Industrial Chocolate Manufacture and Use
Chapter One
TRADITIONAL CHOCOLATE
MAKING
S.T. Beckett
1.1 History
Cacao trees were cultivated by the Aztecs of Mexico long before the arrival
of the Europeans. The beans were prized both for their use as a currency and
for the production of a spiced drink called 'Chocolatl'. The Aztec Emperor
Montezeuma is said to have drunk 50 jars or pitchers per day of this
beverage, which was considered to have aphrodisiac properties, a belief still
held as late as 1712, when The Spectator newspaper advised its readers to
be careful how they meddled with 'romances, chocolate, novels and the like
inflamers ...'. The chocolate was prepared by roasting the cocoa beans in
earthenware pots, before grinding them between stones. The mixture was
added to cold water, often with other ingredients such as spice or honey, and
whipped to a frothy consistency (Whymper, 1912).
The first cocoa beans were brought to Europe by Columbus as a curiosity,
but were later exploited commercially by Don Cortez as a new drink (Minifie,
1980). The Spaniards preferred their drink sweeten ... read full excerpt from Industrial Chocolate Manufacture and Use ebook
