.jpeg)
.jpeg) |
It’s almost Easter—time for those delicious chocolate eggs
and bunnies—so that’s what I’m going to talk about.
Chocolate has a long history. It has only been available to
Europeans for 500 years, the commodity passed from the Aztecs to their Spanish
Conquerors. In Spain, it was for the first time mixed with sugar, cinnamon,
vanilla, cloves and allspice, which changed it from the bitter, hot pepper
tonic beloved by the Indians, to a sweet treat. The royal court kept it to
themselves for over a hundred years, but when a daughter of Philip of Spain
married Louis XIII in 1615, she brought a chest of chocolate as part of her
dowry. Like all exotic substances,
Europeans originally promoted the new drink as an aphrodisiac.
It wasn’t until 1657 that London would see its first
chocolate house. The fad moved in a big way to Austria, following the Habsburg royal
court’s 1711 dynastic move from Madrid to Vienna. The production method
remained laborious, and here I’ll quote the chocolate maker for Colonial
Williamsburg:
The chocolate
production process involves “roasting cocoa beans, shelling them, crushing them
in a large mixing bowl and transferring them to a heated grinding stone. Using
an iron rolling pin, the cocoa beans are ground into a liquid and sugar and
spices are added.” 18th-century chocolate would taste bitter to us, and gritty,
too, because it’s impossible to grind the particles sufficiently fine using by-hand
processes. Each month the chocolate would have a slightly different texture and
flavor, because the flavor profiles of the beans are always changing.
It’s the social
aspect of the new drink that I find most interesting. Chocolate remained a
luxury until the middle of the 19th Century. Lorenzo DaPonte, “poet”
to Mozart, wrote a telling scene for the character “Despina” in their last collaboration,
Cosi Fan Tutte. Despina—who is the
definition of “saucy”--is on her way to her spoiled, silly mistresses’ room
carrying a fragrant treat she has never tasted.
“There’s nothing more
miserable than being a maid.
From morning till
night you’re busy, you’re sweating and slaving
And then when you’re
done, there’s nothing left for you.
I’ve been stirring
this for half an hour:
The chocolate’s ready
and
all I can do is stand
here with my tongue hanging out!
My dear young ladies,
you get the substance
And I get the smell!
By God, I’m going to
try it!”
She then drinks straight from the spout before exclaiming:
“Oh, how delicious it
is!”
How glad I am that times have changed, and that Milton
Hershey, the Henry Ford of the chocolate business, found a way to make this
delightful treat available to everyone!
~~Juliet Waldron
Amazon Author’s Page:
Mozart’s Wife
Nightingale
Love chocolate! Happy Easter Juliet!
ReplyDeleteThanks Jamie--love chocolate too--but it doesn't always love me. :(
ReplyDelete