Lately I have been working on my patisserie skills. Where in the past I have struggled tremendously with the intricate art of making desserts, pastries and everything else that is sweet. I still remember my struggle with melting gelatine in a pan with hot water.
I have found a new project namely making my own chocolate bars. Before I started this I was under the assumption that you could just melt chocolate chips in an au bain marie pour it into a mold and done. Technically yes however the first time I did I simply cranked the heat up and melted the chocolate at 60 - 70 degrees.
The result was a chocolate bar that melted in your hands at room temperature and had no texture at all. My mistake? Not understanding chocolate. First off you need to temper the chocolate which means forming the basis of your chocolate and its structure. This tempering works by slowly heating and cooling melted chocolate to specific temperatures to stabilize the cocoa fat and ensure a smooth, glossy finish and a proper snap when broken. This stabilising happens in fact not at my intended “crank it up” temperature but at a more delicate 28 - 35 degrees.
Chocolate bars are great. Easy to eat, transport and sell. Go to any supermarket and you can buy a dozen of different varieties. With nuts, sea salt and caramel as well as more vague terms like what the hell is Swiss chocolate and Belgian chocolate. I thought chocolate came from the Americas what have mountain goats and bad roads to do with chocolate. To answer that question, we first have to look at the winding history of chocolate
Chocolate in its original state
First I want to ask you the question. Have you ever seen a cocao bean in its original state? Personally I think chocolate has reached a point in society where many people don’t even know its true form. I remember this article in a Dutch newspaper a few years ago where kids who grew up in a Dutch urban environment didn’t know that milk came from cows so they brought the children on field trips to farms just to teach them.
Anyway this is a cacao pod.
Inside the pod is the fruit that turns into chocolate. By fermenting and roasting this fruit it turns into the dark matter that we know and love. Fellow Dutchman Jules Cooking explains how to make chocolate from fruit to bar.
Origins
The sweet pulp that Jules uses is what cocoa was primarily used for. The sweet pulp is also called “baba” or “mucilage” and is both edible for humans and animals. The fruit can be described as: fruity, sweet, tangy and slightly acidic, the cacao pulp offers the perfect mix of tropical fruits like mango, pineapple, passion fruit, and lychee. The cacao tree is believed to originate from the Amazon forest for more than 4.000 years and was spread through the Americas via human activity in Ecuador around 1800 BCE. When cacao reached the Soconusco region in Guatamala and the Pacific Coast in Mexico, It was here that cacao is believed to have been first domesticated and used for its beans.
The Olmecs
The Mayans were the first civilisation to use chocolate as a beverage; however, it was discovered that the Olmecs had consumed chocolate long before them. In the very beginning, most chocolate was used in drinks as a revered bitter beverage instead of the sweet candy bars we know today. Who first discovered chocolate is still unclear, as even what use the Olmecs had for it is still slightly blurry. There is no written history from the Olmecs, so opinions differ on the use of cacao beans or just its pulp from pods; however, it is thought that they used chocolate in their ceremonial drinks and passed on this knowledge to the Mayans.
The Mayans
The Mayans are obviously famous for its rituals and ceremonies. The Mayan calendar had everyone in its grasp in 2012, the year where the Mayan calendar ended. In 2023 I can confidently say that the world did not end.
Chocolate had an extremely important place in the religious, spiritual and cultural life of the Mayan people and is depicted on vases, murals and other pieces of art. It was used as a gift to the deities, presented at royal burials to ensure comfort in the afterlife.
A gift from the gods
The Maya believed that the ka’kau’ (cacao) was discovered by the gods in a mountain that also contained other favourable foods to be used by the Mayans. The cacao was seen as a drink of the gods thus only the upper class in Mayan culture could afford to drink this god-like beverage. Chocolate held its weight in gold, literally. The cacao seeds were often used as a form of currency.
But to be frank with you, the chocolate was probably not even drinkable. Have you ever tried a pure 100% cacao bar, that stuff tastes like dirt. So the Mayans and Aztecs spiced the chocolate up with ingredients like honey and chillies to soften the bitter taste.
Conquistadors
The fate of Central America was unfortunately written by the conquistadors, taking control over everything that they could get their hands on.
When the conquistadors under the command of Hernán Cortés arrived in the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan they were greeted by King Montezuma. Who offered the conquistadors a cup of frothing xocolatl in the hope of forming an allegiance. The Spanish were not impressed, bitter and unrefined was their conclusion. Later however Hernán Cortés realised the benefits of chocolate, he said:
"chocolate is the divine drink that builds up resistance and fights fatigue." A cup of this precious drink permits a man to walk for a whole day without food.”
The conquistadors had one ingredient that the Aztecs didn’t have access to which is sugar. They added sugar to the chocolate drink to make it more palatable, and chocolate quickly became a popular drink among the Spanish nobility.
Cacao beans were brought back to Spain by Columbus during the 4th voyage. Spanish friars introduced the Spanish courts to the chocolate beans and they were enthralled by the rich and bitter chocolate drink. The lush and silky texture were revered by the Spanish royal court and thus became a staple of special occasions and celebrations, unknowingly adapting the Aztecs way of using chocolate.
Colonialism
European royalties during the colonial heyday loved to show off whatever the colony has fetched them. In our edit about coffee:
you can read about how the Dutch mayor started sending European royal houses coffee seeds as a gift. Chocolate was used in the same manner. In France, for instance, the marriage of Anne of Austria to Louis XIII in 1615 popularised the drink among French aristocracy, as the queen was a chocolate enthusiast.
Chocolate House
In Protestant England it was much harder for chocolate to gain its popularity as the drink was associated with idleness and beauty. But in the midst of the 1600’s a chocolate house popped up in London. An elite private club where members would socialise and drink hot chocolate
These chocolate houses were so exclusive, only rich men were allowed, but they started a trend that made chocolate the must-have drink for the posh.
Now, England wasn't used to drinking hot beverages at the time, as coffee had only just arrived. So, when chocolate arrived, people were like "What is this strange, dark liquid, and why is it so expensive?" But the chocolate houses were determined to change all that.
One of the most famous chocolate houses of the era was White's Chocolate House, opened in 1693 by an Italian immigrant, Frances White, in the fashionable St. James Street neighborhood. This aristocratic neighborhood was home to nobles and gentry, and located near King Charles II's palace, cementing chocolate's reputation as a symbol of decadence and luxury. These chocolate houses were like a Hogwarts for sweets - the Brits were convinced that chocolate had magical healing powers, including the ability to cure even tuberculosis. Interestingly enough White’s still exists today as London’s most exclusive members club.
In part 2 we will dive deeper into solidified chocolate because at the moment we are still in the wet. How did we go from drink to (the) bar?