The Cocoa plant comes from South America, being said to be discovered by the Olmecs in 1500 - 400 BC. The word chocolate comes from two words in the Nahuatl language. Chocolatl which means hot water and cacahuatl, which refers to a bitter beverage made with cocoa. The cacao bean was so popular, that it was given to warriors after battle, usedo for trading, and served at royal feasts in many South American civilizations.It is said that the god, Quetzalcoatl, is responsible for bringing the drink to the world in Mexica culture, but its origin varied from culture to culture. This drink was also used as an aphrodisiac.
When the conquistadors started colonizing South America, they discovered the crop. Hernando Cortez even drinking it with Montezuma. The Spanish would add sugar and European spices to the drink, who kept the process of creating cocoa a secret from Spanish. It would later spread around the world from there after being brought to Europe. This crop would play a huge role in driving up the demand for sugar, contributing to 10 to 15 million slaves being transported to the Americas as well as the colonization of Africa.
While this happened, many key events happened. In 1776, France, Doret was invented a hydraulic process to grind cocoa bean. In 1828, Chemist Coenraad van Houten invented a process for extracting cocoa butter, which allowed for cocoa powder production. They would patent this chocolate powder obtaining process. 1830 - 1879, Switzerland started flavoring chocolate with milk and hazelnut leading to the rise of Nestle. Many chocolate companies would later rise.
Today chocolate remains a very popular ingredient, but just like in history, also remains a very problematic one. Today cocoa remains a huge source of child slavery as well as unfair trade and labor practices. In the Ivory Coast, it is said that 80% of the country’s forests disappeared between 1960 to 2010 and that as of 2016, 2.1 million kids in various countries in West Africa still work child labor, many of them essentially slaves. Many cocoa producers live in poverty as well, and unfortunately it seems like there isn’t an easy fix at the moment, but you can check out the Corporate Accountability Lab to see which companies source their chocolate in a good way, like the Grenada Chocolate Company.
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