Chocolates!!!!

Good things have always been around, or have they? We know the things that make our life easier today have all been invented, but what about the pleasures that make our life worth living? Where they invented, or fell as manna? Chocolates, ice creams, cakes, where did these begin to take root? When did they completely take over the taste buds of the human race (going by some home videos, some canine and feline species too…)? In short, what was life without chocolate? And did the inventor jump out of his bakery bowl, in his birthday suit and shout `Chocolatica" or something on those lines?

The history of something as exciting as chocolate is as best, mundane. Chocolate in its earliest form was known to the ancient Mayas, Aztecs and even the Sumerians, that’s a long way back in history, definitely before the Good Lord parted the seas. More than 2000 years ago, one tribe living in the rainforests of South America discovered a tree called cacao…actually, the tree had been there longer than they had been, but they got a taste of its pods only at that point of time in history. They apparently, decided the seeds tasted good and gave them that extra rush of adrenalin that was required to live a lifestyle as energetic as theirs.

They took the funny tasting seeds to their homes and actually grew them in their backyards. The processes of harvesting, fermenting, roasting, and grinding the seeds into a paste were tried out. A number of processes and lot of study later, they decided that when mixed with water, chili peppers, cornmeal, and other ingredients, this paste made a frothy, spicy chocolate drink. The interesting thing is at this time in history, sweeteners like sugar were unknown in the Meso-American region, especially in agricultural communities. So, it was not in the form we know of today, there was no sweetening done and this was a bitter drink, not to be taken as candy.

These Meso-American cultures prized this brew. It was not just any drink, but played a very important role in the socio-cultural milieu of the times. The cacao seeds were often a part of offerings that Aztec and Mayan priests gave to their Gods. In the classical Maya period, chocolate as a brew could be drunk at least on occasions. Otherwise, in the normal routine, only royalty could partake of it. But in the Aztec culture, primarily rulers, priests, decorated soldiers, and honored merchants of the society could drink chocolate, the scared brew (probably it was called sacred so ordinary people would stay away from it).

By the middle of the fourteenth century, Azetics dominated a very large of the Mesoamerican region, and they were also dominant traders in the region. They traded with Mayas in this new seed, in fact this cacao seed was often used as a means of barter, the conquered people were required to pay in terms of cacao seeds, basically a form of Aztec money.

When the Spaniards began colonizing these areas, they must have been introduced to the magical taste. Though it is not unlikely that the explorers came back with chocolate, according to historians, it wasn’t until Hernán Cortés conquered Mexico in 1521 that the Spanish began to learn about the delicious flavor of chocolate. They must have brought back the seeds with them and thus the innocent chocolate pod reached the shores of Europe.

Thereafter late in the fifteenth century, the rest of Europe learned about these sinful secrets. Various processes were introduced to change the texture and taste of chocolate over the centuries, and in many ways, the process is still on. That has never affected the popularity of the drink or the confectionary, and chocolate continues to reign supreme on the terrain of sinful delights!

Thereafter it did not have too much improvement on taste, except perhaps, it started becoming sweet. It was only in the seventeenth century, at the dawn of the industrial revolution that new techniques of making and enjoying chocolates started emerging. These techniques were to change the future of chocolate, even the way civilization looks at sweets. Thereafter, a steady stream of technological innovations, advances and developments changed the way the world looked at chocolates forever.

Today, we continue to reinvent the wheel. Chocolate, plain simple roasted and pressed cacao seeds have all but disappeared. What has taken its place is the sweet ridden, butter rich and flavor bequeathed form of a sweet that appeals to all ages alike. There are an infinite variety of flavors available, as there are shapes, sizes, dipping, toppings, fillings, encrusting, dustings, rosettes,….. you name it. It is a whole science now, chocolate in bakery products, and there are Chefs who specialize in making these chocolate products, they are absolutely perfect with their basic information, the temperature at which it melts, boils, sets, solidifies, becomes bitter, becomes sweet…the list is endless.

Bt none of us stop to thank that unknown Mayan teenager (has to be a teenager for the curiosity that showed us the cacao pod) reached out to that wild pod growing on a thorny tree (must be a thorny tree for all the treasures it has to protect), and crunch into it…and make a bitter face. After all, chocolate is born bitter, it becomes sweet only later!!!!