The Resurgence of Chocolate
Cacao pods
Chocolate is having a resurgence. Rather than simply being thought of as a candy bar, we now recognize chocolate as a remarkably healthy substance that not only tastes amazing, but which contains beneficial antioxidants, minerals, and the alkaloid theobromine, a vascular dilator that lowers blood pressure.
Chocolate has a long and intriguing history which includes New Mexico. The Ancestral Puebloan peoples walked hundreds of miles down to what is Mexico today to trade turquoise with the Aztecs and Mayans for cacao beans over 1200 years ago. Very likely they were taught how to make it into a drink at that time, and learned its ritualistic significance. This evidence was found at Chaco Canyon by archeologists in 2008. While investigating rooms in the famous ruins there, they came across beautiful cylindrical pottery vases that contained remnants of chocolate. Carbon dating gave an age to this residue of over 1200 years before present!
The cacao tree was first discovered by humans over 2000 years ago. These trees were eventually domesticated by the Olmecs who called the preparations they made from its beans Kakawa. This beverage went on to be the ritual drink for the Aztecs and Mayans, who created plantations of the trees, and called the drink Cacao, the "Food of the Gods". Cacao beans were also used as currency. In the Americas, money really did grow on trees.
Kakaw (cacao) written in the Maya script
Chocolate did not become a bar until into the 1800's. Before that it was drunk in quite a few forms. The Spanish introduced it into their court in the late 1500’s, where it became a drink of choice for Royalty and very wealthy families. It was also touted as a medicine and travelled under that guise but was soon taken up as a drink of both leisure and by the consorts of the Louis's in France for its supposedly aphrodisiac effects .
The ubiquitous chocolate bar was first produced in England and Holland. Cocoa powder was created by Nestle in Switzerland. With these developments, chocolate moved from being an elite drink to the candy bar we know today. Additives like sugar, milk powder, and emulsifiers became common. In England and America quality was soon sacrificed for quantity, something that the Continent did not, for the most part, do.
With our new understanding of chocolate and its hidden properties, as well as its rich history in the Americas and Europe, the enjoyment of chocolate is experiencing a resurgence. Now with this resurgence we can once again deeply appreciate Chocolate for what it really is: a nearly magical substance.
About the author
Sita Jamieson Caddle has been leading History Walking Tours for the last nine years and Chocolate Tours for the last six. She brings a sense of wonder to the way history shapes present day, and how that which we take for granted can have an amazing story behind it. Sita runs Discovery Walking Tours, together with her business partner Allen Steele. You can find more information about the Chocolate Tour as well as History and other specialty tours on their website Santa Fe Discovery Walking Tours.