Where Does Chocolate Come From?
Perhaps no other one thing is so well known to boys and girls the world
over as chocolate. Yet there was a time, and not so many years ago, as
we figure time in history, when there were no cakes of chocolate, or
chocolate candies to be had in the candy shops, no chocolate flavored
soda water or chocolate cake. To-day quite a panic would be started if
the world’s supply of chocolate were cut off.
Chocolate is obtained from cacao, which is the seed of the cacao tree.
It is quite often called cocoa, although this is not quite a correct
way of spelling the word. The cacao tree grows to a height of sixteen
or eighteen feet when cultivated, but to a greater height when found
growing wild. The cacao pod grows out from the trunk of the tree as
shown in the picture, and is, when ripe, from seven to ten inches
long and from three to five inches in diameter, giving it the form
of an ellipse. When you cut one of these pods open, you find five
compartments or cells, in each of which is a row of from five to ten
seeds, which are imbedded in a soft pulp, which is pinkish in color.
Each pod then contains from twenty-five to fifty seeds, which are what
we call “cocoa beans.”
The cacao tree was discovered for us by Christopher Columbus, so that
we have good reason to remember him aside from his great discovery of
America. The discovery of either of these would be fame enough for any
one man, and it would be difficult for some boys and girls to say just
which of the two was Columbus’ greater discovery.
Columbus found the cacao tree flourishing both in a wild and in a
cultivated state upon one of his voyages to Mexico. The Indians of
Peru and Mexico were very fond of it in its native state. They did not
know the joy of eating a chocolate cream, but they had discovered the
qualities of the cacao bean as a food and had learned to cultivate it
long before Columbus came to Mexico.
Columbus took some of the cacao beans back with him to Spain and to
this day cacao is much more extensively used by the Spaniards than by
any other nation. The first record of its introduction into England is
found in an announcement in the _Public Advertiser_ of June 16, 1657,
to the effect that:
“In Bishopgate Street, in Queen’s Head Alley, at a Frenchman’s house,
is an excellent West Indian drink called chocolate, to be sold where
you may have it ready at any time and also unmade, at reasonable rates.”
Of course, by the time America became settled the people brought their
taste for chocolates with them.
[Illustration: VIEW OF COCOA BEANS IN BAG AND COCOA-GRINDING MILL.]
What is the Difference Between Cacao and Chocolate?
When the cacao seeds are roasted and separated from the husks which
surround them, they are called cocoa-nibs. Cocoa consists of these nibs
alone, whether they are ground or unground, dried and powdered, or of
the crude paste dried in flakes.
Chocolate is made from the cocoa-nibs. These nibs are ground into an
oily paste and mixed with sugar and vanilla, cinnamon, cloves, or other
flavoring substances. Chocolate is only a product made from cocoa-nibs,
but it is the most important product.
[Illustration: CACAO CRACKING MILL AND SHELL SEPARATOR.]
[Illustration: COCOA CRACKING AND SHELL SEPARATOR.