Six things you didn't know about chocolate

by Juan Carlos Dozal Varela

Human Heritage

-

1. Chocolate was invented by Mesoamerican cultures.
   
   In what today is Mexico and half of Central America, cocoa beans began being used to prepare several kinds of beverages, of which only few survive to our days. Some investigators have traced the origins of this practice to more or less 4000 years.
   
   Various origins of the name have been proposed: the Aztecs called it “xocoatl”, which meant “bitter water”, the mayas “chokol haa” or “chakaw haa”. There is still some debate about this. What we do know is that the Nahuas from the Aztec Empire adopted it from the Mayan cultural region (eastward and southward of Tabasco).
   
   

   At the arrival of Spanish conquistadors, the drinks made of cocoa beans were exclusive for the elites, and this wasn't new. Archaelogical vessels have been found where chocolate was used as a ritual, prestigious beverage.
   
   

2. It was considered medicinal.
   Both the Native and the Spanish considered cocoa bean preparations as useful for the treatment of certain illnesses and discomforts. The Mayas used cocoa butter to treat burns and scars, and also to ease the liver and the lungs. The nahua prefered the leaves of the tree (yes, it grows from a tree) to ease injuries and to cure apathy and shyness (!), and the bark for diarrhoea and hemorroids.
   
   The Spanish, on the other hand, classified its properties according to Hipocrates' four temperaments theory. They found it good for digestion, sadness, for the liver, for ulcers, to expulse flatus, bad breath, and the list goes on. There are antique recipe books that describe how to prepare chocolate beverages for different illnesses.
   

3. There have been lots of different and rare ways to prepare it
   The native used to prepare cocoa beans mixed with corn, different types of vanilla, an enormous variety of chilli peppers, aromatic flowers, achiote (a condiment which colors deep red), and others. The taste was usually bitter, and was deemed harsh by the Spaniards.
   
   Nowadays, some preparations which resemble more prehispanic style survive, as is the example of Guatemala's Batido (drunk by the Kiché, the Kekchí and other maya peoples), which goes with the above mentioned ingredients and also black pepper and the seed of another frutal tree, Zapote, which is used to economize expenses, since cocoa beans themselves are expensive.
   
   The spaniards added milk and sugar and the drink was a hit. Soon it was taken to other countries of Europe and new experimenting began. Almonds, nuts, hazelnuts, clover, cinnamon, black pepper, ginger, nutmeg, aniseeds among others. So go on! Experiment! You might get somewhere interesting!
   
   

4.Raw cocoa beans do terrible things on the body

That is why you have to ferment and toast the bean. According to a 16^th Century medicine man:

“Firstly, cocoa beans naturally taken off the seed of the tree, without toasting it or preparing it in any way, has the property to constipate, to stop menstruation, to close urinal tracts; it obstructs the liver and especially the spleen, it deprives the face of its lively and natural color, it weakens digestion, shortens breath terribly with an uncomfortable tiredness, it causes paroxisms and fainting. It also causes women “mothers' illness” [probably an epigastric pain with the sensation of a bulge coming up the stomach] and especially it causes insisting anxieties and melancholy and a feeling that your soul comes out of your heart; and finally, we have seen many people swell up and get dropsy after having consumed raw cocoa beans.”

Apart from being informative about the dangerous qualities of raw cocoa beans, this extract (and any look at antique essays on medicine) makes one wonder about the different classification systems there are and there have been for the signs of illness. There are many things one cannot understand without further investigation, but that is way off our intentions here.

Also, it is difficult to know the extent of this medicine man's observations: the Internet throbs with websites promoting the virtues of raw cocoa beans, in the midst of the Raw Food Movement. Furthermore, according to Nikita Harwich¹, South American peoples used to consume raw cocoa beans instead of preparing a beverage.

Perhaps its all about the variety of cocoa beans one speaks of, of which there are lots. Anyhow, it would be wise to ask local people before trying it or avoiding to do it.

5. Chocolate was the center of interesting moral debate

There is a 1636 treaty on chocolate, called “Moral Question: Whether Chocolate Disturbs Ecclesiastic Fasting”, where Antonio de León Pinelo discusses whether chocolate is food or beverage. If it was to be considered food, it would disturb fasting, whereas if it was to be deemed as a drink it wouldn't. It is awesome to observe how he doesn't reckon wine and beer as disturbances for fasting! In the end, the Vatican decided it only disrupted fasting in some cases.

Additionally, its supposed aphrodisiac properties called for regulation. Mexico City's Carmelite nuns had to make vows never to drink chocolate or to be the cause of someone else drinking it. On the other hand, Cistercians monks were allowed to do it; and chocolate was so popular among them that they even had a place they called “Chocolatería”.

6.It was used in sorcery prosecuted by the Spanish Inquisition

In 1685, Diego López Cogolludo writes that:

“In this City of Merida [Yucatan] it is common knowledge that there are some Indian sorceresses who can open a rose by deed of word, and which they give to a person so as to break their will; they make them smell it or they place it under their pillow. And if the ones who give it away smell it themselves, they drive themselves mad for a long while, crying out the name of the person it was originally destined to. The Inquisition certainly must punish these sorts of sorcery; even more so if the stain of sin falls onto the pure and virginal. The indian women of this city are also famous for casting certain spells on chocolate, with which they daze and confuse their husbands.”

So, now you know what to do if you feel him distant!

Many Inquisition trials of Mexican colonial history include, in the sorcery accusations and other heresies, the use of traditional medicinal plants (which by the way brutally hindered the expansion and sharing of important knowledge). One trial talks about the use of chocolate mixed with menstruation blood, blackhorse manure or crow guano, prepared to make men come back to the women who desired them.

I guess most of us would prefer the rose

1Nikita Harwich, Histoire du chocolat, Les Editions Desjonquères

MORE COMING NEXT POST!