The Bittersweet Evolution of Chocolate

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When it comes to describing chocolate, what are the things that come to your mind? Let me guess, if you were thinking of describing chocolate as sweet or delicious, it is probably because of how wonderful it tastes.

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Interestingly chocolate didn't start off with sweet flavour. According to History.com, the ancient Mesoamericans started consuming chocolate 4000 years ago as a bitter beverage made of cacao beans, water, vanilla, honey, chilli peppers and various spices. During that period of time, the Olmecs, Mayans and Aztecs were huge fans of chocolate especially Mayans who see chocolate as a precious and exclusive drink for the society’s elite.

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Writing about the Mayans, Facts About Chocolate shared that cacao drink was used in Maya for wedding ceremonies and also to replace blood in religious rituals. In fact, the Mayans worship cacao to the extent where they have a Cacao God! When Aztecs took over the Maya’s region in Mesoamerica, they used cacao beans as currency and imported it to regions that are suitable for cocoa plantation. Based on an online magazine named The Nibble, Aztecs was also the first to tax cocoa for the nobles, Aztecs upper class and rich traders.

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The Nibble also stated that chocolate became popular in 1590s when the Mexicans improvised cacao drink by adding sweet flavor of honey, cinnamon and cane sugar. On the other hand, Mrs. Myers Chocolate also described how chocolate’s popularity continues in many Europeans courts after it was introduced at France royal wedding in 1615. According to the same site, chocolate had different names in different countries such as "chocalatall, "jocolatte", "jacolatte", and "chockelet during that period of time.

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Based on History.com, 1828 was the beginning of the revolution of chocolate when cocoa press was invented by Coenraad Johannes Van Houten. The cocoa press was invented to squeeze out cocoa butter from cocoa beans to get cocoa butter and cocoa powder as the end product. This wonderful invention lead to the creation of first solid chocolate bar in 1847 by J.S. Fry & Sons. The solid chocolate bar contains sugar, cocoa butter and cocoa powder. Ever since the Swiss invented conching machine in 1879, chocolate’s taste and texture started to improve and it eventually lead to mass production of chocolate.

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On the other hand, Hershey actually created “D Ration Bar” for the U.S. Army emergency rations in 1937 according to History.com. “D Ration Bar” was specially designed to withstand high temperature and it was made of chocolate, sugar, cocoa butter, skim milk powder and oat flour. However the final product was too hard to chew and digest hence the US army didn’t like it until Hershey came up with Tropical Bar, an improved version of chocolate that shares the same function.

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With the increasing number of chocolate varieties, the competition in chocolate industry continues to increase and many chocolate brands are trying to stand out by introducing new and unique chocolate flavours. One of the prominent chocolate brands would be KitKat who came up with special yet delicious chocolate. Some of their specialties are Matcha KitKat, Rum and Raisin KitKat and Wasabi KitKat.

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While chocolates are being enjoyed widely around the world, a documentary called The Dark Side of Chocolate, produced by Helle Faber revealed the ugly truth of human trafficking and child labour in chocolate industry. Every year, children aged from 10 to 14-year-old are being smuggled to Ivory Coast in Africa, which is the largest chocolate plantation in the world. This documentary uncovers the saddening fact of child labour and cocoa farmers not having the privilege of tasting chocolate, as it is too expensive for them.

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Even though chocolate seems common and easily accessible to us, not everyone in this world shares the same privilege of this wonderful creation. The making of chocolate requires long period of time and hard work of the cocoa farmers. Hence, we should always remind ourselves of the chocolate makers’ selfless contribution whenever we have a bite of chocolate.