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| | | History | | The history of Chocolate, 1500 - today 1500 - 1700 AD
1502 was the first date of importance for Europe in getting acquainted with cocoa and chocolate. It was the adventurous time of the Spanish conquistadores with Christopher Columbus the first to set sail to the new world. When he reached the island of Guanaja, close to Honduras, the local people went part of the way by proa to meet him, their boats loaded with cocoa beans. As they offered their precious gift to Columbus, some of the beans fell into the water. The Mexicans dived into to the water to save the beans as if they were the most precious items in the world. This amazed the Spanish; however, they did not really value these strange almonds and regarded them as a worthless local oddity at first.
In 1519, the same year in which the Aztecs predicted that their feathered god Quetzalcoatl would return, Cortès set foot ashore in Mexico... on the very spot where Quetzalcoatl had escaped from to sail out to sea. No wonder that the Aztec emperor Montezuma mistakenly took Cortès, dressed with gold and colored feathers, for the returned Quetzalcoatl. They offered him cocoa, which interested Cortès. He had thought to find gold, but found instead this strange fruit with an apparently equal value, since he soon discovered that the Aztecs used it as a currency.
Cortès conquered the land and soon started cocoa plantations all over the area since he was convinced that it would bring him the same wealth as the gold he was hoping for. The Spanish conquistadors also used the cocoa beans as a local currency: they bought slaves, food and drinks and they also discovered how to make a nutritious, divinely tasting drink with it: xocoatl. Yes! Chocolate.
For their chocolate drink, the Aztecs opened the cocoa pods first, took out the 20 to 30 beans and dried the cocoa beans for a few days in the sun. Then they roasted the beans over the glowing heat of an open fire, which seemed to develop an overwhelming, sweet smell. They then ground the beans using a heavy roller and a curved kind of stone, a “metate”, added spices, herbs and red colored pepper to obtain a red paste. They dissolved this paste in water and poured it over from one recipient into another until it foamed. This fat and smooth foam made the drink delicious according to the Aztecs.
The Spanish originally were merely interested in the economic value of cocoa. They even judged the chocolate drink as horrible, and the rites and habits as heretic. But after some decades the Aztecs convinced the Spanish of the great nutritional value and the medicinal powers of cocoa, cocoa butter and the chocolate drink.
1528: Cortès imported the first cocoa beans into Spain while the Spanish maintained and stimulated cocoa cultivation in a restricted area in Latin America. They dominated and even monopolized the cocoa market and tried to keep the secret of this new gold to themselves.
When chocolate arrived on the European continent, it was first regarded as a medicine, rather than as a delicious foodstuff. This was related to the Aztec belief that chocolate strengthened the body and was sensually stimulating. The first official statement was made by Bonavontura Di Aragon, brother of Cardinal Richelieu, in 1653: he described the use of chocolate as stimulating the healthy functioning of the spleen and other digestive functions.
Another example of this medicinal classification of chocolate is found in the first publication of the recipe for chocolate made by the Spanish doctor Antonio Colmenero de Ledesma in 1631. This was based on the ancient Aztec recipe, but the bitter flavor was enhanced by adding flowers and herbs like anis, vanilla, Roses of Alexandria, cinnamon, almonds, hazelnuts. The exact spices added depended on the physical ailments one suffered.
Pharmacists and doctors often added their “functional and proven medicines to the chocolate recipe in the 17th century. The taste of chocolate made the often bitter and bad taste of many medicines more acceptable.
In the 17th and 18th century, chocolate was regularly prescribed or mixed into medication for all sorts of ailments and diseases: the Dutch doctor Bontecoe saw it as highly effective against colds and coughing. According to the French Lémery it promoted digestion, fertility and human resistance to colds and flu. Chocolate was even considered as brain power, to reinforce the mental performance of people, or even for people suffering from depression. This was confirmed by doctors all over Europe: Bontecoe, Brillat-Savarin, Lémery and many others.
Because the medical properties of the Aztec-inspired chocolate drink recipe were so widely accepted, chocolate became the subject of abuse by charlatans who attributed advantages to it without any proof. Chocolate also became the subject of forgery and fraud, using waste products like the cheap cocoa shells instead of the precious kernels of the cocoa bean.
Benzoni, an explorer working for the Spanish army, describes in his travelling notes in 1565 for the first time how the cocoa drink is prepared. The Spanish keep this secret from the rest of the world, in the hope they can keep their monopoly in the cocoa trade.
However, we owe the recipe for sweet chocolate to the nuns residing in Oaxaca (Mexico) - they popularized the chocolate drink among the colonials by adding honey, cinnamon and cane sugar. It was Spanish monks who introduced the first sweet delicacy to Spain around 1590. They sweetened the chocolate drink with honey and vanilla. The sweet sensation they developed laid the basis for our chocolate recipe today. It would conquer the world at a stroke.
In 1606 the Italian trader Carletti revealed the secrets of cocoa and the preparation of the chocolate drink to his fellow Italians. Carletti had enjoyed cocoa and chocolate in the West Indies and in Spain. It was a sensation he wanted to share with fellow Italians with quite some effect. In Italy this lead to a real chocolate-mania, with cioccolatieri opening up in all major cities with Perugia as the heart of the Italian chocolate world. In Venice the first chocolate shops appeared. From Italy, chocolate was introduced to Germany, Austria, Switzerland.
The French got to know chocolate in 1615: when Louis XIII married the Spanish Anna of Austria. They moved to France, introducing the chocolate drink to the royal court. Anna even brought her own maid Molina to France, a beautiful girl who prepared the queen’s cocoa drink.
The Netherlands became part of the Spanish imperium in the 14th century, which explains the early introduction of cocoa there in 1621. The West Indian Company even imported cocoa through the port of Amsterdam, set up small-scale production units for the processing of cocoa and sold its products to foreign traders.
Belgium was annexed with the Spanish imperium after the death of Charles the Bold in 1477. The first traces of cocoa were found in Ghent in 1635 in the Baudeloo abbey.
In 1641 the German scientist Johan Georg Volckammer tasted chocolate on his trip to Napoli. He was so overwhelmed by the charm of it that he imported some chocolate to Germany. It took him some time to convince the Germans, but after a while many of them fell for its taste. The Germans even introduced the habit of drinking a cup of hot chocolate before sleeping. Did this have something to do with the German belief in chocolate as the best stimulus for passion?
As for the English, chocolate was valued as extravagant when they first got to taste it in 1657. As in the rest of Europe, chocolate was a privilege at first, only consumed at the royal court and by the nobles but it soon developed into a popular foodstuff for the upper class.
And finally: France had its first real chocolatier in 1659. David Chaillou prepared and sold biscuits and cakes made with chocolate for those who could afford it. It is still too early for real pralines, as we know them.
1662: The Italian cardinal Francesco Maria Brancaccio confirms after years of long discussions that it was permissible for Catholics to consume chocolate during the 40 days of Lent, but only as a drink and not in its solid shape, neither processed in cakes, pastilles.
1671: The duke of Plessis-Pralin one of the ambassadors serving Louis XIII was competing with the Bordelais, who undermined the King’s authority. In one of his sly moods, he came upon the idea of inventing a candy that would distract the rebels of Bordelais. He proposed this idea to his chef Lassagne, who, by coincidence, had seen one of his sous-chefs enrobing an almond in some spoiled bits of sugar. The idea of the praline was born. It still would take ages though, before the real praline covered with chocolate was invented.
In 1674 chocolate was served in pastry in the first coffee houses in the UK.
When he visited the Belgian capital Brussels in 1697 the Zurich mayor Heinrich Escher tasted chocolate on one of his tours around the city. He was filled with so much amazement and enthusiasm that he immediately took samples back with him to Switzerland. Escher probably never imagined for himself what the consequence for Switzerland would be, becoming one the world's greatest chocolate nations.
In the 17th century, the cocoa plantations became over-cultivated which exhausted the soil. On the other hand, the colonials had spread diseases and epidemics that struck the local population in a dramatic way. Hundreds of thousands of people died: local workers became scarce and the Spanish couldn’t find enough men to take care of the thousands of cocoa plantations. At that point, the success of cocoa threatened to destroy its own future.
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| | 1700 - 1900 AD
When, in the 18th century, empiric scientists like Pascal and others laid the basis of modern science, the medical potential of chocolate faded into the background while its nutritious and delicious values gained ground. The recipe for the chocolate drink at the same time became simpler and more purified: cocoa, sugar, vanilla and milk or water became the major players, while musk, amber and medical ingredients were left out. In other words: enjoying the taste of good chocolate became more important than its potential for curing ailments of all sorts.
Many chocolate museums today show beautiful collections of 18th century chocolate china. A logical conclusion from this would lead us to say that drinking chocolate must have been very popular then. The reality was quite the opposite: its consumption stayed far below that of the already popular coffee and tea and was limited to rare occasions and, because of its very high price, it could only be enjoyed in the highest ranks of society. A complete set of chocolate china was nothing more than a means of displaying one's wealth since it meant that one could afford regular chocolate consumption. So chocolate consumption remained very limited in those days and chocolate china served as a kind of barometer for the family assets.
1725: Botanist Henry Sloane dedicates the first complete monograph to the cocoa tree.
1726: King George I raises taxes on chocolate sales and consumption.
1728: The family Fry sets up the first chocolate factory in Bristol, UK, using hydraulic machinery and equipment to process and grind the cocoa beans.
1732: The French artisan Debuisson invents a table to grind cocoa. It still needs manpower but it makes the processing more efficient and the hard work a little more comfortable.
1737: The cocoa tree gets an official Latin botanical name from Linnaeus: Theobroma cacao. The name refers to the mythical background of the tree and means literally: cocoa, food of the gods.
Although cocoa originates from the Americas, the United States only got to know chocolate in 1765. It was John Hannon, an English state commissioner, who first introduced it there. Together with Dr. James Baker, they built the first chocolate factory in Massachusetts.
1778: In France, Doret built the first machine that automatically ground cocoa beans.
1822: Global cocoa demand is on the rise as the world gets more and more excited about chocolate. But political instability grows in Latin America and plantation workers become scarce. Therefore cocoa traders seek new soil in which to grow the precious tree, which they find in Ecuador, Brazil, Asia and Africa. It will take quite a few attempts, over decades, in Africa though, before cocoa really becomes a success. As a consequence, the cocoa trade gradually shifted from the ancient to the newer plantations.
In 1828 the Dutchman Coenraad Van Houten established a very important invention that would have an impact on the rest of the history of cocoa and chocolate: the cocoa press. This press makes it possible to separate cocoa solids from cocoa butter. In fact, with this innovation Van Houten was the first to establish a defatted cocoa powder that becomes much easier to dissolve in water or liquids.
In 1839, the German baker Stollwerck started a business which grew to become one of the major companies in Germany, producing a variety of chocolate products and brands for all levels of chocolate
In 1840 the first pressed chocolate tablets, pastilles and figures are produced in Belgium by the chocolate company Berwaerts.
Historians still argue about who produced the first ever chocolate in solid form, as the hard and shiny chocolate we are familiar with today. However, the British family Fry claims to have marketed the first ever solid chocolate bar in 1846: an important, historic step. We must not forget that chocolate was originally consumed mainly as a drink, as a liquid. It was processed in some cookies and cakes, but never consumed in solid form. Progress in cocoa and chocolate production and industrialization made it possible to give chocolate creative and innovative shapes that would forever change its appearance.
After Baker and Hannon, another important name in the American chocolate history is Ghirardelli, an Italian confectioner. He often traveled to Peru and started exporting beans to San Francisco to sell them to the gold prospectors. By 1860, Ghirardelli discovered by chance how to produce almost completely fat-free cocoa powder. One of his employees had put some leftover ground cocoa beans in a cotton bag and left them overnight. The following morning Ghirardelli discovered that the cocoa butter was absorbed by the bag and had seeped onto the floor. Ghirardelli later engineered a way to extract cocoa butter from ground cocoa to create a very soluble cocoa powder.
In 1865 chocolate was first mixed with hazelnut paste in Italy: the first gianduja was born. It became a very popular recipe that even led to the major success of "gianduietti", small bonbons of pure gianduja.
Henri Nestlé found a way to evaporate the liquid from milk and create milk powder this way. A perfect invention that would rapidly lead to the creation of the first milk chocolate tablets in Switzerland. It made them famous then and still does today!
Halfway through the 18th century, chocolate in solid form still had a grainy, rough texture, far from the smooth, refined chocolate we know today. It was Fry again who refined the production process and so produced a finer, more homogenous chocolate dough. The quality of solid chocolate was improved by this in a major way and this would inspire the Fry’s to create their first chocolate bar.
Didn’t we predict it? The Swiss Daniel Peter 1875 first uses milk powder to create the first milk chocolate.
In the same period (1879), the Swiss Rudolphe Lindt also adds an important contribution to the history of chocolate by engineering the first conching machine. In the conches, chocolate is kneaded for hours until the warmth makes the last fluids and the unwanted, acidic aromas of the chocolate evaporate. The result is fine tasting, creamy and rich chocolate with no off-taste.
In many European countries at the end of the 19th century chocolate became legally protected because it had by then become the subject of a wide-scale fraud: many manufacturers produced cheap chocolate by replacing cocoa with cocoa shells and cocoa butter by other fats. At the same time, many governments developed a growing sense of responsibility for safety and purity of foodstuffs. In the main parts of Europe, chocolate could only be labeled as chocolate if it contained at least 32% of pure cocoa solids. In Belgium, the government determined it at 35% in 1894. Strict control and legal prosecution of food forgers led to an overall quality improvement of chocolate.
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| | 1900 - today
Until the beginning of the 20th century, chocolate remained the exclusive privilege of the rich and famous. Chocolate remained extremely expensive due to very high cocoa and sugar prices in the 19th century. For the chocolate manufacturers, growth of the chocolate market could only be achieved by growth of the high-income group.
Around 1900, the prices of the two main ingredients for chocolate, cocoa and sugar, dropped tremendously. In addition, the liberalization of the cocoa trade and the abolition of government taxes on cocoa lead to a growing democratization of cocoa and chocolate. As a consequence, in ten years time, chocolate became affordable for a growing number of mainly middle class consumers in the first half of the 20th century.
In Italy, Francesco Buitoni, a relative of the renowned pasta making family, starts developing his chocolate activities in 1907. In 1922 he invents and markets the famous "baci", which means kisses in Italian. These are small chocolates, wrapped in silver paper that contain a love message. Chocolate and romance go hand in hand!
Across Europe, the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century saw the establishment of the big names in the chocolate world: such as our own brands like Callebaut, Cacao Barry and Carma, who started producing chocolate for bakers, chocolatiers and pastry chefs. At the same time, the world’s most renowned chocolatiers started up their businesses: Neuhaus and Godiva in Belgium, La Maison du chocolat and Fauchon in France, Lindt, Suchard and Sprüngli in Switzerland.
From the early 1820’s, the UK had developed quite a unique chocolate taste and flavor. Their chocolate was dark and very often combined with strong, pronounced flavors like mint cream, rose & violet cream, ginger… Its history is also closely related to the British royal family: companies like Charbonnel & Walker (1825), Ackermans Chocolates (1919), Bendicks of Mayfair were appointed by her Majesty Queen Victoria. Even today, some of these companies remain connected to the royal family and still produce the same amazing and traditional UK chocolates.
Aha! Belgium in the year 1912: Jean Neuhaus, founder of the famous Neuhaus-brand, invented a chocolate shell that he could fill with cream, nut pastes… In short, he invented the real Belgian chocolate: the praline.
"What is a precious but vulnerable praline without an appropriate chic and elegant packaging that protects it from being broken?", Jean Neuhaus must have reflected in 1920. As a solution to his problem, he designed an appropriate packaging for his pralines: the famous rectangular box, also called ballotin, that still today cherishes Belgian chocolates all over the world. Until Neuhaus’ revolutionary packaging, pralines were wrapped in small cone shaped paper bags.
The beginning of the 20th century announced the boom in industrialization of chocolate production all over Europe and the US. Countries like Belgium employed 2200 people in 1910, a number which grew to 6180 in 1937. This gives a clear indication of the increase in volumes produced.
Belgium seemed to be at the cutting edge of innovation, fast production technology and new marketing techniques, compared to the rest of Europe. In 1920, for example, the Belgian-Anatolian family Kestekides launched their brand Leonidas: pralines and chocolate confectionery. This was sold at lower prices through window sales in the busiest streets of Belgium, later in Europe and then the rest of the world.
Another Belgian invention in the 1920’s was the chocolate bar. Across Europe chocolate tablets of about 150g had become real bestsellers. Belgium was the first country to reduce the size to 30g and 45g and form it into a tablet shape, which was taken over by many foreign producers. This invention gave a new aura to chocolate: the chocolate bar as a popular, affordable snack for an ultimate and individual indulging experience.
A third major (again Belgian) invention was made by Frans Callebaut, one of the owners of the Callebaut brand. He thought of a way to produce couverture (remember: couverture is chocolate with a high cocoa butter/milk fat content, mainly for professional use) and to stock and transport it in its liquid form. This revolutionary process avoided the need for chocolate to be solidified first in blocks, tablets, bars, and allowed it to be delivered straight to the food manufacturers. This also affected the production cost of chocolate in a positive way which made it possible to integrate chocolate in a whole new range of foodstuffs: breakfast cereals, bread & butter spreads, filled bars, candy bars.
After the first world war, slowly but surely chocolate gained a new status in Mid Europe and the US that changed it from an exclusive treat to a mass consumption foodstuff. Before World War I, the working class in Europe was only able to taste and enjoy chocolate on very special and rare occasions, like X-mas, birthdays. Their low incomes and high chocolate prices still made it a luxury item. All this changed completely after World War I, with a new wave of industrialization and automation in chocolate production, with Belgium at the forefront in maximizing cost efficiency.
The development of chocolate products was also boosted to high levels. No longer was it limited to drinks and pralines, but an almost never-ending range of new possibilities in hollow figures, candy bars, filled eggs, truffles, biscuits, ice cream sticks, bread, breakfast buns developed.
From World War II until today, the differences in chocolate consumption volumes between laborers, clerks and the highest income groups have almost disappeared. It seems though that workers tend to prefer chocolate in tablets and (candy) bars, whereas the higher income groups are more seduced by pralines.
The major reasons for the successful introduction of chocolate to lower and moderate income families was not merely the lower price at which chocolate products were sold by the 1930’s and 40’s. Historians indicated that in the inter-war period and after, chocolate was the cheapest foodstuff per kilocalorie compared to eggs, meat. Many workers therefore saw a chocolate bar as a delicious and very convenient foodstuff that enabled them to recuperate very rapidly from heavy labor or performances. But also the still commonly accepted belief that chocolate had strengthening powers, that it could promote your love life and the fact that it enjoyed a luxury product status that became affordable, made it very attractive.
The really massive growth in the chocolate market was established between the second World War and the 1980’s. Consumption became more and more integrated in daily dietary habits. Through new product developments, chocolate also became an appreciated tastemaker in a wide variety of new and nutritious foodstuffs.
The 1980’s saw a new life style trend towards fitness and health focusing also on dietary habits: light or diet-versions of all kinds of foodstuffs made their appearance. Nevertheless chocolate remained popular as the perfect, small-size tastemaker in between all sorts of diets and exercise.
Since the nineties, many consumers have shown a more balanced and sober attitude towards food in general than in the eighties. Health became very closely related to what we eat. Whereas the eighties were based on eliminating and prohibiting all kind of sugars and fats from our diet, the nineties added them back again but in a moderate and often pure and natural form: organic, Kosher, 100% vegetable. The big difference was that from the nineties on, enjoying food and healthy food were valued as equally important. This explains why chocolate remained popular: for millions of people, chocolate provided the ultimate pleasure and enjoyment and was considered as pure and healthy when moderately consumed.
The end of the nineties and the beginning of the 21st century gave a new impulse to chocolate. More and more consumers worldwide actively search for foodstuffs that are not only delicious but also carry some functional benefits for their health and body. Scientific studies on cocoa and chocolate have already revealed a lot of potential benefits from moderate consumption of cocoa and chocolate, and there is more expected. Maybe the Spanish doctors and early scientists back in the 17th century got it right after all when it comes to the nutritious and health benefits of the cocoa bean and chocolate.
Another new force in the development of new chocolate products has been given by the food technologists at Barry Callebaut. They launched some chocolate recipes in which natural additives like plant extracts, herbs and green tea add functional properties to chocolate. Some examples of the latest developments: chocolate enriched with the 100% vegetable dietary fiber inulin and oligofructose to stimulate the growth of the beneficial bifidobacteria. Or chocolate that tastes like milk chocolate but with no milk ingredients or lactose: the milk is replaced by rice powder. This gives it a delicious taste, very nutritious properties and the chocolate can be consumed by the growing numbers of consumers who are allergic to milk protein or intolerant to lactose.
©Barry Callebaut www.barry-callebaut.com with permission. |
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Browne's Chocolates Ltd
58 North Road Industrial Estate
Okehampton
Devon
EX20 1BQ
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