Author: Meng Xiayun (Lecturer, China Foreign Affairs University)
Some countries designate July 7 as "Chocolate Day", which dates back to 2009 to commemorate the introduction of chocolate from the Americas to Europe on July 7, 1550. People never thought that thousands of years ago, a tropical plant derived food actually occupied half of modern people's daily dessert recipes, whether it is dark chocolate, milk chocolate, white chocolate, dried fruit chocolate, or cocoa custard, crispy cake, tiramisu, cookies and other desserts, or hot cocoa, chocolate coffee and other drinks, people's love for sweets makes the chocolate market scale show a trend of growth year by year. Europe's Switzerland, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Austria, Belgium, etc. have become the world's largest consumers of chocolate, of which Switzerland consumed 12 kg per capita in 2012.
The illustration depicts a 16th-century indigenous Mexican resident preparing chocolate. Profile picture
I. Ancient Past Life: "Food of the Gods"
The cocoa tree (Theobromacacao) was named by the 18th-century Swedish scientist Carlvon Linn [~symbol~] in 1753 with his own two-name method, which reflects the cultural encounter and confrontation between the old and new continents. Among them, Theobroma is derived from the Greek word meaning "food of the gods", because when the Spanish colonists arrived in the Americas, they found that the Aztecs living in Central America at that time regarded chocolate as a food gifted by the gods, and it was a luxury enjoyed by the Aztec aristocracy. In addition, it is also made into drinks and pastries to replace human blood in some important sacrificial ceremonies to show respect and gratitude to the gods. The cacao in the second half of the cacao tree's name is derived from the native language of the New World, alluding to the early history of chocolate. Linnaeus placed cacao, which originally belonged to the name of the New World, in the subordinate part of the scientific name of the cacao tree and gave the plant two names, a practice as intriguing as the clash of cultures between the old and new continents. In fact, today the Spanish word cacao means cocoa tree, cocoa bean or cocoa powder. According to the Spanish Royal Academy dictionary DRAE, the word cacao in Spanish is derived from Nahuatl, the indigenous language of Mexico and Central America, where cocoa is called cacahoatl or cacahuatl, meaning "bitter" and "chocolate"; The word is also derived from the Mayan chocol, meaning "hot" and "water." It is widely believed that the Aztecs learned the techniques of growing and using cocoa from the Mayans. So, did cocoa originate in the Mayan civilization?
A Mayan ceramic is painted with a foam chocolate container. Profile picture
In fact, the history of cocoa cultivation in the Americas may be much older, even before the Olmec civilization, one of the earliest civilizations in the Americas. Scientists detected by mass spectrometry by liquid chromatography that ancient porcelain 3,800 years ago contained alkaloids unique to the cocoa tree. It is speculated that the cacao tree originated in the northwestern Amazon basin, where it was first considered a wild fruit tree for harvesting before spreading from Ecuador to the Soconusco region in present-day Chiapas, Mexico. Around 1800 BC, locals invented the method of making cacao beans into chocolate, and since the region and the heart of Olmec speak the Mixe-Zoque language, the word "cocoa" happens to be derived from the word "kakawa" in the Misese-Sok language, which refers to the cocoa plant of the time. Therefore, from the perspective of etymology, the ancient name of modern chocolate is kakava. Today, people rarely use the science names Kakava or Linnaeus, and occasionally you can see dessert shops, coffee shops or chocolate companies named after Kakava on the streets of Latin American countries. In English, the cocoa plant and its unprocessed products are almost conventionally called "cacao" and the liquid or solid form of processed cocoa beans are called "chocolate".
II. Cocoa in the Mayan civilization
Because of the influence of the Olmec civilization, chocolate and its name "Kakava" in the Misese-Soc language spread through Mesoc generations, gradually accepted and absorbed by other new civilizations, and appeared in the Mayan civilization (2000 BC to around 1500 AD). Due to the lack of written records of early civilizations in the Americas, the ancient history of chocolate is inferred by archaeologists from the theobromine composition of excavated artifacts, and the real documentary records of chocolate date back to the Blue River, the settlement of the Maya people in Guatemala in 400 AD, and the presence of cocoa in their hieroglyphics. The Dresden Codex of the 11th and 12th centuries BC contains several chapters about ritual activities related to the Mayan Drogin calendar, in which the gods hold cocoa pots and plates filled with cocoa beans, with annotated text stating that they were holding cocoa, and some were marked to be offered to the gods; The Madrid manuscript also records the deity squatting on a cacao tree, flying above a green cuckoo clutching a cocoa pot. The final footnote page of the manuscript depicts four gods piercing their ears with obsidian and blood splashed on a cocoa pot, symbolizing the connection between chocolate and human blood in Mayan culture; The story told in the creation myth "Popol Vuh" written by the Maya after the Spanish colonization also repeatedly appeared in the image of the cocoa tree, which shows the importance of cocoa in the ancient Mayan civilization.
The most common inscription on Mayan vessels unearthed from the tombs of Mayan royalty and nobility is called the Basic Standard Sequence (PSS), which is a standardized sequence or patterned flower shape. It was found that a phonetic compound pronounced ka-ka-w (i.e. cacao) was ubiquitous in the PSS text pattern on Mayan long-necked bottles, indicating that these vessels were used for chocolate making and eating at the Mayan court. The hieroglyphics on the three-legged long-necked bottle found at the Blue River ruins in Guatemala also indicate that it is a utensil used to drink cocoa. Archaeologists have found that after 600 AD, Mesoamericans began to serve or prepare chocolate drinks in long-necked bottles. The Maya were good at using chocolate itself to foam, or pouring chocolate from one high bottle to another low bottle to make it fully frothy, called "chocolate foam" (yomcacao); Or roasting cocoa well enough to make it produce many chocolate bubbles, called takankel. This ancient Mayan eating habit of foaming chocolate continues to this day, but modern people use more external materials for foaming.
The sculpture depicts an Aztec man holding a cocoa can. Profile picture
The Maya used cacao to make chocolate drinks with different flavors, and in some PSS text sequences there are many unnamed chocolate seasonings, and even the emergence of "ik-alkakaw", that is, using paprika to flavor chocolate to give the drink a pleasant hot taste, which is quite similar to the idea of the popular Internet celebrity dessert "oil poured spicy ice cream" in Xi'an, China. In addition, the Maya also made fruity, corn, vanilla, and ear-floral chocolate drinks, and used a variety of drinks in religious ceremonies and banquets.
It is said that the Mayans used a liquid mixed with natural pure water and certain flowers and cocoa powder during the baptism ceremony and applied this liquid to the child's forehead, cheeks, fingers, and toes to pray. Some Maya tribes also drank cacao as alcohol during engagement and wedding ceremonies, and the couple gave each other cocoa beans as souvenirs. According to historical records, when King Quiché chose his wife, the king's messenger was given a bottle of red drink and a jar of concentrated chocolate, which shows the status of cocoa in Mayan culture. The Mayan contributions to the processing of cocoa and the production of chocolate drinks laid a good foundation for the development of chocolate in culinary history.
III. Drinks and Currency of the Aztec Empire
The Aztec civilization was formed in the early 14th century as a small nomadic people. By the beginning of the 15th century, when the Maya civilization was in decline, the Aztecs established the Tenochititlán Empire in Mexico. The Aztecs preferred to drink the indigenous drink of oakleigh (tequila), but at that time the Aztec prohibition was very strict, and drunkenness was punishable by death. To avoid getting drunk, the Aztec upper class gradually began drinking chocolate instead of Oakley. Cocoa was a luxury rarely enjoyed by the Aztec pauper and contrary to their simple life philosophy, so the Aztecs associated chocolate with the word "luxury", believing that it was synonymous with people in developed regions such as the Gulf Coast and the Mayan lowlands, where chocolate was born.
Unlike the Mayans, who preferred to drink hot chocolate, the Aztecs preferred to drink cold chocolate. Like the Mayans, they also add various condiments to chocolate drinks, such as honey, flowers, green vanilla and even paprika to make the drink colorful. Their chocolate recipes often contain three botanical names, hueinacaztli, vanilla (tlilxochitl) and mecaxochitl, which were considered aphrodisiacs by the Spanish royal physician Francisco Hernández (~symbol~]ndez, so when the Aztec chocolate drink flowed into Europe, the chocolate aphrodisiac theory continued to circulate. In addition, Hernandez discovered the medicinal Aztec chocolate recipe, which was filled with Pouteriasapota kernels to dissipate heat and refresh the body. But it is worth noting that because the Aztecs regarded chocolate as a divine delicacy, it could only be enjoyed by princes and nobles, merchants and warriors, and ordinary people could not reach it.
A colorful Mayan vase depicts a woman pouring chocolate from one jar to another to make it frothy. Profile picture
Cocoa beans serve as a source of drink for the elite on the one hand, and as an exchange currency on the other. The Aztecs hoarded large quantities of cocoa beans through tribute and trade, which served as the currency of the empire. The amount of cocoa beans stored in the royal warehouse is even more staggering, and the American anthropologist and food historian Sophie M. D. Coe and Mike S. D. Coe's "Chocolate: A True History" mentions that according to historical statistics, there were more than 40,000 units of cocoa beans, or 960 million, in the cocoa warehouse of the Aztec king Montezuma, who lived in Tenochtitlán. When the Spanish colonists plundered Montezuma's empire, hundreds of Indian slaves broke into the warehouse and robbed the cocoa beans overnight, and then the Spanish colonists continued to loot, but the 43.2 million cocoa beans plundered were far less than one-twentieth of the inventory of King Montezuma, which shows that the princes and nobles at that time regarded the cocoa beans as a treasure.
The reason why cocoa beans are so precious is not entirely because of their practical value, but because they have a strong exchange value, that is, purchasing power. Chocolate: A True History mentions that shortly after the fall of Tenochtitlán, a porter's daily wage in central Mexico was 100 cocoa beans, and in Tlaxcala in 1545, the commodity price was roughly as follows: one cocoa bean for a large tomato, three cocoa beans for a turkey, three cocoa beans for a tortilla roll, 100 fresh cocoa beans or 120 shrunken cocoa beans for a hen. The shrinkage of cocoa beans leads to a corresponding decrease in exchange value, which shows that its properties are equivalent to common currency, and once an item acquires a transaction value, opportunists have a good idea, no wonder that some Aztecs later tried to counterfeit cocoa beans with dough, wax or avocado kernels for market transactions.
IV. The "resistance" and innovation of the Spaniards
While the Aztec dignitaries were obsessed with the dream of empire, a crisis had quietly appeared. In 1492, Columbus discovered the American continent, and colonial expansion followed. Europeans were exposed to cocoa for the first time.
The first thing the Spaniards discovered was the monetary function of the cocoa bean, and Columbus' youngest son, Ferdinand, recorded in his diary that locals regarded an almond as a treasure and traded it. However, the Spaniards accepted its monetary function and turned their noses up at the drinks that used it as a raw material. They thought the bitter drink was strange and cloudy, especially since the Indians often mixed a small amount of annatto pulp in chocolate, and each time they drank it, their mouths and beards were dyed red, "as if drinking blood." As a result, early colonists were resistant to chocolate. But over time, the cultures of the Old and New Worlds blended in various aspects, colonists intermarried with Indians, cultural customs interacted, and the Spaniards gradually accepted chocolate and developed the custom of daily drinking. It was in this context that chocolate began to spread to Spain and the rest of Europe.
Of course, in the process of the fusion of the two cultures, the Spanish also made some improvements and innovations to chocolate, they did not drink cold chocolate or room temperature chocolate like the Aztecs, but heated and added cane sugar to enhance the taste. They also replaced New World seasonings with Old World spices, such as cinnamon, black pepper, star anise seeds instead of ear flowers, peppers, etc. They also improved the original method of foaming chocolate drinks by the Indians, replacing them with stirring and foaming with stirring sticks or bartender sticks, and even pressing cocoa powder into wafers or tablets, which were easy to store and transport, and became the prototype of what would become "instant chocolate".
Chocolate became part of the life of the Spanish colonists, and the idea that cocoa helped to strengthen the body was even popular. This concept stems from Hernandez's judgment of cocoa seeds, believing that it is biased towards "cool and wet", can clear heat and detoxify, reduce fever and refresh the brain, and is rich in nutritional value. Doctor Juan Cárdenas further studied the efficacy of chocolate, although he believed that it also caused obesity and damaged the digestive system, making people have irregular heartbeats, but still affirmed its advantages of making people happy, strengthening the body and cooling heat, which undoubtedly made Europeans put down their last guard against chocolate, so that it could cross cultural barriers and finally reach Europe.
V. From popular in Europe to going global
When cocoa became a trade commodity in Spain, more and more native Spaniards began to try this novel drink, and chocolate soon swept throughout Spain, and the Spanish court played a large role in the process. In the first half of the 17th century, chocolate became a favorite drink of the Spanish court aristocracy, and the royal family set up a "chocolate room" for visitors to taste to show their dignity. In 1615, Spain married the French royal family, and King Louis XIII of France married Anne, daughter of King Philip II of Spain. To celebrate the alliance, Anne brought chocolate samples to the French royal court. Under the help of Anne, drinking chocolate became a fashion for the French aristocracy, and soon the French, British, and Austrian nobles all set up "chocolate rooms", and chocolate also became popular in these areas, and slowly entered the lives of ordinary people and swept Europe.
Given the strong demand for chocolate in Europe, the Americas, the source of cocoa supply, has become a low-priced labor market and dumping market for finished products. At first, Spain required the colonies to pay annual tribute to the host country, but as the demand for chocolate soared, European merchants, seeing a huge market and profit margins for cocoa, quickly flocked to the Americas to establish cocoa trading companies in Ecuador, Venezuela, Brazil, and the West Indies. The labor of these companies is either Native American or African slaves, and you can imagine how many tragic stories and blood, sweat and lives were paid behind the prosperous cocoa trade.
Most of the Americas are colonies of Spain and Portugal, and after the popularity of cocoa in Europe, with the colonial expansion of European countries such as Britain, France, and the Netherlands on the African continent and South Asia, cocoa trees were soon introduced by Europeans to Africa and South Asia for a large number of cultivation, especially in present-day Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana, and large areas of cocoa estates were established. With a stable supply of raw materials, cocoa prices fall. At the end of the 18th century, with the development of the industrial revolution, new technologies emerged, such as hydropower, steam power, industrial grinders and steam-powered agitators accelerated the production of chocolate, and people continued to improve chocolate drinks on this basis. Dutch chemist Coenraad Johannes van Houten invented the chocolate press, developed a method for separating cocoa butter from cocoa powder, and patented it in 1828, making the mass production of solid chocolate possible. Since then, chocolate production has entered a new era of full-speed development, and some inventors have also become the founders of famous chocolate manufacturers, some of which continue to this day and are widely known, such as Cadbury in the UK, Nestlé in Switzerland, Lindt and Hershey in the United States, etc., chocolate has also become one of the favorite desserts of modern people.
From the "food of the gods" and noble drinks and common currency of ancient American civilization to the large-scale industrial production of food, history has witnessed the process of cocoa moving from the American continent to Europe and the world. In nearly 4,000 years, Cocoa has experienced changes in civilization and social changes, witnessed the sweat, blood and tears and wisdom paid by human beings, and the sweetness of harvest. Behind a small chocolate, there is a thick history of human civilization.
Guang Ming Daily(2023-07-13-13 edition)
Source: Guangming Network - Guangming Daily