Chocolics

Forest Gump and his momma knew best: "Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get!" Creamy, mouth-watering, delicious chocolate delight melts in your mouth. Rhetoric aside, the history of chocolate has moved in constant evolution throughout world history. Consumers question chocolate's benefits, is chocolate a "sinful delight" or is chocolate a "healthy delight"? No matter how the corporate and media world spin or shape the milky candy, the popular chocolate confection stands strong in the global market, healthy or not. Chocolate represents a world culture of courtship and consumerism.

Corporate chocolate pushers inundate the internet, radio and television with their consumer-driven holidays saying, "Buy our chocolate and you will be loved! Buy our chocolate and escape the real world with every chocolaty, savory bite!" Nancy Normal's boyfriend-candidate runs out to buy her flowers and a box of heart-shaped chocolate, before their very first date. Dick and Jane Doe buy their kids chocolates for Easter, Christmas, Hanukkah and Valentine's Day. Holidays and courting paired together with chocolate in the same way fast food franchises pair hamburgers and fries in their marketing campaign. Corporations send consumers these messages via commercials, resulting in sales increases. Production and sales of chocolates thrive off the mindset that chocolate equals love. This same mindset also equates to consumers associating this in a change in how they feel. Chocolate makes you feel good, buy some today for yourself or the ones you love. Chocolate is known not only as a gift to loved ones, but as a tasty escape from the real world. So, Mrs. Gump was right about chocolate. Life, like chocolate, excites, delights and gives much more than what can be seen in the pretty packaging.

Sociologists spin the significance of chocolate based on how it affects a global culture and economy. Culturally, chocolate represents an important role in the dating rituals, potentially propelling a successful courtship. Courtship rituals can include one person giving chocolates and flowers to the object of his or her affection, as a thoughtful gesture. The seemingly minor role of giving chocolate as only one of many courtship rituals remains significant and common practice in many different cultures world wide. Chocolate represents a small promise from one to another: "I'll be thoughtful and sweet in the future. Pick me! Pick me!" Chocolate plays many roles in the world's culture of love and economics. Love and capitalism correlate to chocolate during the millennium. Chocolate brings lovers together. Chocolate contributes to the economy of a country, creating jobs during the production and sales of the sweet creation. In many ways, the simple and delectable; yet culturally complex morsel of chocolate reflects the modern life.

Imagine if someone set a mug in front of you that held something that looked like mud, dark brown and thick and oily. Being polite, you take a sip. It's bitter - and spicy from the chili peppers they put in to try to make it taste better. You'd wonder why this drink was served with such ceremony- Why is it so precious?

This was the early history of chocolate. And if you drank the cup, you would find that you felt better, your mood would almost instantly lift.

But that taste…

Then the Aztecs got a hold of it. They added vanilla bean and honey instead of the chili peppers. It was considered so precious that only royalty was allowed to drink it. Aztec legend says that a god was kicked out of the heavens for allowing mere mortals to have this precious drink.

Montezuma's court drank over 2000 cups a day. Montezuma himself was said to drink 50 cups a day himself, and always drank a cup before visiting his harem.

Then the Spanish got a hold of it. The effects of this not so great tasting drink were so astounding, they felt that they had to keep it to themselves – and they did – for 100 years. But then, Chocoholic Queen Anne of Austria (formerly Princess Anne of Spain), married Louis XIII of France. Up to this point, chocolate was so hard to produce, and such high demand, that only royalty could possible afford it. Slaves were used to increase production from the plantations, and as you can imagine, it was not a great working environment. Working to supply addicts can be pretty tough. Addicts get pretty testy if their drug supply is in danger. But the chocolate addiction was about to get more civilized.

Chocolate gradually spread through Italy, England, Switzerland, and Holland. Each country worked diligently to make this magic elixir taste better. The Dutch invented the process which makes the chocolate less bitter. The Swiss made the chocolate creamier and lighter. The Swiss and the U.S. found ways to mass produce it so we can all enjoy it. Whew. Finally! It only took about 1500 years.

Here's a few more chocolate facts - Casanova drank chocolate to improve his love-making. M & Ms were invented so that soldiers could carry chocolate with them. It was issued as nutrition. Toll-House Cookies were invented by accident. The owner of the Toll-House Inn was making a dessert when she found that she had run out of Baker's chocolate. All she had was a Nestle chocolate bar. She broke it into little pieces and mixed it into her dough. But to her dismay, the chocolate didn't melt completely. Fortunately, everyone loved the new cookies. Nestle gave her a lifetime supply of chocolate for exclusive rights to the recipe. I wonder what that was worth?

Though the chocolate today hardly resembles the chocolate of early times, they are finding that it is still good for your heart and your mood. What a sweet addiction!

The tasty secret of the cacao (kah KOW) tree was discovered 2,000 years ago in the tropical rainforests of the Americas. The pods of this tree contain seeds that can be processed into chocolate. The story of how chocolate grew from a local Mesoamerican beverage into a global sweet encompasses many cultures and continents.

The first people known to have made chocolate were the ancient cultures of Mexico and Central America.

These people, including the Maya and Aztec, mixed ground cacao seeds with various seasonings to make a spicy, frothy drink.

Later, the Spanish conquistadors brought the seeds back home to Spain, where new recipes were created. Eventually, and the drink’s popularity spread throughout Europe. Since then, new technologies and innovations have changed the texture and taste of chocolate, but it still remains one of the world’s favorite flavors.

We tend to think of chocolate as a sweet candy created during modern times. But actually, chocolate dates back to the ancient peoples of Mesoamerica who drank chocolate as a bitter beverage. For these people, chocolate wasn’t just a favorite food—it also played an important role in their religious and social lives. The ancient Maya grew cacao and made it into a beverage. The first people clearly known to have discovered the secret of cacao were the Classic Period Maya (250-900 C.E. [A.D.]). The Maya and their ancestors in Mesoamerica took the tree from the rainforest and grew it in their own backyards, where they harvested, fermented, roasted, and ground the seeds into a paste.
When mixed with water, chile peppers, cornmeal, and other ingredients, this paste made a frothy, spicy chocolate drink. The Aztecs adopted cacao. By 1400, the Aztec empire dominated a sizeable segment of Mesoamerica. The Aztecs traded with Maya and other peoples for cacao and often required that citizens and conquered peoples pay their tribute in cacao seeds—a form of Aztec money. Like the earlier Maya, the Aztecs also consumed their bitter chocolate drink seasoned with spices—sugar was an agricultural product unavailable to the ancient Mesoamericans.
Drinking chocolate was an important part of Maya and Aztec life.

Many people in Classic Period Maya society could drink chocolate at least on occasion, although it was a particularly favored beverage for royalty. But in Aztec society, primarily rulers, priests, decorated soldiers, and honored merchants could partake of this sacred brew.

Chocolate also played a special role in both Maya and Aztec royal and religious events. Priests presented cacao seeds as offerings to the gods and served chocolate drinks during sacred ceremonies.