Chocolate – Food of the Gods
Investigating Beverages and Confections Derived from the Cacao Tree
Sep 3, 2009
Although coffee and tea are known only as beverages, the cacao tree gives us a confection as well as a beverage. Native to tropical Central and South America, this plant is the source of all the chocolate and cocoa in the world.
The Origins of Chocolate
The cacao tree had been cultivated by the native peoples from southern Mexico, through Central America, and into northern South America for centuries before the Spanish Conquest.
According to Aztec mythology, the god Quetzacoatl gave cacao beans to the Aztec people. They in turn used cacao beans as offering to the gods and also to make a beverage consumed by noblemen and priests on ceremonial occasions. The scientific name of the cacao tree reflects this ancient tradition since it literally means “food of the gods.”
In 1502 Christopher Columbus was the first European to be introduced to cacao beans. However, he did not appreciate their significance. It wasn’t until the return of Cortez to Spain in 1528 that cacao beans made their way to Europe.
The Spanish modified the recipe for chocolatl that Cortez brought back from the New World adding sugar thus making it more palatable to European tastes. This recipe was a carefully guarded secret and the Spanish maintained a monopoly on cacao beans for many years.
By 1650, a more recognizable cocoa was being served throughout Europe and soon it began to compete with coffee and tea. In 1847, an English company, Fry and Sons, added cocoa butter and sugar to the ground beans to make the first chocolate bar.
The Nature of Cacao Trees
Cacao trees are small and grow in the understory of tropical forests. Optimum growing conditions require a wet climate and warm temperature thus restricting their growth to a zone 20 north or south of the Equator.
The tree is characterized by football-shaped fruit pods that form directly on the main trunk from small whitish or pinkish flowers. The pods take 4-6 months to mature and contain 20 to 40 ivory colored seeds or beans surrounded by a sticky pulp. When ripe, the pods are split open and the pulpy seeds are removed and allowed to ferment for up to one week.
The taste and odor associated with chocolate are not found in fresh beans; they develop as the beans ferment. The beans are then dried, either mechanically or in the sun, and shipped to processing centers in Europe and North America.
Processing Cacao Beans into Chocolate
The first step in processing begins with the roasting of the beans at temperatures of 248 -28 ? F for 20-50 minutes, which develops the rich color and full flavor of chocolate. Following roasting, the seeds are cracked open freeing the large cotyledons (known as nibs ) from the seed coat and the embryo.
The nibs are then crushed to produce a dark brown oily paste, the chocolate liquor. This liquor can be solidified to into squares of baking chocolate or the cocoa butter (oil) can be removed with heat and pressure to produce a brown cake, which is pulverized into cocoa powder.
Cocoa butter has many uses. In addition to being added to the liquor to produce confectionery chocolate, it is also used in a variety of suntan lotions, soaps, and cosmetics.
Whether common man or king, nearly everyone can and does enjoy eating or drinking a food so rich and sweet that it must surely be the food of the gods.
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