All about chocolate
A plain brown bean brought back to Europe by the Spanish conquistadors is now an almost indispensable part of the British diet. Whether you enjoy it plain, dark, or milk most would agree that chocolate is indeed a "food of the gods."
The original South American "xocoatl" or "chocolatl" was a bitter drink enjoyed by the Aztec Èlite. Its reputation as a sacred drink travelled to Europe with the triumphant Spanish. Carl Linneus, the great Swedish botanist and classifier, eventually christened the plant Theobrama cacao—literally the "food of the gods."
Cacao was presented to the future King Philip II of Spain in 1544. The Spanish court consumed the bitter drink for its medicinal and aphrodisiac properties, jealously guarding the mysterious beans. It took nearly a century for chocolate to escape Spain, reaching France with the marriage of Princess Anne to Louis XIII in 1615. As the South American drink was adapted to European tastes, the flavourings were changed. Chilli pepper was abandoned for vanilla and cinnamon and the drink was served hot.
Chocolate did not arrive in Britain until the middle of the seventeenth century. The inveterate diarist Samuel Pepys described the drinking chocolate houses that were all the rage in 1650s London. Many of the gentlemen's clubs still around today, including the Garrick Club, had their origins in these seventeenth century establishments.
Chocolate eventually became available as a solid, which accelerated demand. John Cadbury founded his grocery shop in Birmingham in 1824. The chocolate was so popular that he eventually created a factory to produce it—the origins of the Cadbury empire.
The sought after beans became a major commodity in the 1880s with the creation of plantations in west Africa by the British. This area of the world still produces the bulk of the world's chocolate supply, but the crop is also produced in Central America, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the West Indies.
Sales of chocolate confectionery have reached about £42.8bn ($60bn) a year showing how popular this once exclusive product has become. Enjoy!
Alexandra Brooks, fourth year medical student, Guy's King's, and St Thomas's Medical School
Email: alex.brooks@dial.pipex.com
studentBMJ 2001;09:305-356 September ISSN 0966-6494
- Food Today, European Food Information Council Newsletter (Issue 27, May 2001).
- http://www.cadburys.co.uk/
- http://www.icco.org/
