Full transcript
0:00Chocolate… food of the gods!
0:02That’s the Greek meaning of Theobroma cacao,
0:04the name of the tree that provides it.
0:06For a plant which is notoriously difficult to cultivate,
0:09its takeover of global tastes is decidedly impressive.
0:13Although not sold in Britain until the 1650s,
0:15its history goes back about 2,500 years before that,
0:18when it was almost certainly first domesticated
0:20in Central and South America.
0:22Chocolate was an important part
0:24of early Central and South American culture.
0:26The classic Mayans and their successors, including the Aztecs,
0:28consumed chocolate, usually as a drink,
0:30with water and perhaps chilli, or thickened with maize.
0:33They also used the beans as currency,
0:35as well as using them in ceremonies from baptism to burial.
0:38It was a rich person’s beverage,
0:39imbued with health and spiritual properties,
0:42and inevitably when the Spanish invaded
0:44and colonised the areas where it was found,
0:46they adopted it for their own use.
0:47At first, it was slow to spread.
0:49When one Spanish ship transporting the beans
0:51was captured by the British in the 16th Century,
0:53they apparently threw the cargo overboard,
0:55thinking it was some form of dung.
0:57However, as the Spanish, and then the French, and then the Italians,
1:00adapted the drink for their own tastes,
1:02they replaced the water with milk, and added sugar,
1:04and also started drinking it hot.
1:07By the time the British cottoned on, it was a rich, thick concoction,
1:10both delicious and pleasingly exotic.
1:12It was also healthy –
1:1317th Century medicine wasn’t always certain
1:16what the new foods from the Americas would do to a Western disposition,
1:19but chocolate mainly got a resolute thumbs up.
1:22Taken correctly, it was said to “restore natural heat,
1:25generate pure blood, enliven the heart,
1:27and conserve the natural faculties.”
1:29It was also claimed to be an aphrodisiac,
1:31and one author wrote, “Twill make old women young and fresh,
1:34create new motions of the flesh,
1:36and cause them to long for you know what,
1:38if they but taste of chocolate.”
1:40The Marquis de Sade was said to be addicted to it,
1:42using it to fuel ferocious orgies.
1:44No wonder it was popular!
1:46At this time, chocolate was a drink.
1:48But in the early 19th Century,
1:50manufacturers worked out how to remove much of the fat –
1:52called cocoa butter –
1:53which could then be added back carefully,
1:55to improve the texture, making it edible - though still very bitter.
1:58The defatted chocolate became cocoa powder,
2:00which allowed the poor access to their own version
2:03of the food of the gods.
2:04It was also used for cooking,
2:05though we had to wait a few more decades for chocolate cake.
2:09It wasn’t until the second half of the 19th Century
2:11that developments in milk processing,
2:13a sharp reduction in the price of sugar,
2:14and fierce competition between confectionery companies
2:17resulted in the first really popular eating chocolate –
2:20milk chocolate.
2:21Sales exploded,
2:22and chocolate quickly came to mean the stuff you ate,
2:24not the stuff you drank.
2:26Less than 50 years later,
2:27chocoholics could choose from an ever-increasing range
2:30of bars, boxes and novelty shapes.
2:32Today chocolate is polarised -
2:34from cheap, milky, sugary stuff, to high-end black bars of joy.
2:38The former, we’re told, high in sugar and fat,
2:40is leading to an obese nation,
2:42but the latter, it’s hinted, may actually be beneficial.
2:45Early studies suggest small doses of very dark chocolate,
2:48rich in anti-oxidants, theobromine and caffeine
2:50may make us happier, healthier and less stressed.
2:54Perhaps those 17th Century chocolate lovers were right after all.
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