Product, Range & Distribution / Chocolate / History

20 / 1 / 14

OUGD505 / DESIGN PRODUCTION 2

PRODUCT, RANGE & DISTRIBUTION.

RESEARCH / CHOCOLATE

I am a real chocolate lover, whether it be milk, white or dark. I feel that this would be an interesting topic as i do have chocolate everyday, so it would be interesting to know the origins and facts on this product.

I would like to look at multiple aspects on this subject such as: 
- The History / Origin
- The production methods
- Adaptations
- Flavours / Types
- Brands
- Facts / Figures / Statistics

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THE HISTORY 

From looking at different sources that explain the origins and possibilities of origins, it seems that the first known uses of chocolate came in the form of a hot beverage like we have to day.



ETYMOLOGY

The word "chocolate" entered the English language from Spanish. How the word came into Spanish is less certain, and there are competing explanations. Perhaps the most cited explanation is that "chocolate" comes from Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs, from the word chocolātl, which many sources derived from xocolātl, from xococ 'sour' or 'bitter', and ātl 'water' or 'drink'. However, as William Bright noted, the word "chocolatl" does not occur in central Mexican colonial sources, making this an unlikely derivation. Santamaria gives a derivation from the Yucatec Maya word "chokol" meaning 'hot', and the Nahuatl "atl" meaning 'water'. Sophie and Michael D. Coeagree with this etymology.

Pointing to various sources dating from the time of the Spanish conquest, they identify cacahuatl ("cacao water") as the original Nahuatl word for the cold beverage consumed by the Aztecs. Noting that using a word with caca in it to describe a thick brown beverage would not have gone over well with most speakers of Spanish because "caca" means 'faeces' in Spanish, the Coes suggest that the Spanish colonisers combined the Nahuatl atl with the Yucatec Maya chocol, for, unlike the Aztec, the Maya tended to drink chocolate heated. The Spanish preferred the warm Mayan preparation of the beverage to the cold Aztec one, and so the colonisers substituted chocol in place of the culturally unacceptable caca.

More recently, Dakin and Wichmann derive it from another Nahuatl term, "chicolatl" from eastern Nahuatl, meaning "beaten drink". They derive this term from the word for the frothing stick, "chicoli". However, the Coes write that xicalli referred to the gourd out of which the beverage was consumed and that the use of a frothing stick (known as a molinollo) was a product of creolisation between the Spanish and Aztec; the original frothing method used by the indigenous people was simply pouring the drink from a height into another vessel.

Chocolate has been used as a drink for nearly all of its history. The earliest record of using chocolate dates from the time of the Olmecs. In November 2007, archaeologists reported finding evidence of the oldest known cultivation and use of cacao in Central America at a site in Puerto Escondido, Honduras, dating from about 1100 to 1400 BC. The residues found and the kind of vessel they were found in indicate the initial use of cacao was not simply as a beverage, but the white pulp around the cacao beans was likely used as a source of fermentable sugars for an alcoholic drink. The Maya civilization grew cacao trees in their backyards, and used the cacao seeds the trees produced to make a frothy, bitter drink. Documents in Maya hieroglyphs stated chocolate was used for ceremonial purposes, in addition to everyday life. The chocolate residue found in an early ancient Maya pot in Río Azul, Guatemala, suggests the Maya were drinking chocolate around 400 AD.


By the 15th century, the Aztecs gained control of a large part of Mesoamerica, and adopted cacao into their culture. They associated chocolate with Xochiquetzal, the goddess of fertility, and often used chocolate beverages as sacred offerings. The Aztec adaptation of the drink was a bitter, frothy, spicy drink called xocolatl, made much the same way as the Mayan chocolate drinks. It was often seasoned with vanilla, chile pepper, and achiote, and was believed to fight fatigue, which is probably attributable to the theobromine content, a mood enhancer. Because cacao would not grow in the dry central Mexican highlands and had to be imported, chocolate was an important luxury good throughout the Aztec empire, and cocoa beans were often used as currency. For example, the Aztecs used a system in which one turkey cost one hundred cacao beans and one fresh avocado was worth three beans. South American and European cultures have used cocoa to treat diarrhea for hundreds of years. All of the areas ruled by the Aztecs were ordered to pay a tax, leading those that grew the beans to offer cacao seeds as tribute.

MAYAN CHIEF FORBIDS PERSON TO TOUCH HIS POT OF CHOCOLATE.

Its interesting to understand the origin of the staple food and the influence it had on people such as the Mayans and Aztecs. I think that the fact that this product was originally in the form of a beverage and was quite unexpected.

INTRODUCTION TO EUROPE 

The first recorded shipment of chocolate to Europe for commercial purposes was in a shipment from Veracruz to Sevilla in 1585. It was still served as a beverage, but the Europeans added cane sugar to counteract the natural bitterness and removed the chili pepper while retaining the vanilla, in addition they added cinnamon as well as other spices.

It is interesting to find out the adaptation of the original product to suite the taste and cultural differences that are found in the European countries such as our own. Having the chocolate sweet with added sugar and removing the chilli is more suited and accepted in our culture today. Even though chilli flavoured chocolate has made a come back within recent years, people (like myself) usually turn their nose up at it because of the unfamiliarity with such flavour combinations, However you don't realise that this is the original flavour of what we know today, even though it is not in the same form.

Until the 16th century, no European had ever heard of the popular drink from the Central and South American peoples. It was not until the Spanish conquest of the Aztecs that chocolate could be imported to Europe. In Spain, it quickly became a court favorite. In a century it had spread and become popular throughout the European continent. To keep up with the high demand for this new drink, Spanish armies began enslaving Mesoamericans to produce cacao. Even with cacao harvesting becoming a regular business, only royalty and the well-connected could afford to drink this expensive import. Before long, the Spanish began growing cacao beans on plantations, and using an African workforce to help manage them. The situation was different in England. Put simply, anyone with money could buy it. The first chocolate house opened in London in 1657. In 1689, noted physician and collector Hans Sloane developed a milk chocolate drink in Jamaica which was initially used by apothecaries, but later sold to the Cadbury brothers in 1897.

Seeing the introduction to something that is so familiar to everybody in the form of Cadburys makes you realise the depth and past n something that is a missive part of the chocolate we know today. Because it is something that is such an everyday product, you tend to overlook the depth of it.

For hundreds of years, the chocolate-making process remained unchanged. When the Industrial Revolution arrived, many changes occurred that brought about the food today in its modern form. The Dutch van Houten family's inventions made mass production of shiny, tasty chocolate bars and related products possible. In the 18th century, mechanical mills were created that squeezed out cocoa butter, which in turn helped to create hard, durable chocolate. But, it was not until the arrival of the Industrial Revolution that these mills were put to bigger use. Not long after the revolution cooled down, companies began advertising this new invention to sell many of the chocolate treats we see today. When new machines were produced, people began experiencing and consuming chocolate worldwide.

At the end of the 18th century, the first form of solid chocolate was invented in Turin by Doret. This chocolate was sold in large quantities from 1826 by Pierre Paul Caffarel in Italy. In 1819, F. L. Cailler opened the first Swiss chocolate factory. In 1828, Dutchman Coenraad Johannes van Houten patented a method for extracting the fat from cocoa beans and making powdered cocoa and cocoa butter. Van Houten also developed the "so-called" Dutch process of treating chocolate with alkali to remove the bitter taste. This made it possible to form the modern chocolate bar. The German company Jordan & Timaeus sold the first known chocolate bar made from cocoa, sugar and goat's milk in 1839. In England, the company, J. S. Fry & Sons discovered a way to mix some of the cocoa butter back into the Dutched chocolate, and added sugar, creating a paste that could be moulded. This led to the first British chocolate bar in 1847, followed in 1849 by the Cadbury brothers.

In 1865, an unknown employee at the Ghirardelli Chocolate Company discovered the Broma process of separating cocoa butter from cocoa solids (namely, that if chocolate is hung in a bag in a warm room, the butter will drip out naturally over time).

Daniel Peter, a Swiss candle maker, joined his father-in-law's chocolate business. In 1867, he began experimenting with milk as an ingredient. He brought his new product, milk chocolate, to market in 1875. He was assisted in removing the water content from the milk to prevent mildewing by a neighbour, a baby food manufacturer named Henri Nestlé.

Hearing names that are so familiar to us to this day relating to chocolate and confectionary is very interesting and gives a sense of realisation and the understanding that everything has to start somewhere.

Rodolphe Lindt invented the process called conching, which involves heating and grinding the chocolate solids very finely to ensure that the liquid is evenly blended. This enabledMilton Hershey to make chocolate even more popular by mass-producing affordable chocolate bars.

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