A Morsel Of Chocolate Through American History

When Columbus discovered the new world, he and his crew started searching for valuable things and treasures from the Aztecs, few years later, Hernán Cortés arrived in Mexico and wanted to get gold from the Aztecs but, instead he got cocoa which had the same value as gold to them. In 1528, beans were brought to Spain by Hernán Cortés, the Spaniards started consuming

Chocolate is made from the seeds of the tropical tree, Theobroma cacao. Theobroma is the Greek term for 'food of the gods.' In Aztec society chocolate was a food of the gods, reserved for priests, warriors and nobility. The Aztecs used cacao beans to make a hot, frothy and bitter beverage called chocolatl. Chocolatl was a sacred concoction that was associated with fertility and wisdom. It was also thought to have stimulating and restorative properties. The bitter drink was first introduced to Europe in 1528. However, it was not until 1876 that milk, cocoa powder and cocoa butter were combined to form what we now know as chocolate (1).

This pushed back by at least 500 years the earliest documented use of cacao, an important luxury commodity in Mesoamerica before European invaders arrived and now the basis of the modern chocolate industry.

It all started with a smell. Milton Hershey was in Chicago, at the Columbian Exposition. (It’s pretty a candy showing) All across the world people with candy were there to see if the Americans would buy their candy or inventions. As soon as he entered the grand exhibition hall, he was stuck by a smell that filled the air like a heavenly breeze. At last he found it, in the back corner of the hall, there were men from Germany making chocolate.

Klein, Christopher. "The Sweet History of Chocolate." History.com. A&E Television Networks, 14 Feb. 2014. Web. 24 July 2015.

However, after Columbus discovered the Americas in 1492, they began to move small quantities of completely new products back towards the East. First, they moved new “superfoods" such as potatoes, which were exceptionally important to the peoples across the Steppe and of Central Asia who had difficulty farming on the land. The Europeans also transported new stimulants such as the cocoa bean to make chocolate as well as tobacco which became wildly popular in India for religious and spiritual reasons. Thus the Europeans changed older patterns of commerce by creating the first real Global Trade

Man's needs for chocolate caused slavery. For instance, “there are approximately 600,000 cocoa farms and there are approximately 15,000 young children slaves working to provide for their families. Even though the workers are payed little. They are barely fed either. The workers have one meal a day, and that is corn paste so not only are they working with hardly no pay they also aren't healthy either. During all this heartache, this is what colonized slaves, and how chocolate affected slavery” (Chanthavong, 2002). Can one only imagine being in a field, hours upon hours. Working basically for a farmer who does not care for one’s well-being. He only cares for how much chocolate that one can produce. Do you know how miserable one can be? Feeling hopeless at times only thinking about their family and how they will make it through this hardship. Not knowing who to turn to, where to go, and

Chocolate was linked to the nineteenth-century food linked to religious (D’Antonio 68). It was even linked to the social and health concerns. Chocolate, said by researchers, helped with bringing people closer to religion in many ways.

Chocolate is a candy containing lots to almost no sugar. It is loved across the whole world and Americans buy an average of 2.8 billion pounds of chocolate a year. So chocolate is very famous, but how is it made. Chocolate was originated from central America. It is made from a cacao bean. Chocolate goes through a long process, it starts with picking a cacao bean from a tree which are usually found in humid tropical areas. The cacao bean is picked then taken to a factory where it is roasted in hot ovens. The point of putting a cacao bean in an oven is to dry and darken the bean. I know this because in the article “How is Chocolate Made? From Bean to Bar” it states, “ The heat brings out more flavor and aroma, and it dries and darkens the beans.”

The chocolate drink arrived in Europe without its religious and ritual meaning from where it was born and grown. Instead, it came to Europe being a totally new and innovative product where it would adopt the new cultures that the European would give to that elite beverage, giving it different meanings.

You must enjoy eating chocolate right? Most people do, actually the cocoa in chocolate is what really sets it apart from other super foods.

The global issues and challenges in the world of chocolate is first, competition in the chocolate market is fierce. In such a highly competitive market, the chocolate manufacturers must employ clever marketing tactics to appeal to many cultures around the world. Point-of-purchase marketing is an important part of their strategy, as chocolate is frequently an impulse purchase. Then, cocoa prices are largely dependent on growing conditions and

But before chocolate does not start off as that delicious treat we all love. Tobecome the delicious treat we love chocolate has to go through a process. All chocolate starts off as seed on the tropical Theobroma cacao tree. The seeds of the cacao

The Chinese taste for chocolate is relatively new if compared to the age of the country, the brown sweet was first introduced in the 80s (Allen 2011) from American and European companies. The product was considered exotic and prestigious, a luxury item because was imported resulting

It is a well-known fact that chocolate has become one of the most popular food types and flavors nowadays. However, many people tend to forget its origin. Generally, chocolate is made from cacao beans harvested from cacao trees in Central and South America together with parts of Asia. The beans are then roasted and crushed into a paste. There is a variety of ways to use chocolate. Cocoa butter, which is used in cosmetics and beauty treatments, is made of removed part of the fat from the paste. When it comes to baking, people use the remaining paste called chocolate liqueur to make bitter chocolate (or unsweetened baking chocolate).