What Price Chocolate?
by Rowena M Love
What price chocolate? Well, it depends on who you ask.
From chocolate’s first use by the Olmecs of Central America to the multi-billion pound industry it is today, many have considered it precious. The Mayans gave us the name we use today from xocolatl, a drink so prized its use was restricted to the male elite.
The cocoa beans it was made from were used by both Mayans and Aztecs as currency. The Aztecs even had cocoa currency units: 400 beans equalling one Zontli while 8000 cocoa beans was a Xiquipilli, the equivalent of a sack, which is how it was denoted. When they conquered a tribe, Aztecs demanded payment in cocoa and there are records dating from 1200 that show such deliveries.
Christopher Columbus noted how highly the Mayans regarded cocoa beans during his fourth voyage to the Americas, in 1502. He didn’t think much of them, though, believing they were merely almonds; it was Hernando Cortés who took them back to Spain almost twenty years later.
Valdez, another Conquistador, wrote how he had been able to buy a slave for 100 cocoa beans; this was the same amount of beans that would have bought a turkey hen according to an Aztec document of 1545.
Slavery is still an issue in the production of cocoa today. Last year saw a pact being signed by the major chocolate manufacturers, the Ivory Coast government and human rights organisations in an attempt to stem the abusive child practices that have been taking place in the cocoa plantations of West Africa. They are a far cry from the benevolent ideals espoused by the Quakers who started many of the major chocolate companies (e.g. Cadbury, Terry, and Fry).
The chocolate drink, so beloved of Montezuma, was considered too bitter for Spanish tastes. They replaced the chilli and other spices with sugar and vanilla and the Old World’s love affair with chocolate had begun. The Spanish kept it to themselves for a while, they, too, using it as currency (200 small cocoa beans were valued at 1 Spanish real in 1625), but the secret could not be kept forever.
Chocolate had been used in Mesoamerican marriage ceremonies since the 1100s; Aztecs considered it to be an aphrodisiac. They might not have been far wrong as it contains phenylethylamine (PEA), a natural substance that supposedly replicates a similar reaction to falling in love, although there are doubts as to whether PEA in food has any effect on PEA in the brain.
Maria Theresa, the Spanish princess, obviously thought the Aztecs had the right idea: she gave chocolate to Louis XIV of France as a betrothal gift in 1643. As he reputedly continued to make love at least twice a day even when he was 72, it seems to have been a good choice.
In 1662 the English physician Stubbe wrote that “Chocolate encouraged all sorts of physical prowess. The mighty lover, Casanova, found the drink as useful a lubrication to seduction as champagne.”
The French court agreed wholeheartedly. Later, Madame Pompadour, a mistress of Louis XV, supposedly had recourse to strange diets “to warm a temperament that was by nature cool, to stir a sensuality that was at best sluggish”: truffle and celery soup followed by hot chocolate. Her rival, Madame du Barry, who didn’t need such help, gave the chocolate to her lovers instead, so that they could keep up with her.
Chocolate’s reputation as an aphrodisiac was formalised when it was listed as such in the 1863 edition of Culpepper’s Herbal.
So esteemed is it, that chocolate is one of the most common things given up for Lent as a sign of faith. One pope wouldn’t have thought much of this ‘sacrifice’ - in 1569, Pope Pius V regarded cocoa liquid such a foul brew that he said drinking it wouldn’t break the communion fast. “Liquidum non frangit jejunum,” agreed many Popes who followed. 200 years later, Pope Clement XIV probably wished he had given up chocolate… as the story goes that it was used to cover the taste of the poison that killed him.
Chocolate is still being used in liquid form. As well as the expected hot chocolate and chocolate milk, it is even used to flavour things like beer. Strathmore have recently developed a chocolate-flavoured water in an effort to get children to drink fewer fizzy drinks.
The gastronome Brillat-Savarin (1755-1826) considered that “chocolate prepared with care is as healthful as it is agreeable”. Whether you had a ‘feeble stomach’ or ‘much mental toil’ (lawyers got a special mention here) chocolate would see you right.
Perhaps he wasn’t wrong, as recent research has been finding out that chocolate has got a lot going for it.
Pennsylvania State University, for instance, have found that the principal saturated fatty acid in chocolate, stearic acid, does not raise blood cholesterol levels. Eating a 1.4 ounce bar rather than a high carbohydrate snack was found to increase High Density Lipoprotein-cholesterol (the good sort) and reduce LDL-cholesterol (the bad sort).
In much the same way that some scientists have claimed beneficial effects from red wine in protecting against coronary problems, due to the anti-oxidant phenols it contains, they are fans of chocolate too. There are almost as many phenols in one square of milk chocolate as there are in a glass of red wine; dark chocolate has even more.
Further research by PSU found that, contrary to popular belief, chocolate does not cause acne, nor does it make migraines any worse. Look out, though, if you suffer from heartburn: their Doctor Castell found that the theobromine it contains relaxes the oesophageal sphincter muscle, which can allow stomach acid to squirt up into the oesophagus. It’s this element of chocolate that can be lethal to dogs, affecting their cardiac muscle and central nervous system.
Japanese scientists found other antioxidant benefits in cocoa products, from decreased artery plaque build up in rabbits (as a result of its slowing cholestoral oxidation) to identifying epicatechin, a phenol compound preventing the formation of skin tumours in mice.
Chocolate has also made itself known in psychological research. Which kind you pick and what you do with the wrapper are major components of chocolate therapy as proposed by New Zealand psychologist Murray Langham.
There are many self-confessed chocoholics who consider themselves addicted to chocolate. Like Montezuma, who thought a god brought chocolate from paradise on the beam of a morning star and drank it out of golden cups, they consider it priceless. What’s it worth to you?
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Chocolate Chips
Cocoa beans are normally slightly acid, with a pH of 5.2-5.8
Chocolate melts in your mouth because cocoa butter has a melting point of 29-30°C, just below the normal human body temperature of 37°C.
Antioxidants in cocoa butter make it one of the most stable fats. They keep it from going rancid, thus allowing a storage life of up to five years.
Chocolate does contain caffeine, but with a 1.4 oz bar having about the same amount as a cup of decaffeinated coffee, it’s not exactly a major ingredient.
Chocolate makes up about 70% of British confectionary consumption, with sales worth £3.75 billion.
14 kg is a lot of chocolate, but that’s what the average Brit eats a year.
In America, only the cheese and ice-cream industries use more milk than the 1.5 billion pounds of it earmarked annually by the chocolate makers.
Jean Harlow ate the first on-screen chocolate in Dinner at Eight, a 1933 comedy.
The famous shower scene in “Psycho” used chocolate syrup rather than blood to get the effect that Alfred Hitchcock wanted. The 45-second sequence on film was the result of 7 days shooting.
You could walk 150 feet on the energy provided by a single chocolate chip. If you’ve a mile to walk then you’ll need about 35 of them. 875,000 of the little darlings could take you round the world!
The military weren’t slow in realising that chocolate could benefit their men. Napoleon Bonaparte took it on his campaigns while chocolate featured in the rations of both Russian and American astronauts. In 1825 the Royal Navy bought more cocoa than the rest of Britain as it was considered perfect sustenance for sailors on watch.
Hans Burie, a Belgian chocolatier, made a life-sized Opel car out of chocolate. It took 5 chocolatiers, working from 7 am until 10 pm, 4 weeks to do and used 800kg of Belgian chocolate.
Websites
If the article has whetted your appetite for chocolate then try checking out some of these websites:
http://www.icco.org is the website of the International Cocoa Organisation.
Cadbury have a whole sweetshop full of sites accessible from http://www.cadbury.co.uk/index.asp
http://cocoajava.com/index.html for those who believe that chocolate isn’t just edible, it’s a lifestyle.
If you want a virtual chocolate factory tour, then go to http://www.exploratorium.edu/exploring/exploring_chocolate/choc_5.html
http://www.fieldmuseum.org/chocolate/index.html has an interactive exhibition on chocolate.
To find out more about chocolate therapy go to http://www.chocolatetherapy.com
http://www.cocoa.com has the latest news releases and links about chocolate
And for the true chocoholics…. http://www.virtualchocolate.com/index.cfm
Won the Alastair Walker Trophy (for a General Article) at SAW 2003
Published in Mensa Magazine April 2003