Her eyes were closed as her boyfriend unwrapped the gift in front of her. Her heart was palpitating with excitement and it was taking the full force of her willpower to resist the temptation to cheat and open her eyes before the signal was given.
“No peeking,” he gently admonishes her, to which she replied with a pout. But slowly, her nostrils catch the whiff of a fragrance. The aroma was faint at first but it slowly grew stronger until it teased and tantalised her senses. It was overpowering, it was narcotic, it made her mouth water and a thrill ran through her body.
Then she opened her eyes and saw them laid out before her – beautiful, tempting, mouth-watering pieces of confectionary. Chocolates of all shapes and sizes, from dark to milk to white, from plain to those filled with nuts or raisins and even liqueur. Her eyes stared at the masterpiece in front of her. It was as if each morsel was calling out to her, “Take me… take me… eat me… eat me…” And intrepid boyfriend, now standing behind her, whispered that same refrain into her ear, “Go on… eat it… go on… eat it.”
A slender hand reached out to pluck a piece, only to draw back and in a sheepish voice, she proclaims,
“But it’s just too sinful!”
Oh yes, sinful. Here’s one adjective often used to describe chocolate. It brings to mind images of Dante Alighieri sitting at his desk, love poems to Beatrice strewn around, while he works on Inferno.
What should I place in the 7th level of Hell, he muses to himself, and then inspiration hits! In the deepest corner of human iniquity will go the darkest of man’s depravity – treason and… chocolate eating!
The origin of chocolate
Of course, the great Dante lived during a time when chocolate was unheard of in Europe at that time and so the sin of chocolate eating was never mentioned in The Divine Comedy. It would, in fact, take more than two centuries and the Spanish conquest of the New World for chocolate to make its way into European palates and hearts.
If the cocoa bean was virtually unknown in Europe at that time, it was part of the usual diet in the (then) undiscovered land that would later be called America. It is believed that the word “chocolate” comes from the Nahuatl word “xocolatl”. The Nahuatl language is indigenous to central Mexico and in Mexico today, chocolate is still regarded as a national delicacy.
The earliest recorded evidence of chocolate use is that of chocolate residue found in an ancient Maya pot, which implies that chocolate was part of Mayan culture more than 2,600 years ago. It can be said that in pre-Columbian Central America, chocolate formed an important part of their culture. And, as is the norm in such cases, there is a hint of religious ritualism to the whole concept.
The Aztec goddess of fertility, Xochiquetzal, was associated with chocolate and it was drunk, in the form of a spicy drink, called xocoatl. Xocoatl was made with chocolate and seasoned with vanilla, chilli pepper, annatto and pimento. Not the type of ingredients one would associate with modern day chocolates, especially chilli peppers, however the Aztecs swore by the concoction, which they claimed helped fight fatigue. Sort of a Mesoamerican stimulant.
Enter the Spanish
Much has been written and said about the Spanish conquest of the New World. In a nutshell, it is now popularly accepted that they brought to the Americas terror, diseases (such as syphilis) and genocide. What they took from the New World was gold (lots of it), new spices and chocolate.
However, the European palate was not quite ready for the way the indigenous people prepared the drink. According to Jose de Acosta, a Jesuit missionary who lived in Peru and Mexico during the latter part of the 16th century, the drink was;
“Loathsome to such as are not acquainted with it, having a scum or froth that is very unpleasant to taste. Yet it is a drink very much esteemed among Indians, where with they feast noble men who pass through their country. The Spaniards, both men and women that are accustomed to the country are very greedy of this Chocolate. They say they make diverse sorts of it, some hot, some cold, and some temperate, and put therein much of that ‘chili’; yea, they make paste thereof, the which they say is good for the stomach and against the catarrh.”
Chocolate thus remained an exotic delicacy for some time, something like honey ants and chocolate ants, a beverage that was not entirely embraced by all but heavily appreciated by those who were acquainted with its taste.
In 1585, the first recorded shipment of chocolate for commercial purposes took place when a ship, carrying the goods, sailed from Veracruz to Seville. It was around this time that chocolate was about to undergo a transformation into the product that we know and love today.
No one knows exactly how it happened, but we can just imagine a group of Spaniards tasting chocolate and then, their taste buds unable to tolerate the spiciness and bitterness of the drink, began to think of ways to make it more palatable. One thing for sure though, the bitter taste had to be masked and so milk and sugar were added. And then, one of them realised that chilli was not exactly something that will go well with chocolate and so they replaced that New World spice with another New World spice – vanilla.
And so, chocolate was slowly transformed into something that was more agreeable to European tastes. However, it was to remain a beverage for the better part of three centuries and a beverage only for the rich and noble in Europe. It was not until the 18th century when the first form of solid chocolate was invented in Turinby Doret. And so another chapter begins in the Chocolate Saga.
Let their names be known and their praises sung
And now we return to intrepid boyfriend and chocolate loving girlfriend. Suffice to say that she followed the adage of Oscar Wilde, “the only way to fight temptation is to give in to it” and a dark brown morsel was slowly melting in her mouth.
As the effects of the “chocolate rush” works through her body, she might have been (if she was aware of them) paying tribute to the Pantheon of chocolatiers whose works helped make chocolate what it is today.
And so, we shall recite the roll of honour and in the litany, we remember men such as F.L Cailler who opened the first Swiss chocolate factory in 1819. We think of Conrad J. van Houten who, in 1828, discovered the method of extracting fat from cocoa beans and thus making powdered cocoa and cocoa butter. Van Houten also developed the method of treating chocolate with alkali thus removing the bitter taste and paving the way for the modern chocolate bar. Today, van Houten’s name is still associated with chocolates as is the name of Henry Nestle, a baby food manufacturer, who assisted Daniel Peter in removing the water content from milk and thus prevent mildewing and making the first milk chocolate.
Then there was Rudolphe Lindt, who invented the process known as conching where the chocolate solids are heated and ground very finely to ensure an even blend of the liquid. Other names in the Pantheon are Joseph Fry who is believed to have made the first edible chocolate in 1847 and then there was the Cadbury family – patriarch John and sons George and Richard.
The reason for the pleasure
In the past, the ancient Aztecs probably believed that the stimulation they received from chocolate was because it was a holy food associated with the goddess of fertility. Definitely, chocolate has come across in popular culture as an aphrodisiac, which explains why the giving of chocolate is so prevalent amongst courting couples.
Leave it to science though to come up with a logical reason for the pleasure and thus debunking any belief that the “chocolate buzz” is a result of divine favour. So what is the reason for the buzzing pleasure we receive from consuming chocolate? The answer – theobromine – a stimulant that is mildly present in chocolate. Although the amount of theobromine in chocolate is not potent enough to really affect humans, it is an extremely potent stimulant for dogs and horses.
Other chemicals found in chocolate, namely serotonin and phenethylamine are believed to be mild sexual stimulants, thus causing chocolate to be an aphrodisiac. However, there are still only theories and their full effects have yet to be established. Scientists though believe that chocolate trigger the release of dopamine in the brain thus creating that sense of pleasure from eating it.
The great myth
And now, chocolate loving girlfriend, after partaking of the morsel, pouts and mutters, “I am going to have a pimple breakout soon.”
The chocolate and pimples or acne connection is of course one of the most famous myths concerning the consumption of chocolate. It has become a staple caveat by parents to their children on the dangers of consuming chocolate – “if you keep on eating chocolate, spots will break out on your face.” It has become part of popular culture to believe that chocolates can cause pimples and all very very untrue. Scientific studies have proven that the consuming chocolates do not cause a pimple outbreak, which means that one should be able to consume it without any guilt about any damage it is wrecking on one’s skin.
If scientific studies showing that chocolate does not cause acne vindicates chocolate, then further studies tend to champion it. Dark chocolates that are full of cocoa contain flavonoids epicatechin and gallic acid, which are antioxidants that help protect blood vessels, promote cardiac health and prevent cancer. In fact, the presence of flavonoids in chocolate far exceed those found in red wine, which is also rich in antioxidants and believed to help in the prevention of heart disease.
However, like all good things, the health benefits of chocolate do come with a disclaimer. The high calorie count and high saturated fat content of chocolates means that one has to reduce calories from other foods. Furthermore, the benefits are only really present in dark chocolate and thus white and milk chocolate are off the list.
Yet, chocolate loving girlfriend can fantasise about the day when she will call her GP, only for him to tell her, “take two chocolate bars and call me in the morning”. Chocolate in popular culture As touched upon above, chocolate is associated with certain festivals, most notably Valentine’s Day and Easter. The ritual of men giving chocolates to the women they are courting during Valentine’s Day is a well established one, although in Japan, the roles are reversed and it’s the women who make the gifts. The pleasure one receives from eating chocolate and the popular conception of its aphrodisiac qualities probably best explain the prevalence of chocolate during Valentine’s Day.
Not so obvious though is the connection between Easter and chocolates. One can find some connection between chocolate and festivals celebrating life and fertility. Just as the Aztecs associated chocolate with the goddess of fertility; chocolate seems to be associated with Easter, which is a festival that celebrates renewal.
Sure, there are people who claim that chocolate can be replaced by cinnamon and carob, but can we really countenance books such as “Charlie and the Carob Factory”? or movies such as “Like Water For Cinnamon”? Can we imagine Eliza Doolittle singing in, “My Fair Lady”, “All I want is a room somewhere. Far away from the cold night air. With lots of cinnamon sticks for me to eat.”
In other words, can we imagine a world without chocolate? To our heroine, such an occurrence is too horrendous to even countenance. A world without chocolate! A world where you cannot feel the liquid oozing onto your taste buds as it melts in your mouth. A world where the pleasure of the “chocolate buzz” is unknown. She exorcises the horror from her mind and reach out, in a desire for reassurance, to another piece. As if it were a dance, her hand glides to her mouth and the chocolate piece enters in. The warmth of her mouth slowly melts the piece in her mouth, sending those sensations of pleasure through her. She is satisfied… she feels complete.