Diploma in Advanced Culinary Arts | Baking & Patisserie 332 chocol and replacing the Mayan term for water with the Aztec term, “atl." History Chocolate is native to Tropical South America, cacao bean has been cultivated for well over 3000 years in Central America and Mexico, with its earliest documented use in 1100 BC. Chocolate was usually made into beverages in both Mayan and Aztec cultures. Recent studies have also found that the white pulp that surround the beans were most likely used as a source of fermentable sugars for alcoholic drinks. It was also considered an important luxury good in Mesoamerica and the cocoa beans were even used as currency. It has also been used to treat diarrhoea for hundreds of years in European and South American cultures. It was not until the 16th century, the Spanish conquest of the Aztecs, that chocolate could be imported to Europe, where it quickly became a favourite of the rich. To keep up with a high demand for the new wonder drink, Spanish armies began enslaving Mesoamericans to produce cacao. Even when cacao harvesting become a regular business, only royalty and the well-connected could afford to drink this expensive product. Before long, the Spanish began growing cacao beans and using an African workforce to help manage and tend to them. The situation was different in England. Anyone with money could buy it. The first ever “chocolate house” in the world opened its doors in London (1657). In 1689, Hans Sloane developed a milk chocolate drink (in Jamaica) which was initially only used by apothecaries. This beverage was later sold to the Cadbury brothers. For so long,, the chocolate making process remained unchanged. On the arrival of the Industrial Revolution, many changes occurred in terms of improved machinery and equipment. In the 1700s, mechanical mills were created that squeezed out cocoa butter, which in turn helped create hard, durable chocolate. Soon after the revolution cooled down, companies began advertising and sold many of the chocolate treats that we continue to see even today. The Cocoa Plant and its sources The Cocoa bean which gives us both Cocoa and chocolate is grown on the “Theobroma Cacao” or ‘Cocoa Tree’. The first cocoa trees most probably originated in the Amazon Forest more than four thousand years ago. It is cultivated only in West Africa, northern and central South America the Caribbean and some parts of Asia between the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. The cocoa tree is extremely sensitive and so the young seeds are grown in special nurseries, after a few months they are transplanted to the Cocoa plantation. They need protection from wind and excessive sunlight. This is often provided by banana, coconut or lemon trees known as ‘Cocoa Mothers’ which are planted nearby.
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