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A Dutch Girl at Breakfast1756Jean -Etienne Liotard,Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
Spanish Conquistadors
Spanish Conquistadors
When the Spanish conquistador Ferdinand Columbus first encountered cacao beans, he did not know what it was. They called it an almond because it was the closest thing, they could equate it to because of its shape. They eventually realized that they could use it as currency to pay the natives. At first, they did not like the taste of the traditional drink, but then they made changes to suit their palate. They started taking the beverage hot and they started using sugar cane to sweeten their drinks. Different spices like cinnamon and star anise also started to get added.
The Catholic Dilemma
The Catholic Dilemma
While the cacao drink was popular amongst most of the colonizers the Catholic Church was struggling to clasify it. The Catholic Church had very specific rules about fasting. The Catholic followers could not consume anything that gave them nourishment between midnight and the time of communion the next day. Also, there were “forty days of Lent, Pentecost, Advent and most Fridays” (33 Forest), were they could only have one meal a day. Having something to drink to get rid of thirst was allowed as long as it did not nourish. This is what caused the debate because the beverage was being consumed in mass and fasting days and they did not know whether it broke fast or not. Eventually they declared that it did not break fast as long as it did not have any additives and the consumption was allowed during fasting.
Catedral Metropolitana de la Cuidad de Mexico 2005 Carlos Martínez Blando
The Spread of Chocolate through Europe
The Spread of Chocolate through Europe
“About this time (A.D. 1606) F. Carletti returned to Florence, his native town, after a protracted journey, during which he had visited the West Indies. He brought with him cacao and the use of chocolate, and through him Italy was the land where chocolate was introduced to Central and Northern Europe. Yet it probably reached France directly from Spain, partly in small quantities, and exciting little notice, with the consort of Louis XIII. In 1615, and in large quantities with the consort of Louis XIV. In 1660, whose taste for it was immediately adopted by the Court, quickly followed by the Parisians. Thus chocolate became fashionable with the French aristocracy, although, not long before, a very different option had been cherished as regards its harmfulness, as is clearly shown by the letters of the ladies of the period. For a long time one of the Queen’s officers had a monopoly of the sale of chocolate, but in the meanwhile it was brought among the people by Spanish monks. And in the beginning of the eighteenth century chocolate made from beans grown in their own colonies was in general use in the homes of the French people.”
Enamel and glazed porcelain chocolate pot and lidA mid 18th century,Manufactured by the Meisssen Porcelain Factory; Meissen, Saxony, Germany.Smithsonian Design Museum, Photo by Matt Flynn
The Rest of Europe
The Rest of Europe
Over in Europe, like with all new exotic things, cacao was consumed by royalty and the elite. The Spanish took cacao and changed the traditional way of preparing it and made it their own by adding ingredients like vanilla, almonds, and sugar. This happened all over Europe, a lot of countries in Europe changed the ancient recipe and “improved” it as they saw it. The new flavors of cacao ranged from new exotic ingredients added to the drink like jasmine to keeping the recipe simple by just adding some cinnamon and sugar.
They were different flavor palates across Europe as described by François Joseph Pons.
“Chocolate is at present used throughout Europe; each nation gives it a particular preparation, which, however, can only differ in the degree of thickness or liquidity which they allow it; or in the quantity of sugar and the quality of the aromatics which they use in its composition. It is remarked, also, that the southern nations prefer the oily cacao, whereas those of the north give preference to the dry and bitter”
“Chocolate is at present used throughout Europe; each nation gives it a particular preparation, which, however, can only differ in the degree of thickness or liquidity which they allow it; or in the quantity of sugar and the quality of the aromatics which they use in its composition. It is remarked, also, that the southern nations prefer the oily cacao, whereas those of the north give preference to the dry and bitter”
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