History
Chocolate is a psychoactive food. It is made from the seeds of the tropical cacao tree, Theobroma cacao. The cacao tree was named by the 17th century Swedish naturalist, Linnaeus. The Greek term theobroma means literally "food of the gods". Chocolate has also been called the food of the devil; but the theological basis of this claim is obscure.
For over 3000 years, Chocolate like gold, has had a universal appeal
2000 BC, Amazon: Cocoa, from which chocolate is created, is said to have originated in the Amazon at least 4,000 years ago. ……..
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1938, World War II: The U.S. government recognized chocolate’s role in the Allied Armed Forces. It allocated valuable shipping space for the importation of cocoa beans which would give many weary soldiers the strength to carry. Today, the U.S. Army D-rations include three 4-ounce chocolate bars. Chocolate has even been taken into space as part of the diet of U.S. astronauts.
The total chocolate timeline can be found here, amazing piece of work:
http://www.chocolatemonthclub.com/chocolatehistory.htm
I just found another timeline via twitter/facebook, need to compare one day:
http://www.thenibble.com/reviews/MAIN/chocolate/the-history-of-chocolate.asp
Cacao beans were used by the Aztecs to prepare a hot, frothy beverage with stimulant and restorative properties. Chocolate itself was reserved for warriors, nobility and priests. The Aztecs esteemed its reputed ability to confer wisdom and vitality. Taken fermented as a drink, chocolate was also used in religious ceremonies. The sacred concoction was associated with Xochiquetzal, the goddess of fertility. Emperor Montezuma allegedly drank 50 goblets a day. Aztec taxation was levied in cacao beans. 100 cacao beans could buy a slave. 12 cacao beans bought the services of courtesan.
The medicinal use of cacao, or chocolate, both as a primary remedy and as a vehicle to deliver other medicines, originated in the New World and diffused to Europe in the mid 1500s. These practices originated among the Olmec, Maya and Mexica (Aztec).
The word cacao is derived from Olmec and the subsequent Mayan languages (kakaw); the chocolate-related term cacahuatl is Nahuatl (Aztec language), derived from Olmec/Mayan etymology.
Early colonial era documents included instructions for the medicinal use of cacao.
The Badianus Codex (1552) noted the use of cacao flowers to treat fatigue, whereas the Florentine Codex (1590) offered a prescription of cacao beans, maize and the herb tlacoxochitl (Calliandra anomala) to alleviate fever and panting of breath and to treat the faint of heart. Subsequent 16th to early 20th century manuscripts produced in Europe and New Spain revealed >100 medicinal uses for cacao/chocolate.
Three consistent roles can be identified:
to treat emaciated patients to gain weight;
to stimulate nervous systems of apathetic, exhausted or feeble patients;
to improve digestion and elimination where cacao/chocolate countered the effects of stagnant or weak stomachs, stimulated kidneys and improved bowel function.
Additional medical complaints treated with chocolate/cacao have included anemia, poor appetite, mental fatigue, poor breast milk production, consumption/tuberculosis, fever, gout, kidney stones, reduced longevity and poor sexual appetite/low virility.
Chocolate paste was a medium used to administer drugs and to counter the taste of bitter pharmacological additives. In addition to cacao beans, preparations of cacao bark, oil (cacao butter), leaves and flowers have been used to treat burns, bowel dysfunction, cuts and skin irritations.
Source: http://www.chocolate.org/history.htm
Chocolate in France:
Rapidly after its appearance in France, interesting properties were attributed to chocolate and it was used in medicine,often wrongly, to treat digestive, pulmonary, nervous, even infectious diseases, and also for its nutritive and aphrodisiacal capability… But it was already charged with insomnia or constipation. During the XIXth century, chocolate was used as food and as an excipient for dissimulation and transportation of drugs. Medicinal chocolates were essentially nutritive and analeptic, pectoral, stomachic, purgative or anthelmintic. All of them have disappeared today, but the pharmacological interest of chocolate remains with its antidepressive activity and the promising proposes of some of its components. However, chocolate is still considered to be responsible of constipation, headache or pimples.
Who was the first person – to discover cacao ?
Christopher Columbus is believed to be the first to bring cocoa beans to Europe. On his fourth visit to the ‘New World’ between 1502 and 1504 he discovered cocoa beans. However, he also brought back many other treasures on board his galleons and they were considered far more exciting than the humble cocoa bean which was neglected.
Christopher Columbus ‘discovered’ cocoa beans on August 15, 1502, when he robbed the cargo of a native Mayan trader near modern Honduras.
Columbus assumed that the beans were a kind of almond, and all he really knew about them was that someone else thought they were valuable; so, for the glory of Church, State, and Christopher Columbus, he took them:
"They seemed to hold these almonds at a great price; for when they were brought on board ship together with their goods, I observed that when any of these almonds fell, they all stooped to pick it up, as if an eye had fallen"
However, Columbus was still searching for the route to India, so he failed to realise the potential cocoa market that had fallen into his lap.
In 1754, the Swedish scientist Carl von Linné gave the cocoa tree the name of Theobroma cacao. Now, three types, criolo, forastero and a hybrid (trinitario), are commercially cultivated in the world. Currently the major production is forastero, and criolo and trinitario are minor. World cacao production reaches about 3 million tons.
After harvest, Cocoa beans usually are treated by fermentation and drying for better development of chocolate aroma through roasting.
Eating chocolate is prepared by dispersion of cocoa mass, milk powder and sugar particles into cocoa butter instead of water. Cocoa butter shows polymorphism, which has 6 forms (I-VI). Only the stable V Form is used for chocolate products to be sure of good gloss without fat bloom.
Other places to find more history, places that I have looked at:
http://www.chocolatehistory.net/ – cool design and very easy to read
http://www.fieldmuseum.org/Chocolate/history.html – great – facts
http://www.fieldmuseum.org/Chocolate/education.html – education material in pdf
http://bit.ly/bjokeG (url has been shorten) – Japanese student material
http://www.chefdepot.net/chocolatework.htm – good facts but needs design help