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Champurrado recipe

Ingredients 

8 cups of water 

5 oz of piloncillo or ½ cup of sugar 

1 cinnamon stick 

2 mexican chocolate tablets 

¾ cup of masa harina (corn flour) 

Instructions 

Place 6 cups of water in a large saucepan along with the piloncillo and the cinnamon stick. Heat water until it starts boiling and then reduce the heat and allow to simmer for about 10 minutes until the piloncillo has melted. If you are using regular sugar, this step will take less time, since the sugar will dissolve in about 4-5 minutes.

Once the piloncillo or sugar has dissolved, add the 2 Mexican Chocolate Tablets and allow about 5 minutes to dissolve, stirring from time to time.

Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, pour the other 2 cups of water and mix in the masa harina. Mix well with an egg beater if possible to avoid forming any clumps. Make sure you have a very creamy texture.

When the chocolate has completely dissolved, slowly pour the masa harina mixture into the saucepan while stirring, to make sure there are no clumps. If you want to be safe and avoid masa harina clumps, use a strainer to pour the mixture.

Turn the heat to medium-high until the Champurrado starts boiling, and then reduce the heat to low and gently simmer, stirring constantly. After 6-8 minutes the mixture will thicken. Allow to cook for 5 more minutes. Be careful while serving the champurrado, its thick consistency keeps the drink extremely hot!

Note: adding 2 or 4 more tablespoons of masa harina mixed with ½ cup of water would make a thick consistency, as some like their champurrado thick 

Champurrado is a Mexican chocolate hot drink that has a thick consistency compared to the typical hot chocolate drink. Typically consumed during cold weathers and festivities such as Christmas, Thanksgiving, and most interestingly at funerals. Its origins date back to ancient Mesoamerica, where the Maya had brought the art of chocolate into new heights. They would consume it in its purest form and would add other ingredients such as chile or maize. Or would add a combination of cacao, vanilla, and achiote, a food coloring and seasoning. The Maya were a hierarchical society that places the elites as close to their gods compared to other members of society. And cacao in its form is associated with many of the Maya gods as it is suggested that the cacao tree had created humankind. So in sum, the elites were the ones to consume chocolate, but they are lenient to who to give, as ceremonial banquets allowed those of lower class to come and consume chocolate and be given the cacao beans as gifts. 

The first time champurrado was written down according “Of Love and Masa” by Michelle Threadgould, was by, “Francisco Hernandez, a Spanish botanist reporting back to Spain on his findings in Mexico in 1651” (Threadgould, 2017). Since the arrival of the Spanish colonizer, the oldest form of ingredients to make a chocolate drink, has been replaced with ingredients such as sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon to make it sweeter and satisfy the palates of European elites. That is why the ingredients list above calls for sugar, cinnamon-there are some recipes that call for vanilla, but that is up to the individual making the drink to include that or not. Other changes to the recipe are Mexican chocolate tablets, where beforehand cacao beans were used. These tablets look like a chocolate bar, but in a rounded shape with ingredients that includes, “cocoa, sugar, and cinnamon” according to the website “Chocolate Ibarra”. The website title is actually one of the two most famous brands of Mexican chocolate tablets, the other being Nestle Abuelita. 

One thing that hasn’t changed in this recipe is the inclusion of water, as the Maya and other indigenous groups did not consume milk, but instead water. In accordance to the article, “The Mexican-Maya Pantry: Part Four-Dairy” by Na’atik Mexico, “Dairy products were not part of the Mesoamerican diet in the area that makes up modern day Mexico, and were seemingly unknown to the local people until they were introduced by the Spanish invaders in the 1500’s.” (Mexico, 2024). The last ingredient on the list, masa harina (corn flour) , has differed from its original counterpart maize. The ingredients that are used nowadays, has surely given the chocolate drink a more sweet taste and overall consistency, differing from other drinks we see today. 

The preparation of champurrado has shifted from its original counterpart, where modern inventions of steel pots and pans, gas stoves and other kitchen appliances make the process of making Chapurrado easier. But that wasn’t always the case, its original process according to the article titled “How to make the original Mayan chocolate drink” by CocoTerra starts with, “Harvesting cacao pods. After removing the beans from the pods, they were fermented and then dried. Roasted beans were ground into a thick paste using a metate (a large stone slab) and a mano (a cylindrical stone tool). This step took a lot of work because the grinding had to be done until the cacao reached a smooth consistency. The ground cacao paste was combined with spices. The cacao mixture was simmered in water and then frothed with a special wooden tool called a molinillo. The final mixture was strained to remove any solid particles or residual spices, leaving behind a smooth and frothy chocolate drink” (CocoTerra, 2023). Its original process took much longer than it is today and along with its taste, from what could be inferred as a bitter or spicy taste by Europeans, who first tried the chocolate drink.  

The most common group to drink champurrado is of course the Mexicans, but what I found the most interesting way they would consume the drink is after a funeral service. It has been noted that Cacao played an integral role in funerary rituals on two levels. The first being the beans can accompany the deceased on their journey to the afterlife, and the second level can be a substance consumed by the living to commemorate the funeral ceremony. In the article titled Chocolate in the Underworld Space of Death: Cacao Seeds from an Early Mortuary Cave by Keith M. Prufer and William Jeffery Hurst, states, “Cacao, along with maize, is consumed as part of Zapotec mortuary ritual in Oaxaca (Parsons 1936:105). Cacao beverages also figure prominently in celebrating the anniversary of a death” (Prufer and Hurst, 290). I thought this was really interesting because my mother's side of the family is part of the Zapotec indigenous group in Oaxaca. And I’ve seen with my own eyes that at the end of a funeral service champurrado is served along with coffee and pan. I always thought that was something that my family does, but it is something larger. It’s part of a culture and history that I wasn’t aware of until reading this article. From how I view the serving of champurrado is to commemorate the success of the funeral, the deceased, and to be reminded to be grateful for the friends and family that are still alive today and not take them for granted. 

Sources

Chocolate Ibarra. n.d. “Ibarra Table Chocolate | 100% Certified Genuine Chocolate.” Chocolate Ibarra. Accessed November 27, 2024. https://chocolateibarra.com/eng/products/table-chocolate/.

CocoTerra. 2023. “How to make the original Mayan chocolate drink.” CocoTerra. https://www.cocoterra.com/how-to-make-the-original-mayan-chocolate-drink/#:~:text=How%20did%20the%20Mayans%20make,try%20the%20original%20hot%20chocolate.

Gritzer, Daneil. 2020. “Champurrado (Mexican Hot Chocolate and Corn Drink) Recipe.” Serious eats. https://www.seriouseats.com/champurrado-mexican-hot-chocolate-corn-drink-recipe.

Martínez, Mely. 2016. “How to make Champurrado Recipe Mexican thick Chocolate.” Mexico In My Kitchen. https://www.mexicoinmykitchen.com/champurrado-mexican-thick-chocolate/#recipe.

Mexico, Na'atik. n.d. “The Mexican- Maya Pantry: Part Four - Dairy.” Instituto de Lenguas y Culturas Na'atik. https://naatikmexico.org/blog/the-mexican-maya-pantry-part-four-dairy#:~:text=Dairy%20products%20were%20not%20part,types%20of%20dairy%20products%20available.

Prufer, Keith M., and William J. Hurst. 2007. “Chocolate in the Underground Space of Death: Cacao Seeds from an Early Classic Mortuary Cave.” Ethnohistory, (April). 10.1215/00141801-2006-063.

Threadgould, Michelle, and Sarah Stierch. 2017. “Of Love and Masa.” Made Local Magazine. https://madelocalmagazine.com/2017/05/of-love-and-masa/.

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Chocolate futures

The consumption and production of chocolate have grown a lot since its ancient Mesoamerican origins. From different variations of chocolate that can be made: chocolate bars, chocolate drinks, ect., to the different areas of location where cacao beans can be grown. With that being said, regulation must be put in place to keep production running, but how fair are these regulations to the workers that cultivate the beans? Organizations like Fair Trade or alternatives stride to promote better care for workers and the environment, but the efforts done to make things right cannot fix every single problem or even create new problems. 

Cacao production has only grown larger and larger, with annual consumption of chocolate being 7.5 million tons, 5-6 million farmers, and the biggest markets of chocolate dominating the industry: Europe (40%), US (20%), and a combined share of West Africa and Europe would grow their global domination in the years to come. In spite of this, regulation of workers and the environment are not sustainable due to poor production practices, inadequate government support, smaller farmers and deforestation. Organizations like Fair Trade whose motto according to the video lecture “Chocolate futures” by Patricia Juarez-Dappe, states, “Fair Trade standards assist farmers to organize as cooperatives and associations so they can earn fair prices for their products” (Juarez-Dappe, 8:24). This can be achieved through a certification that regularly inspects cacao producers to make sure they meet child labor standards, promote environmental sustainability, and prohibits the usage of dangerous agrochemicals and GMOs. Pros to the Fair Trade certification are: better access to healthcare, education, protect the environment, protect women and to ensure that all workers are paid equally. Especially to women, who had been paid less than men, but those who were given the chance to invest in their own farms had been proven to have greater marginal returns compared to men. 

The cons are that cacao farmers struggle with chocolate pricing along with the cost to obtain the Fair Trade certification, the ambiguity of Fair Trade standards, does not compensate farmers accordingly, switching to sustainable agriculture result in higher wages cost, and lack of strong regularity force on Fair Trade’s part leading to mislabeling to happen. There are alternative organizations to Fair Trade, like Direct Cacao who work with “small farmers and create specific relationships based on individualized circumstances” (Juarez-Dappe, 14:35). But without a singular structure and set of regulation, there is bound to be inconsistency standards. One farm may have stricter regulation compared to another farm whose regulations are lax. Another organization is ATO (Alternative trading organization), which is a compromise between FairTrade and Direct Cacao, where they address specific issues that affect specific producers. 

Cacao accounts for about 0.7% of the global land use footprint of crop production in 2014, compared to wheat, maize, rice and soybeans who have a much higher impact. On an international trading crop scale, cacao accounts for 1.5%. In countries where cacao is their main product, its impact is much larger: Ecuador accounts for 15%, while the Ivory Coast accounts for 25%. The production of cacao leans towards an area that is forest dense and its cultivation causes deforestation and degradation. According to the Washington Post article titled, “ How Mars Inc., maker of M&Ms, vowed to make its chocolate green. And failed” by Steven Mufson, “The pace of deforestation is alarming. In 2017, 40 football fields of tropical forests were lost every minute, spurred by growing demand not only for cocoa, but also for palm oil, soybeans, timber, beef and rubber” (Mufson, 2019). The impact that the cacao and chocolate industry have is severe, good or bad: the former being for massive corporations earning money, and bad for the environment and workers. 

While there have been many organizations who took strides for better conditions for workers, it's clearly not enough. Problems are always going to keep popping up: deforestation, not investing in small farms to prevent less damage to the environment, conditions of farms and plantation, or increased price of chocolate not making its way back into farmers pockets. The biggest solution possible is for the government to get involved with fairer regulation in cacao growing regions, better incentives for environmental sustainability, and to advocate for better working conditions for the farmers. But until then, the cacao industry is broken.  

Sources

Juarez-Dappe, Patricia. “Chocolate futures” YouTube. September 2, 2020. Video, https://youtu.be/V9pYNx1bp54?si=vELc2QWCC1VPvwgy

Mufson, Steven. How Mars Inc., Maker of M&Ms, Vowed to make its Chocolate Green. and Failed.: The Global Appetite for Chocolate Threatens West Africa, which Supplies most of the world’s Cocoa. A Decade After Mars and Other Chocolate Makers Vowed to Stop Rampant Deforestation, the Problem has Gotten Worse. Washington, D.C., United States Washington, D.C.: WP Company LLC d/b/a The Washington Post, 2019. https://libproxy.csun.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/blogs-podcasts-websites/how-mars-inc-maker-m-amp-ms-vowed-make-chocolate/docview/2310155594/se-2.

Wikipedia. 2024. “Fairtrade International.” Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairtrade_International.

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Expansion of consumption

Expanding the consumption of chocolate can take many forms, one in particular is advertisements. We see them everywhere, on billboards, sidewalks, tv commercials, ads on social media platforms, ect. The power of advertising influences consumers' perception of things and helps control our spending power of products that we may or may not need. With that being said, how powerful can chocolate advertisements be and shape our society today? There have been clever ways to advertise chocolate over history from trading cards, packaging of chocolate boxes, the linkage between images and its reflection on gender norms. 

From the early 19th century, chocolate was consumed as a drink from the aristocratic and elitist groups, by the mid to late 19th century chocolate as a form had been diversified thanks to the industrial revolution, allowing others of lower class to consume as chocolate became cheaper. With now a wider audience, chocolate companies need to find ways to keep larger audiences interested and keep purchasing chocolate. One example of advertising would be trading cards, which were given to consumers after a chocolate purchase. According to the video lecture “Chocolate in modern times: consumption” by Patricia Juarez-Dappe, trading cards came in a variety of forms such as, “Sign cards designed for store displays were usually big, colorful, with succinct information. Novelty cards for consumers were portable, very different in shape, and included more information for the consumer. They all had a standard format that consisted of an appealing image on the front and product information on the back” (Juarez-Dappe, 6:58). Originally these cards hold the name of the store and location, gradually the information on the trading cards changed to include messages that targeted specific groups and included recipes. The recipe part was useful as people can come up with ways to include chocolate into recipes, instead of consuming chocolate in its purchased form. 

Two other forms of visual media were postcards and posters. Postcards would be sent out to consumers at the end of the 19th century when mail prices decreased and regulation on postcards changed. Posters, along with other visual media, included images of gender roles, nationalism and race. But all three visual media fell out of fashion as newspaper ads became more affordable. A more physical form of advertisement was through fairs, chocolate companies had exhibitions that showcase their product. According to Nicolas Westbrook's book chapter titled Chocolate at the World's Fairs, 1851-1964, he states,“These chocolate exhibition…at the centennial exposition established a pattern that would hold for the next century of world fair’s: attention to both product and manufacturing process, emphasis on dramatic size or presentation in order to create a memorable corporate image, and, for chocolate, the simple pleasure of taste” (Westbrook, 200). These dramatic displays were designed to give the public an idealized version of chocolate making. Also to give consumers a visualization of what they see and think when they take a bite of chocolate, wealth and cleanness. 

As we move further into time, chocolate advertisements have reinforced stereotypes and still hold specific ideas about gender norms. These types of content and images were explicit or implicit of what chocolate companies are trying to convey, such as, “Images of people in good health convinced consumers that chocolate was pure and safe. Depictions of women in their roles as wives and mothers associated chocolate with nurturing and domesticity. Images of the Americas and Africa were used to show the exotic, although affordable and reachable origin of the raw material” (Juarez-Dappe, 16:23). The gender stereotypes of women given by the patriarchy was to make them mothers and wives, the ads would present them in a warm light with children around or doing household work. Meanwhile the men would be displayed with strength and endurance, to showcase that men should be the one to take care of the family, but also chocolate is a healthy choice to improve the strength of men. The two of them together, men and women, are linked to romance and sex. Women were displayed as objects, while men were the subjects. Ads like these circulate around Valentine's day. The ads depicting images of the Americas and Africa were to reinforce colonialism, African people serving Europeans, and racial stereotypes, natives living in small straw huts, naked and carrying spears. 

Chocolate, whether we like it or not, has an impact on society and its views. From its early days of printed cards, postcards and posters to ads on TV and billboards. Images depicting men and women relativity stayed the same, following the patriarchal norms. The racial imagery used in chocolate advertisements were not okay then and are still not okay now, sadly reflecting society views of people who are different from eurocentric ideals. While racial images would not fly today, the unfairness still persists today in cacao fields.  

Sources

Juarez-Dappe, Patricia. “Chocolate in modern times: consumption” YouTube. September 1, 2020. Video, https://youtu.be/LPnNFLuQIj0?si=nkZ9EwDOs9NlAODz

Rudolph, Janet. 2015. “Retro Mother's Day Chocolate Ads.” Blogger. https://dyingforchocolate.blogspot.com/2015/05/retro-mothers-day-chocolate-ads.html.

Westbrook, Nicholas. 2008. Chocolate at the World's Fair, 1851-1964. N.p.: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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Cacao in modern times

Before the introduction of European colonizers in the Americas, cacao trees were grown in regions of the equator, as its temperature would be just right for the growth of the tree and its plants. Now in modern times, cacao can be grown in other parts of the equator, specifically in Africa. How had the conditions changed for the people involved in the cultivation of the cacao beans, or had they changed at all? As previously mentioned in another blog, native and slave labor was a big part of the cultivation of chocolate, but it has since been eradicated. Or has it, there has been new forms of forced labor, acting in a similar way to slavery and cases of child trafficking. 

The first cacao growing region in Africa was Sao Tome in 1824. The workers in the field of cacao had entered a contract of forced labor, as many were promised to work for a certain amount of time and eventually come back home. That was not the case for around 40,000 people. By 1905, the world had discovered what was going on in Sao Tome due to the Henry Nevison report. In chapter three of Bitter chocolate the author, Carol Off, argues, “The evidence of slavery was stacked so high. The Anti-slavery Society's Reporter documented over and over again that the Angolans wouldn’t be in shackles if they were willing laborers; they wouldn't be dying at an appalling rate if they were part of any normal workforce. And the records show that no one ever returned home from the islands of Sao Tome and Principe” (Off, 62). Cases of abuse and diseases were rampant in the area, leaving many dead and never coming home. While this type of labor was not explicitly called slavery, it was the same as slavery as people were locked into contracts where they had no idea what kind of hardships they would endure. 

The biggest UK Company at the time, Cadbury, had been aware of the conditions but continued to buy cacao from Sao Tome, up to 55%. But once people had been aware of what was going on, many began to boycott. Eventually Cadbury sent out Joseph Burtt to investigate the conditions of the location in hopes that he could twist the story, but his findings were the same as Henry Nevison. By 1909, Cadbury had switched plantation to ones in Ghana, making the country the second largest exporter in the world. 

Another huge exporter in Africa is the Ivory Coast. By 2010, 3.5 million tons of cacao was produced in the area. Both the Ivory Coast and Ghana produced more than half of the world’s cacao. But unfortunately there have been cases of child trafficking and child labor, as it is a means of keeping cacao costs low. In the video lecture titled, “Cacao in modern times: production” by Patricia Juarez-Dappe, child laborers between the ages of 5 and 15 work “as much as an adult laborer, but they’re paid less because they’re minors. Because of poverty in the region, children are often forced to start working to help support their families at very young ages” (Juarez-Dappe, 35:33). These children often perform with heavy and sharp machinery, have to carry heavy loads, and can work up to 100 hours a week. In the cases of child trafficking in the Ivory Coast, there had been 10,000+ children who had been enslaved from their homes to work in fields for long hard hours for very little money.  

This is not an isolated incident where one plantation has labor practices that are unethical and one company was at the center of this. Multiple countries and multiple companies, such as Hershey, Mars Nestle, are aware of the conditions going on in the cacao industry, and they have made promises to make sure that this would never happen again. A plan was put into place, Harkin-Engel protocol, by 2001 to keep their promises and make sure that the supply of chocolate and cacao would be ethical. 

Sources

Maki, Reid. 2017. “Today is National Chocolate Day….Something to Think about When You Enjoy Some Chocolate.” Stop Child Labor-the Child Labor Coalition. https://stopchildlabor.org/today-is-national-chocolate-day-something-to-think-about-when-you-enjoy-some-chocolate/.

Juarez-Dappe, Patricia. “Cacao in modern times: production” YouTube. August 31, 2020. Video, https://youtu.be/zSKkv_P1F8Q?si=SG5a0cgdqsyaUXD2

Off, Carol. 2006. Bitter Chocolate. N.p.: The New Press.

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Chocolate factory

During the 18th century, the economy was prospering due to the trading networks established to bring cacao and other cash crops to different parts of the world. New economic changes helped prosper the industrial revolution, which had changed the chocolate game by making variations, the process easier to make, and widen consumers. What were the methods used to create the modern chocolate as we know it? There had been several inventors, some of which went on to create massive chocolate companies, who had created machines to solve problems that were present in the old way of making chocolate. 

The old way of making chocolate had followed a similar fashion to its origins; first you must prepare the cacao beans by fermenting and drying, then you must roast, winnow, and grind the beans to make the cacao into a paste or liquor form, lastly to make the chocolate it is to mix the paste with spices and liquids. All of this together is tedious work for artisans, and workers, who in the end could not produce high quality liquor in large batches. Along the way, people have invented different methods to produce chocolate from the cacao beans, but the problem lies with the natural fat content that the cacao beans have. Its fat content is over 50%, making it hard to produce chocolate in a solid form. According to Evolution of Chocolate Manufacturing by Rodney Snyder, Bradley Foliart Olsen, and Laura Pallas Brindle, “Previous methods had mixed water into the liquor to form a stiff paste, which was packed into cloth bags. As the bags were pressed, the cloth retained the cocoa solids while the fat pressed through the cloth. The cocoa solids were compressed into hard cocoa cakes, which turned gray in color and moldy because of the added water” (Snyder et. al, 614). Finding a way around the fat content proved to be a tough challenge to solve, as resources of cacao beans were being wasted into moldy hard cakes. 

So by 1828, Conrad van Houten, a Dutch inventor, had invented the Cacao Press which was to extract butter from cacao solids. His innovation was a hydraulic press that reduced the fat content of the cacao beans to 27% to make a cacao cake that could be turned into powder. One thing to note is that van Houten did not find a solution with the remaining butter, which would be later solved by another inventor. The next thing that was invented by the same man was dutching which was to use alkaline salts to remove the bitter taste and make the chocolate powder more water soluble. The final results of Conrad van. Houten's invention was that the cake/powder mixture of chocolate has fat-reduced content, it is soluble, and Dutch process cocoa is one the standard ingredients used in most chocolates today. 

The next inventor was Phillipe Suchard in 1830, where he invented the Melangeur, a chocolate mixer. The problem before hand was that adding substance to chocolate in a solid form would only make the chocolate grainy.  In the video lecture titled Chocolate factory: modern manufacturing by Patricia Juarez-Dappe, the Melangeur was used to, “Mix chocolate with other substances. He [Suchard] ground sugar and cocoa powder into a smooth paste. The machine consisted of a heated granite plate and several rollers moving forward and backwards, using hydraulic powder power. This allowed sugar to be mixed into chocolate and eliminated its grainy texture” (Juarez-Dappe, 12:29). The mixture of all the ingredients allowed for chocolate to be smoother and for it to be combined with other substances. The next two inventions had less to do with machinery and more with substances to give the product that many know today: the chocolate bar and milk chocolate. 

The former was invented in 1848 by a man named Joseph Fry. Whose family later on went to have a massive company in the UK and changed the identity of chocolate. When using the van Houten machine, Fry had no idea what to do with the butter extracted from the pressed cacao beans, so his solution was to “create a blend of cacao powder and sugar with the melted cacao butter. Instead of using warm water, they added the cacao butter, so the resulting smoother paste could be cast into a mold” (Juarez-Dappe, 13:43). With the creation of the molded chocolate, Joseph Fry’s family company had become the largest chocolate maker in the UK and would later on be the sole supplier of chocolate and cocoa powder to the royal navy in the 19th century. The creation of milk chocolate was a dual partnership between Daniel Peter and Henri Nestle in 1870. Adding regular milk into chocolate was a problem, as the milk would go spoiled, so the solution to this problem was Nestle’s creation of dehydrated condensed milk. By adding the condensed milk with the cacao solids had created milk chocolate, helping to extend shelf life and making sweeter chocolate. 

Swiss chocolate maker Rudolph Lindt had created the conching machine in 1879 to help knead out the grainy chocolate, as Suchard’s Melangeur couldn’t get rid of all the graininess. This machine entails rolling chocolate liqueur and using that heat to achieve smoothness and taste, that would be used in cakes and cookie batter. All of the inventions and substances created, had improved the quality of chocolate that many consume today. But it is always important to note, that no matter how better things are for chocolate making, that cannot be shared to those who cultivate the beans. 

Sources

Juarez-Dappe, Patricia. “Chocolate factory: modern manufacturing” YouTube. August 30, 2020. Video, https://youtu.be/1VQTQmqusF4?si=8dnvoedMIre0wz7X

Snyder, Rodney, Bradley Foliart Olsen, and Laura Pallas Brindle. “From Stone Metates to Steel Mills.” In The Evolution of Chocolate Manufacturing. 2008

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Chocolate in the Americas

The production of chocolate making was a commodity; its final product was for the elites to consume. Acquiring the materials needed to make chocolate was done over the Americas, where institutional players like Spain had built colonies to oversee cacao production, as the beans were a cash crop that helped expand their empire. What means did institutional nations like Spain need to maintain the production flow from the Americas to Europe? The means used were dark and often abused by the hands of the colonizer and at the expense of natives and enslaved Africans. 

Indentured labor played a pivotal role in the production of chocolate, as many Europeans believed they were above performing manual labor. So, they placed the task upon natives and eventually enslaved Africans. The first form of indentured labor was a similar system called tribute and labor, where native rulers received tribute from the work of their people. Only this time the Europeans place themselves as ruler of the natives. But this system of ruling didn’t last very long as there were debates on whether natives should be enslaved. The concluding answer would be they should be exploited in a different way, thus came the encomienda system. 

The definition of the system according the video lecture titled “Cacao in colonial times: production” by Patricia Juarez-Dappe, is a “grant by the crown to a Spaniard to collect a specific amount of labor and tribute from a given number of natives, usually for life..the terms of the grant, the encomendero was to protect the natives under his care, instruct them in the Christian faith, and take up arms for the king in defense of the new land. In exchange, the natives could live in their own villages, cultivate their own fields, and fulfill their obligation under the raiders of their own native leaders” (Juarez-Dappe, 4:02). Through the encomienda system, the empire and the many new cities in the Americas thrived at the expense of thousands of natives. As mentioned before Spaniards usually collect a specific amount of labor for the natives to perform, but oftentimes that was exploited: labor that was meant for a couple of years, had turned into someone’s lifetime. The encomienda remained until the 16th century, but declined as a result of the native population dying from diseases given by the Europeans.   

But as the demand for cacao increased and the number of native kept declining, Europeans needed to find a new way to meet that demand. The answering being slave labor, now connecting cacao as an aspect to the slave trade. While slavery is one of the oldest and most widespread labor systems dating all the way back to ancient civilizations like the Maya and Aztec, however slavery done by the hands of Europeans was the most barbaric and disgusting form of forced labor. The slave trade was “perceived as a permanent solution to replenish a labor force that was always declining due to abuses and exploitation. It supported European economies and created important capital foundations that will eventually fuel the industrial revolution and capitalism” (Juarez-Dappe, 11:20). Europeans had established trade with African chiefs where trinkets, hardware, weapons, and fabrics were exchanged for human lives. The enslaved Africans, most commonly being the Yoruba (Gold Coast) and the Bantu (Angola) ethnic groups, were forced to board ships and travel through the Middle Passage. The conditions on these ships were terrible, as diseases were rampant, the forced proximity, and being chained down for several months had caused mortality rates to be at 50%. Once the ships had touched down in South America, communication among the enslaved Africans was not common as many were from different ethnic groups with their own individual languages, this is intentional as plantation owners and traders did not want resistance to happen. 

The continued operating system, called the Atlantic system or Triangle trade, ran its course from the 16th to the early 19th century on the practice of purchasing slaves in exchange for manufactured goods to maintain the flow of cash crops which in all helped funnel capitalism in nations like Europe. Some of its practices were legal or illegal. The result of exploiting natives and enslaved Africans had created strong trading networks between countries, which then helped produce lots of money and resources. With that money, Europe could invest in the industrial revolution, taking chocolate production to new heights. 

Sources

Cartwright, Mark. 2022. “Encomienda.” World History Encyclopedia. https://www.worldhistory.org/Encomienda/.

Juarez-Dappe, Patricia. “Cacao in colonial times: production” YouTube. August 30, 2020. Video, https://youtu.be/f7JcLNm94cI?si=Qai6uRLnUEyMHBob

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Chocolate in colonial times

The introduction of chocolate to those in Europe was not well received. People could not fathom a new foreign item that is considered bitter, but we know now that in the present day, chocolate consumption is partaken by those all around the world, including those in Europe who have built massive companies. The question is, how did we reach this point, in what ways did people justify the consumption of chocolate? In one of the ways, people had linked medicinal purposes to the chocolate, kind of like how the Mexica’s used cacao for as medicine and healing.  

In 1577, the Spanish royal physical was sent on the first scientific mission to the Americas to study the properties of medicinal plants. There is where he argued that cacao was nourishing to the body as its body temperatures could be cold and moist and could be used to cure fevers. From there, medical professionals could link cacao to the European humoral theory, which is about the four humors of the body. Video lecture titled chocolate in colonial times: consumption by Patricia Juarez-Dappe stated the theory follows, “four substances whose balance within the body determines health and disposition: black bile, yellow bile, phlegm, and blood. The humorous qualities were dry or wet and cold or hot. So blood was hot and moist, phlegm was cold and moist, yellow bile was hot and dry, and black bile was cold and dry” (Juarez-Dappe, 8:02). Any diseases that were present in a human body was a direct imbalance of the humors theory, so many medical professionals had sought to adjust the imbalance, which was the diet that many of their patients had. Cacao was cold and moist which is used to cure fevers; chocolate was hot and dry, which was used for ailments of the chest and stomach regions. But before consuming the chocolate that was hot, cold ingredients were added to safely consume and to counterbalance its hot qualities. 

By the 1630’s, a medical treatise on chocolate and cacao was written describing how it can aid to “digestion, cure coughs, inflammation, and obstructions. It could clean one’s teeth and induce conception and easier birth in woman” (Juarez-Dappe, 10:31). Cacao and chocolate were clearly seen as miracle workers to the many lives of Europe, helping further the consumption of chocolate among the Europeans. Another form of cacao being used for medical purposes was the cacao butter used in the Portuguese empire. Instead of consuming cacao, why not make a paste as a remedy for the skin. Jesuits missionaries were sent out to Brazil and found ways to cultivate cacao into usage that was purposeful in the eyes of the Europeans, that being cacao butter. This product found its place in the global market as a medical substance which found its audience by the late 18th century. According to Cure or Confection by Timothy Walker, “Cocoa butter (manteiga de cacao) was being used therapeutically in colonial military hospitals and infirmaries through the Portuguese empire-in South America, Africa, India, and the East Indies. Colonial soldiers and officials in the tropics soothed chafed, dry, or abraded skin with cocoa butter; they employed it as a standard regular treatment for heat rashes, or more serious skin disorders like shingles” (Walker, 563). No matter how much the Europeans want to distance cacao from its origins, it still finds a way to come back. The Mexicas had been using cacao as a form of medical treatment long before the Europeans had “discovered” it. With all these new discoveries and inventions of ways to integrate chocolate and cacao into people’s lives, it made it easier for people to consume it. The backing of medical knowledge linked to these substances, gave it legitimacy to people, but by the 17th century, chocolate consumption no longer had an effect on body’s health and the humoral theory was disproved. Thus new debates came into light to argue how cacao and chocolate has a place in society. 

The trajectory of cacao from the Natives living in the Americas to Europeans finally accepting it and integrating into their lives, is a fascinating watch. There are crossovers between the two groups of people especially with medical purposes, but of course some of cacao’s spiritual meaning had lost its way in the new societies. However the relationship between the Americas and Europe still remained as labor, trade, and economy took center. 

Sources

Juarez-Dappe, Patricia. “Chocolate in colonial times: consumption.” YouTube. August 27, 2020. Video,https://youtu.be/Z79RNMcJ5cY?si=TCS8hxtYmIXowezr

Walker, Timothy. Cure or Confection? Chocolate in the Portuguese Royal Court and Colonial Hospitals, 1580–1830. May 16, 2008

Wikipedia. 2024. “Humorism.” Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humorism.

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Encounters

By the time the Spanish conquistadors invaded the Americas, the Mexica had transformed cacao beans into more integrated parts of people’s lives. Seeing such a profound effect chocolate has on Mesoamerican societies, they couldn’t stop themselves from incorporating that aspect into their home countries. People should ask if colonization is more than just territorial expansion? The encounter of cacao beans played an integral role in the Columbian Exchange, causing economic and cultural shifts and displacements of native populations.

Before the arrival of the colonizers, the natives living in Mesoamerica used cacao beans as a way of life, as currency, medicine, and social markers, and they created recipes. In the case of the Mexica, they used cacao beans as a form of currency, and certain items could be worth an amount of cacao beans. For example, in the video lecture title “Chocolate encounters” by Patricia Juarez-Dappe, “One good hen = 10 full cacao beans; 120 shrunken cacao beans, a turkey cock = 200 cacao beans, a forest rabbit = 100 cacao beans, one small turkey egg = 3 cacao beans, an avocado = 3 cacao beans,  one large tomato = 1 cacao bean, and 4 ½ hours of work = 1 cacao bean” (Juarez-Dappe, 18:11). Cacao as a form of currency wasn’t its sole usage, people, specifically the noble class had prepared its seeds as a beverage to consume cold or it is speculated to consume it while hot. The most interesting usage of cacao beans was for medicinal purposes, in one instance, people used the bark, leaves, and flowers of the cacao plant to treat injuries and irritations on the skin. It is clear that cacao has become multi-purpose for a variety of things in everyday life. When colonizers stepped foot on Mesoamerican soil, not many had seen the value of the cacao but those who could had transformed the crop into something bigger back in Europe. 

The three Gs: God, Gold, Glory was the mantra of Spanish colonizers and they utilized that to justify their destruction of the indigenous land and population on multiple sectors including biological, political, economic, social, and cultural. The last four sections had caused many demographics to decline, imposing new authority to create new economic systems and social hierarchy, the castas system. On a biological scale was the Columbian Exchange which caused “Widespread transfer of plants, animals, and germs between the Americas, West Africa, Europe, and Asia via Europe during the 15th and 16th centuries” (Juarez-Dappe, 29:54). The Columbian exchange caused a big shift in which human lives were changed, better or for worse. Those who had the power and the resources were able to cultivate wealth through cash crops and having indentured servants doing the work for them. Those being enslaved Africans, natives, who never got a lick of the mass wealth accumulated. 

On the “discovery” of chocolate, Christopher Columbus was not able to see the value of cacao beans as he assumed it was almonds, and painted the responses the natives have towards the bean as them being ignorant and unsophisticated of what is really important and matters. But by 1519, Hernan Cortes truly did see the value of the cacao beans that many failed to see. He had started his own plantation to cultivate cacao beans, causing cacao to be the first cash crop produced in the “new world”. The first documentation of cacao in Europe was in 1544  served as a beverage. People in Europe did not accumulate this foreign substance with Girolamo Bezoni, a merchant and traveler, referring to it as a “drink for pigs”. Those who dared to consume the bitter beverage were considered going native or becoming uncivilized. Slowly but surely, time passed by where Europeans had found ways to consume chocolate to their palates. The Columbian Exchange by Rebecca Earle states, “The chocolate habit spread across Europe in routes carved out by the Hapsburg dynasty; aristocrats in Austria used their connections in Spain to commission private shipments of cacao, and artisans in Madrid were drinking chocolate for breakfast at a time when it was still a luxury item in England” (Earle, 350). The food and resources accumulated from the new world, had found its way into the lives of the Europeans in ways where people might reject it at first, but warm up to it eventually. 

The introduction of cacao to Europeans had marked a significant turning point in history. For centuries, cacao had been confined to the regions where it naturally grew and those who had inhabited these areas had used the beans for religious, monetary, medicinal reasonings as well as to consume. But with the arrival of European colonizers, cacao had reached new heights across the pond. Initially, the Europeans had struggled to understand how a plant and its beans could be so important, yet over time they were able to understand it and found ways to consume it that fits their palates. But the journey to accept it was long as many Europeans tried to find new angles and ideals to accept the bean as it is. 

Sources

Christensen, Mark. n.d. “Columbian Exchange.” Bill of Rights Institute. Accessed November 23, 2024. https://billofrightsinstitute.org/essays/columbian-exchange.

Earle, Rebecca. “The Columbian Exchange.” In The Oxford Handbook of Food History. United Kingdom: OUP USA, 2012.

Juarez-Dappe, Patricia. “Chocolate encounters.” YouTube. August 26, 2020. Video, https://youtu.be/G8BW-HHWI88?si=Oc_DaK5ahRUvTyeg

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Masterlist

Origins

Encounters

Chocolate in colonial times

Chocolate in the Americas

Chocolate factory

Cacao in modern times

Expansion of consumption

Chocolate futures

Champurrado recipe

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Origins

Chocolate, a beloved delicacy enjoyed worldwide, has roots dating back to ancient civilization in Mesoamerica. One in particular is the Maya society and their consumption of chocolate. The question remains, what was the role of chocolate among the Maya? Typically chocolate is for all people to consume, but in the case of the Maya, elites had used chocolate to assert status and to reinforce alliances. 

The Maya elites would host banquets for all to come in celebration of war victories, weddings, or even religious celebrations. Unlike the Mexican who restrict the consumption of chocolate to the elites, the Maya would allow everyone to come, including those of lower class to consume chocolate. But there is some sort of agenda to allow those lower in the hierarchy compared to the elites. According to The Social Context of Kakaw Drinking among the Ancient Maya by Dorie Reents-Budet, all guests by the end of the banquets would receive gifts ranging from “Precious materials (for example, quetzal feathers, spondylus shell), crafted items (for example, cotton mantles), and such prized foodstuff as turkey, baskets of maize, and other important grains, and especially bundles of valuable kakaw beans” (Reents-Budet, 207). Acquiring cacao beans (kakaw) was not easy to do as it grew on the equator, creating such high value and desirability to own cacao. Those who could afford it had turned its value into something more than monetary value but used it as a political tool to gain socio-political alliances.   

Another key component to these lavish banquets, were the vassals that the cacao beans were placed in, along with other specialized food. Kind of like a plastic container to take home after an event in today's times. What drives up the value of the vassals, are that they were crafted by specialized artisans that shows images of “embodied political and supernatural power, thereby prompting the social, political, and economic, and mytho-religions power of the host” (Reents-Budet, 214). The images that the vassals were crafted were to show the relationship between the elites and their gods. Due to many Mayan origin stories of how cacao beans were associated with gods in forms of offerings, exchanges and negotiations, the Maya elites had taken the notions and had placed it onto themselves. The emblems of supernatural and mytho-religion powers were to signify that elites are god-like and should be treated as such in the hierarchy of Maya society.  

The combined value of the cacao beans along with the crafted vassals had increased its bond between hosts and guests. Those who were fortunate enough to receive such a gift are reminded  of who they are indebted to and what kind of alliances they have with the host. And in return, the value of the vassal and the beans can give a boost of importance to the guests. The interaction given in these types of banquets had “created strong ties among the parties, ratifying their sense of community by way of fabric of overlapping rights and obligations developed between sponsors and participants” (Reents-Budet, 209). The obligations, or alliances between host and guest can range from providing support and labor to the elites in their future endeavors or to provide resources in future banquets such as food. 

The role of chocolate among the Maya was intricate, as it served as a political tool to forge alliances with others in the Maya society. Through banquets, the elites had used the preciousness of the cacao beans along with the skillfully crafted vassals to assert their power and to create ties with others. The value of chocolate was not served as a delicacy as we know today, but as a means to create strong bonds between host and guest; elites and commoners. The high value of chocolate wasn’t only internalized by the Maya people, but those in other Mesoamerican groups that came after and eventually Europe.

Sources:

Reents-Budet, Dorie, The Social Context of Kakaw Drinking among the Ancient Maya. University Press of Florida, 2006.

Sci News. 2022. “Cacao Was Not Food Exclusive to Ancient Maya Elite, New Study Says.” Sci News. https://www.sci.news/archaeology/ancient-maya-cacao-11246.html.