The History of Chocolate, Chocolate history

 

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The History of Chocolate, Chocolate history :-

     If you can't imagine life without chocolate you're lucky you weren't born before the sixteenth century. Until then chocolate only existed in Mesoamerica uniform quite different from what we know as far back as 1900 B. C. E. the people of that region had learned to prepare the beans of the native kacau tree. 

         The earliest records tell us the beans were ground and mixed with corn meal and chili peppers to create a drink not a relaxing Cup of hot cocoa but a bitter invigorating concoction frothing with phone. And if you thought we make a big deal about chocolate today the meso Americans had us beat they believe that Kakao was a heavenly food gifted to humans by a feathered serpent god known to the Maya as Google con into the Aztecs as Quetzalcoatl. 

         Aztecs used kacau beans as currency and drank chocolate at royal feasts gave it to soldiers as a reward for success in battle and used in rituals the first trans Atlantic chocolate encounter occurred in 1519 when air non Cortez visited the court of Montezuma at TI notes declined as recorded by Cortez lieutenant the king had 50 jugs of the drink brought out and poured into golden cops when the colonists returned with shipments of the strange new bean missionaries salacious accounts of native customs gave it a reputation as an aphrodisiac. 

         At first it's bitter taste made it suitable as a medicine for ailments like upset stomachs but sweetening it with honey sugar or vanilla quickly made chocolate a popular delicacy in the Spanish court and soon no aristocratic home was complete without dedicated chocolate where. The fashionable drink was difficult and time consuming to produce on a large scale that involved using plantations and imported slave labor in the Caribbean and on islands off the coast of Africa. 

         The world of chocolate would change for ever in 1828 with the introduction of the cocoa press by Konrad van Houten of Amsterdam. Manhattan's invention could separate the Cocos natural fat or cocoa butter this left a powder that could be mixed into a drinkable solution or re combined with the cocoa butter to create the solid chocolate we know today. Not long after a Swiss chocolatier names Daniel Peter added powdered milk to the mix thus inventing milk chocolate. By the twentieth century chocolate was no longer any leak luxury but had become a treat for the public. Meeting the massive demand required more cultivation of cocoa which can only grow near the equator. Now instead of African slaves being shipped to south American cocoa plantations cocoa production itself would shift to West Africa with Cody while providing 2 fifths of the world's cocoa as of 2015 yes along with the growth of the industry there have been horrific abuses of human rights many of the plantations throughout West Africa which supply western companies used slave and child labor with an estimation of more than 2000000 children affected. This is a complex problem that persists despite efforts from major chocolate companies to partner with African nations to reduce child into indentured labor practices.

         Today chocolate has established itself in the rituals of our modern culture due to its colonial association with native cultures combined with the power of advertising chocolate retains an aura of something sensual decadent in forbidden yet knowing more about it's fascinating and often cruel history as well as its production today tells us where these associations originate and what the fight. So as you unwrap your next bar of chocolate take a moment to consider that not everything about chocolate is sweet.