At the discovery of America, the natives of the narrower portion of
the continent bordering on the Caribbean Sea, were found in possession
of two luxuries which have been everywhere recognized as worthy of
extensive cultivation; namely, tobacco and chocolate. The former
of these has made its way into climates totally unlike that of its
early home; the other of these plants, since it cannot bear the low
temperature occasionally experienced in our subtropics, is more
restricted in its range. The chocolate-plant is confined to the warmer
regions of the globe, where it finds the congenial climatic conditions
which it enjoyed and still enjoys in its earliest home in America.
The first references to the chocolate-plant and its products are found
in the accounts of the explorers and conquerors who followed Columbus.
These first descriptions of this singular tree, of its fruits and
seeds, of its uses and the methods of cultivation, are remarkably
accurate in all essential particulars.
[Illustration]
One of the earliest, if not indeed the very earliest, delineations of
the chocolate-tree is in a rare volume by Bontekoe. The engraving,
which is here reproduced with fidelity, represents the chocolate-tree
with its comparatively large fruits or pods borne on the main stem.
This might be thought at first to be an error of the artist, but it is
in fact a rude expression of one of the most remarkable peculiarities
of the plant. As will be shown presently, when a fuller description
of the plant is given, the fruits are, as a rule, formed on the older
parts. Another interesting feature is shown in the engraving:[1] the
chocolate-tree is sheltered by a larger tree of some other kind near
it. We shall see shortly, that this practice of planting a sheltering
tree to shade the young chocolate plants for a time, is still kept
up wherever the plant is successfully cultivated. It is certainly
interesting that this point in cultivation, which might easily have
been thought to be accidental or local, was delineated more than three
centuries ago. By the natives of tropical America, the seeds of the
chocolate-plant, which will be more particularly described in a later
chapter, were first roasted and then rudely ground. For this purpose
they employed the flat or curved surface of the sort of stone used by
them to grind their maize, or Indian corn. In the engraving, one of the
most simple mills or flat mortars is seen with its roller. The roller
was merely a short thick stone of a cylindrical shape, which could be
used with one or both hands somewhat after the manner of the common
rolling-pin everywhere used in kitchens. By this simple appliance, the
crushed seeds were mixed with various ingredients, among which may be
mentioned spices of different kinds. A modification of this was later
used in Spain. See page 15.
[1] The figure in the left of the foreground is said by Bontekoe to
represent the native method of procuring fire by rapidly twirling a
pointed stick in a groove of a piece of wood placed on the ground.
[Illustration: FROM A PHOTOGRAPH OF A STONE MILL, OR FLAT MORTAR.]
The drinks made from this coarse chocolate were frequently very
complex, but the chocolate itself was the chief constituent. It was the
custom to beat the mixture into a froth or foam, by means of stirrers,
of mallet-like forms; in fact, it is said by some writers that the very
name chocolate, is derived from a native word indicating the noise made
by the stirring of the beverage.
Thus, Thomas Gage, in his “New Survey of the West Indies,” says
(under date of 1648), “The name chocolatte is an Indian name, and is
compounded from _atte_, as some say, or as others, _atle_, which in the
Mexican language signifieth water, and from the sound which the water
(wherein is put the chocolatte) makes, as _choco_, _choco_, _choco_,
when it is stirred in a cup by an instrument called a ‘molinet,’ or
‘molinillo,’ until it bubble and rise unto a froath.”
[Illustration: SOME OF THE FORMS OF CHOCOLATE STIRRERS (“MOLINETS”).
_From a treatise published in the Seventeenth Century._]
The same writer gives us an interesting account of the native method of
preparing the drink. From the extract, which is copied without change
of the quaint spelling, it will be seen how wide the use of chocolate
was in Europe towards the middle of the seventeenth century:--
“Now, for the making or compounding of this drink, I shall set down
here the method. The cacao and the other ingredients must be beaten
in a morter of stone, or (as the Indians use) ground upon a broad
stone, which they call _Metate_, and is only made for that use. But
first the ingredients are all to be dried, except the _Achiotte_,
with care that they be beaten to powder, keeping them still in
stirring that they be not burnt, or become black; for if they be
overdried, they will be bitter and lose their virtue. The cinnamon
and the long red pepper are to be first beaten with the anniseed, and
then the cacao, which must be beaten by little and little till it
be all powdered, and in the beating it must be turned round that it
may mix the better. Every one of these ingredients must be beaten by
itself, and then all be put into the vessel where the cacao is, which
you must stir together with a spoon, and then take out that paste,
and put it into the morter, under which there must be a little fire,
after the confection is made; but if more fire be put under than will
only warm it, then the unctuous part will dry away. The _Achiotte_
also must be put in in the beating, that it may the better take the
colour. All the ingredients must be searced, save only the cacao,
and if from the cacao the dry shell be taken, it will be the better.
When it is well beaten and incorporated (which will be known by the
shortnesse of it), then with a spoon (so in the Indias is used) is
taken up some of the paste, which will be almost liquid, and made
into tablets, or else without a spoon put into boxes, and when it is
cold it will be hard.
“Those that make it into tablets put a spoonful of the paste upon
a piece of paper (the Indians put it upon the leaf of a plaintin
tree), where, being put into the shade (for in the sun it melts and
dissolves), it grows hard; and then bowing the paper or leaf, the
tablet fals off by reason of the fatnesse of the paste. But if it be
put into anything of earth or wood, it stickes fast, and will not
come off but with scraping or breaking. The manner of drinking it
is diverse; the one (being the way most used in Mexico) is to take
it hot with Atolle, dissolving a tablet in hot water, and stirring
and beating it in the cup, when it is to be drunk, with a Molinet,
and when it is well stirred to a scumme, or froth, then to fill the
cup with hot Atolle, and so drink it sup by sup. Another way is that
the chocolate, being dissolved with cold water and stirred with
the Molinet, and the scumme being taken off and put into another
vessel, the remainder be set upon the fire, with as much sugar as
will sweeten it, and when it is warme, then to powre it upon the
scumme which was taken off before, and so to drink it. But the most
ordinary way is to warme the water very hot, and then to powre out
half the cup full that you mean to drink; and to put into it a tablet
or two, or as much as will thicken reasonably the water, and then
grinde it well with the Molinet, and when it is well ground and risen
to a scumme, to fill the cup with hot water, and so drink it by
sups (having sweetened it with sugar), and to eat it with a little
conserve or maple bred, steeped into the chocolatte.
“Besides these ways there is another way (which is much used in
the Island of Santo Domingo), which is to put the chocolatte into
a pipkin with a little water, and to let it boyle well till it be
dissolved, and then to put in sufficient water and sugar according
to the quantity of the chocolatte, and then to boyle it again untill
there comes an oily scumme upon it, and then to drink it.
“There is another way yet to drink chocolatte, which is cold, which
the Indians use at feasts to refresh themselves, and it is made after
this manner: The chocolatte (which is made with none, or very few,
ingredients) being dissolved in cold water with the Molinet, they
take off the scumme or crassy part, which riseth in great quantity,
especially when the cacao is older and more putrefied. The scumme
they lay aside in a little dish by itself, and then put sugar into
that part from whence was taken the scumme, and then powre it from
on high into the scumme, and so drink it cold. And this drink is so
cold that it agreeth not with all men’s stomachs; for by experience
it hath been found that it doth hurt by causing pains in the stomach,
especially to women.
“The third way of taking it is the most used, and thus certainly
it doth no hurt, neither know I why it may not be used as well in
England as in other parts, both hot and cold; for where it is so
much used, the most, if not all, as well in the Indias as in Spain,
Italy, Flanders (which is a cold countrey), find that it agreeth
well with them. True it is, it is used more in the Indias than in
the European parts, because there the stomachs are more apt to faint
than here, and a cup of chocolatte well confectioned comforts and
strengthens the stomach. For myself I must say, I used it twelve
years constantly, drinking one cup in the morning, another yet before
dinner between nine or ten of the clock; another within an hour or
two after dinner, and another between four and five in the afternoon;
and when I was purposed to sit up late to study, I would take another
cup about seven or eight at night, which would keep me waking
till about midnight. And if by chance I did neglect any of these
accustomed houres, I presently found my stomach fainty. And with this
custome I lived twelve years in those parts healthy, without any
obstructions, or oppilations, not knowing what either ague or feaver
was.”
After its introduction into Europe from America, chocolate was used at
first only as a luxury, but it has steadily advanced in popular esteem
until it is now recognized as one of the necessaries of life.
[Illustration: FRONTISPIECE OF ONE OF THE EARLIEST WORKS ON CHOCOLATE.]
It would be interesting to speculate as to the accidents which led to
the original use of such beverages as coffee, tea, and chocolate. The
earliest employment of the two former is veiled in as deep a mystery
as that which surrounds the chocolate-plant. All were used at the
outset by what we have been accustomed to call the uncultivated races
of mankind, but we cannot surmise what first attracted their attention
to these plants. One can only say that by the natives of lands
where the plants grow naturally, they have all been used from time
immemorial, and that all three are welcome gifts from a rude state of
civilization to the highest which exists to-day. By the savages and the
Aztecs of America, by the roving tribes of Arabia, and by the dwellers
in the farther East, the virtues of these three plants were recognized
long before any one of them was introduced into Europe.
There is reason to believe that long before the discovery of America,
Tea and Coffee had been vaguely known to travellers in the Orient,
as curiosities, much as we to-day regard the Kola-nut and Maté, but
neither Tea nor Coffee was then employed as a beverage anywhere in
Western Europe. In fact, all trustworthy evidence in the case leads us
to a surprising conclusion, namely, That _Chocolate was the first of
these beverages to attract the attention of Europeans_. This beverage
rapidly made its way throughout Europe, beginning from Spain and
Portugal, whither its discoverers had brought it. The other beverages,
Tea and Coffee, soon followed, and after a short time became associated
together in popular regard.
In a duodecimo work published in 1685, and now very rare, the beverages
derived from these three plants are described in a clear and forcible
manner. The reproduction of the frontispiece of this book, given above,
shows how intimate the association of these beverages was regarded
even two centuries ago. It is interesting to observe the distinction
made by the artist in the receptacles and cups for holding these three
different drinks. On the floor, near the vase, is seen one of the
chocolate-stirrers described on page 10.
At the outset the manufacture of chocolate in Europe was carried on
with substantially the same appliances as those used by the natives. A
curious indication of this is afforded by the engraving, which shows
that the Portuguese mill was to all intents modelled after that used by
the Mexicans.
[Illustration: CHOCOLATE-GRINDING IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.
_From an early engraving._]