Over 5,000 years ago in the Amazon Basin, on the borders of todays northern Ecuador and southern Columbia, early horticulturists discovered the delights of chocolate. Spare a thought for these unnamed innovators when gifting chocolates this Valentines Day. As Michael Levine observed,"Chemically speaking, chocolate really is the world's perfect food." That is more than left for us by world leaders--past and present.
The domestication of the cacao tree,
Theobroma cacao, was extraordinary enough. Even more so was the creation of chocolate. As with so much of early culinary history, that is lost in the swirling mists of time.
The seeds--incorrectly called 'beans'--are contained in brightly-coloured pods growing directly on the trunks and heavier branches on the four-to-eight-metre-tall evergreen tree. Unlike many fruit, the flowers that produce these must first be pollinated by midges rather than bees.
However, the raw 'beans' will not yield chocolate. They must first be fermented, separated from the pulp, roasted and then ground into powder. Who discovered this and how they did so is yet another mystery. All we can determine is that traces of beverages made from cacao have been found in 3,900-year-old pottery from northwest South America.
Later, the trees and their precious produce travelled to modern day Mexico. There they flourished in the humid rainforests of the Pacific and Caribbean coasts. Raised by the Maya, the beans became a valuable currency under the Aztecs. And while the roots of cacao may evade us, here we are on firmer ground.
Many are the scenes of cacao production and imbibing in Mayan and Aztec depictions. We know then that additives such as chili pepper and vanilla were commonly used. Later, Spanish Conquistadors added to this record. Later, they introduced the delectable beverage to Europe--or was it their senoritas?
Certainly chocolate appeared on the European scene about the same time as tea but earlier than that other esteemed beverage, coffee. It took some time and not a little Old World ingenuity the very word, in the plural 'chocolates,' to become associated with delicious candy along with solidified bars of the same.
Mark this up to Old World mercantile know-how. As early as 1738, Fry and Sons of Bristol, England was producing powdered chocolate. In the next century, fellow Britons and, coincidentally also Quakers, John Cadbury and Joseph Rowntree joined in the pursuit of perfection.
Although by the mid-1700s the French had succeeded in producing chocolate bars, these were too brittle to form in moulds. The breakthrough came in 1828 through the Dutch chemist Coenraad Johannes Van Houten. Over in Britain, the Fry company followed this up in 1847 with a process that allowed for moulding. These were all 'dark' chocolate, largely the preferred form by many today. It is to the Cadbury in Britain and Nestle in Switzerland that we owe 'milk chocolate.' According to Professor Alyn Morice--head of cardiovascular and respiratory studies at the University of Hull, UK and founding member of the International Society for the Study of Cough--having a bar of 'milk chocolate' is better for a cough than over-the-counter cough medicine, media recently reported.
Nowadays, most production is horticulturally based on small plots. These are concentrated in the West African nations Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Cameroon and Nigeria, along with Indonesia and Brazil. But from whence the words 'chocolate'?
To the Maya, Ek Chuah was the god merchants and cacao growers; 'haa' was their word for chocolate and, incidentally, water. It is to their Aztec overlords that we owe the name 'cacao.' For them,
cacahuatl was chocolate obtained from the tongue-twister
cacahuacuauhuitl or cacao tree. More ominously, was
itzpacalatl, the chocolate drink given to sacrificial victims, a word that fortunately never entered modern usage. Botanically, the tree was scientifically christened
Theobroma cacao--'food of the gods.'
So why do the Brits direct you to "use your cocoa?" Simply because they misspelled the name when they imported the cacao beans. Many professionals writing on the subject prefer to use the word 'cacao.'
Food of the Gods comes from far off tropical locales. Back home in the garden, even on the windowsill, there can be 'Scent of the Gods.' In a sunny window, a Scented-Leaf Pelargonium,
P. quercifolium 'Chocolate Mint,' will flourish in a 6- to 8-inch clay pot. Outside, in an equally sun-blessed border perfume the garden with such as
Cosmos atrosanguineus 'Black Magic.' It blooms all summer long on plants to a couple of feet in height. Or how about the Chocolate-Scented Daisy,
Berlandiera lyrata? Again, up to 24-inches tall, but get out in the morning before the aroma fades. The stamens are said to taste like chocolate. For the herb garden, there is even a Chocolate Mint,
Mentha x
piperita piperita, but, like all mints, needs to be kept firmly under control although, kept moist it will tolerate light shade. The flowers of the vigorous Chocolate Vine (
Akebia quinata) from northeast Asia are indeed chocolate scented, but unfortunately it is invasive. There is even a chocolate-scented orchid,
Oncidium 'Sharry Baby,' for those willing to attempt to raise such exotics.
But will chocolate help with your love life? As far back as Dr. Henry Stubbes (1632-72) who was convinced, as were most of his contemporaries in England and on the Continent, that chocolate was an aphrodisiac, wrote Sophie D. Coe and Michael D. Coe. But never mind the experts. Charles M. Schulz summarized it for Valentines Day--or any other occasion: "All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt."
