Today, chocolate is a universal sweet loved by virtually everyone, but how long has it been around? The Victorians adored the hot drink, but did they invent it?
The first London chocolate house opened in 1657, advertising the sale of “an excellent West India drink.” In 1689, a physician, Hans Sloane, developed a milk chocolate drink initially used by apothecaries. Later, the Cadbury brothers purchased Sloan’s recipe. London chocolate houses became trendy meeting places for the elite London society that savored the new luxury.
But chocolate goes back further. The fermented, roasted, and ground beans of the Theobroma cacao (chocolate) can be traced to the Mokaya and other pre-Olmec people, with evidence of cacao beverages dating back to 1900 B.C.
The Maya created a drink mixing water, chili peppers, cornmeal, and ground cacao seeds. The Aztecs traded with the Maya for cacao seeds. Chocolate became an essential part of royal and religious ceremonies for both cultures. Priests presented cacao seeds as offerings to the gods and served chocolate drinks during sacred ceremonies. The Aztecs so revered chocolate that they used it as food and currency. Areas growing cocoa beans had to pay them as a “tribute.”
In 1521, when Spain conquered Mexico, they took the seeds home. There, the beans were mixed with sugar, vanilla, nutmeg, cloves, allspice, and cinnamon, the result coveted and reserved for Spanish nobility. Spain managed to keep chocolate a secret from the rest of the world for almost 100 years. Once discovered, the drink spread throughout Europe.
At some point, a unique pot was created for serving the beverage. The earliest were silver and copper. Later, European porcelain manufacturers began producing them. These pots had a right-angle handle and a hole in the lid in which a wooden stirrer, called a moulinet or molinillo, was used to stir the mixture. Rather than a long spout that begins in the middle of the pot’s side, like coffee and teapots, the chocolate pot has a flared spout at the top. On eBay, you’ll see both styles, often offered as combination coffee or chocolate pots. Prices vary, but a good pot can run up to $700.00, and a set, with cups and saucers and sometimes sugar and creamer, can be as high as $3,000.
Although I have none this valuable, my collection of chocolate pots amounts to about 30. The photographs here are from my assortment.
The origin of the word “chocolate” likely came from the Classical Nahuatl word xocolātl (“bitter water”) and entered the English language from Spanish. How the word “chocolate” came into Spanish is not certain. The most cited explanation is that “chocolate” comes from Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs, from the word “chocolatl,” which many sources derived from the Nahuatl word “xocolatl” (pronounced [ ʃoˈkolaːtɬ]) came from “xococ” meaning sour or bitter, and “atl,” water or drink. Oddly, the word “chocolatl” doesn’t occur in central Mexican colonial sources.
Chocolate first appeared in The United States in 1755 and began being produced ten years later.
Antonio Colmenero de Ledesma of Spain published the first chocolate drink recipe in 1644 in his book, A Curious Treatise of the Nature and Quality of Chocolate. Spices included hot Schiles, and the recipe follows:
- 100 cacao beans
- 2 chiles (black pepper may be substituted)
- A handful of anise
- “Ear flower” *Also known as “xochinacaztli” (Nahuatl) or “orejuela” (Spanish)
- 1 vanilla pod
- 2 ounces cinnamon
- 12 almonds or hazelnuts
- pound sugar
- Achiote (annatto seeds) to taste (used to redden the color)
The boiled ingredients were frothed with a molinillo (mentioned above).
Chiles and Chocolate provides another recipe published in France 50 years later, which reduced the number of chili peppers.
- 2 pounds prepared cacao
- 1 pound fine sugar
- 1/3 ounce cinnamon
- 1/24 ounce powdered cloves
- 1/24 ounce Indian pepper (chile)
- 1 1/4 ounce vanilla
A paste made on a heated stone from these dried ingredients was boiled to make hot chocolate.
Today, hot cocoa is most popular, made with cocoa powder but no cocoa butter fat. For genuine hot chocolate, melt chocolate bars or chips and mix with cream.
(Photos are from author’s personal collection)
