves in religious ceremonies. Even the early Spanish planters believed that secret rites were necessary for a successful crop and performed planting ceremonies. From its earliest days, then chocolate was regarded as a substance of power, a gift from the gods, a source of vitality of life. 

The History of Chocolate (Part 1)

DRINK OF THE GODS

The origins of the solid, sensuous and, to some, addictive substance we know as chocolate are rooted in New World prehistory in the mysterious realm of the Olmec and the Maya. It was these ancient Mesoamerican civilizations living in the heart of equatorial Central America who were responsible for cultivating the tree from which chocolate is derived. 

THE OLMEC 

Three thousand years ago the Olmec people, one of the earliest Mesoamerican civilizations, occupied an area of tropical forests south of Veracruz on the Gulf of Mexico. Modern linguists have managed to reconstruct the ancient Olmec vocabulary and have found that it includes the word "cacao". Given the cacao tree's requirement for hot, humid and shady conditions, such as the land of the Olmecs, many historuan are certain that the first civilization to cultivate the tree was the Olmec, and not the Aztecs, as is commonly believed. 

THE MAYA

    Around the fourth century AD, several centuries after the demise of the Olmex, the Maya had established themselves in a large region just south of present-day Mexico, stretching from the Yucatan peninsula in Central America across to the Chiapas and the Pacific coast of Guetamala. The humid climate there was perfect for the cacao tree, and it flourished happily in the shade of the tropical forest. 

    The Maya called the tree cacahuaquchtl - "tree"- as far as they were concerned, there was no other tree worth naming. They believed that the tree belonged to the gods and that the pods growing from its trunk were an offering from the gods to man. 

    The period around AD 300, known as the Classic Mayan civilization, was a time of great artistic, intellectual and spiritual development. The Maya built magnificent stone palaces and temples, carving into the sacred walls images of cacao pods - for them the symbol of life and fertility.

    Known as "the people of the book", the Maya also devised a system of hieroglyphics, which were written down on fragile sheets of bark paper. Today only four of the Maya's books survive, and these are all from the post Classic period. The books are full of drawings of gods who are depicted performing various religious rituals in which cacao pods frequently appear, and the text often refers to cacao as the god's food. 

    The Maya were the originators of a bitter brew made from cacao beans. This was a luxury drink enjoyed by kings and noblemen, and also used to solemnize sacred rituals. In their books the Maya describe several ways of making and flavoring the brew. It could be anything from porridge thickened with ground maize meal, to a thinner concoction for drinking. An early picture shows the dark brown liquid being poured from one vessel to another to produce an all-important froth. Various spices were used as flavorings, the favorite being hot chilli.

    More evidence of Maya use of cacao survives on the many painted vessels that have been unearthed from their burial grounds. A tomb excavated in Guetamala in 1984 contained several vessels obviously used for chocolate drinking. One exotic and beautiful specimen bears the Mayan symbol for chocolate on its lid and was found still to contain residues of the drink.

THE TOLTECS AND AZTECS

After the mysterious fall of the Mayan empire around AD 00, the gifted and supremely civilized Toltecs, later followed by the Aztecs from Mexico, settled in former Mayan territory. Quetzalcoatl, the Toltec king, was also believed to be the god of air, whose mission was to bring the seeds of the cacao tree from Eden to man and to teach mortals how to cultivate various crops.

    Because of political uprisings, Quetzalcoatl and his followers left the capital and fled south to the Yucatan. During a period of ill health he was persuaded to drink a mysterious cure, which, in fact, drove him insane. Convinced he must leave his kingdom, Quetzalcoatl sailed away on a small raft, promising to return in a preordained year to reclaim his kingdom. The legend of his exile became part of Aztec mythology, and astrologers predicted that in 1519 a white faced king would return to release his people. This belief was to influence the whole future of the New World.